USRA Steam Locomotives

The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was founded on December 28, 1917. It was created with the authority to oversee the nationalization of the privately owned American railroads. Obviously, there was much controversy created by the USRA. Previously, each railroad had been accustomed to designing their own steam locomotives to suit their specific needs. This meant that each railroad owned custom-built locomotives.

One of the results of the USRA were standardized steam locomotive designs. The USRA designed these locomotives to have the latest and most modern features. Features included pneumatic firedoor openers, power reverse mechanisms, mechanical stokers on the larger locomotives, dual water glasses, and power grate shakers (which later turned out to be impractical).

From mid 1918 through 1919, the USRA oversaw the production of almost 1900 steam locomotives in 12 differenct wheel arrangements. Ironically, the war which prompted the creation of the USRA was over only four months after the USRA's first locomotive was ready for service on July 4, 1918 -- a light 2-8-2 numbered 4500 for the Baltimore & Ohio.

This page shows initial allocations of USRA locomotives. Most (if not all) of the deliveries to these railroads were made between 1918 and 1919. Many of these roads ordered and received copies of the USRA locomotive designs at later dates. Statistics reflecting USRA copies that were delivered later are NOT shown here.

Although several references have been used, filling in this table is difficult. There are cases where locomotives were refused by a railroad and them immediately delivered to another railroad. One example of this was the T&P which quickly returned 11 light 2-8-2s. They were subsequently delivered to the CRI&P.

• U.S. Railroad Administration steam locomotives
• Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, George Drury, Kalmbach, 1993
• TRAINS Magazine, Kalmbach, March 1991, Volume 51 Number 5 pp 30