2-10-4 "Texas" Locomotives in the USA

When the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad purchased its last group of 2-10-2 locomotives it had the Baldwin Locomotive Works equip one of them (number 3829) with a four-wheel trailing truck to see what difference there would be between a 2-10-2 and a 2-10-4. This experimental locomotive, delivered in 1919, was the first ever of this wheel arrangement. The experiment ended without any conclusive results or any name given to this wheel arrangement, and number 3829 was kept in service as a 2-10-4 until it was retired in 1955.

Six years later, in 1925, the Lima Locomotive Works designed a new locomotive by adding a fifth set of drivers and increasing the cylinders of its "Berkshire" and created a .true. 2-10-4. The first railroad to take delivery of this new .super power. locomotive was the Texas & Pacific Railway in 1925. Because the AT&SF design was merely an experiment no name had been attached to the 2-10-4 wheel arrangement in 1919. After the delivery, in 1925, the 2-10-4 was given the name "Texas" for the Texas & Pacific.

Like the "Berkshires", Lima kept the drivers on the "Texas" type locomotive low (63.5 inches) to provide good traction, but it caused counterbalancing problems. The ten-coupled drivers required huge piston thrusts, which necessitated massive rods and valve gear. These heavy rods and valve gear required large counter-balance weights on the wheels. The 60 to 63.5 inch diameters of the early classes of the "Texas" locomotive were too small to carry enough weight and that caused them to ride rough.

The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad was one of the railroads that served as a member of the .Advisory Mechanical Committee.. This committee was made up of motive engineers from the Van Sweringens owned: C&O, Erie, Nickel Plate and Pere Marquette railroads. In need of a new freight locomotive design, this group put an Erie "Berkshire" with 70-inch diameter drivers through a series of test. After careful evaluation of the results it designed a new high driver 2-10-4, which essentially was a stretched Erie "Berkshire" with 69-inch diameter drivers.

The introduction of this high driver locomotive set a new standard for the "Texas" locomotive and all new orders for the 2-10-4s included high drivers. Even the Pennsylvania Railroad, when in dire need of motive power during World War II and not allowed to build its own designs, turned to the C&O's design and built 125 of them.

One exception to this was the Santa Fe 2-10-4s. They were built with 74-inch diameter drivers. The C&O 2-10-4s were heavier and could exert more tractive effort. However, the Santa Fe 2-10-4s were faster. No other 2-10-4s were built with drivers this large.

There were eleven North American railroads that used 430 of the "Texas" 2-10-4 locomotives. There are nine examples of this locomotive that survive today and are on display as shown below.

The USA also built "Texas" type locomotives for other countries. Both Baldwin and ALCO built about 20 2-10-4s for the EdF (Estrada de Ferro) Central do Brazil Railroad. They were 1 meter gauge with 48 inch drivers. They weighed about half of their standard gauge counterparts. They were last used around 1990 on the EdF Donna Therisa Christina Railroad in Brazil. The EdF Donna Therisa Christina Railroad was one of the last places in the world to regularly run mainline steam. It is on the southern coast of Brazil, centered on Tubearo south of Puerto Alegri. See this page for a photo.

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• Railroads that used 2-10-4 locomotives in other countries