steam glory 2 | 2007 - Classic Trains Magazine

The
Berkshire
story
8
STEAM GLORY 2
∣
2007
As the first “Super-Power” design, the 2-8-4 began as a potent
tonnage-hauler that evolved into the very symbol of
fast-freight steam power
By Neil CarlsoN
robert hale
NiCKel PlaTe roaD The next-to-last
of NKP’s 80 fast Berkshires hustles a
redball freight near Erie, Pa., in 1956.
classictrainsmag.com
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STEAM GLORY 2
9
T
hanks to the Nickel Plate Road, the
common image of a 2-8-4 Berkshire
type is at the head of a redball
freight eating up the miles at 60
mph in order to make a tight connection
in Buffalo. Berkshires enabled the Nickel
Plate to rely on steam longer than most
railroads. Until July 1958, NKP’s hottest
trains where entrusted to its magnificent
2-8-4’s, and the road became a mecca for
fans in search of steam. Although this is
an accurate image of the 2-8-4, there is a
lot more to the story. The first Berkshires
were not known for their speed. Indeed,
the name Berkshire comes from the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts
where the first of the type cut their teeth
lugging freight up heavy grades.
The Berkshire story revolves around
three people: William E. Woodard, John
Bernet, and William Black. Woodard was
vice president of engineering at Lima
Locomotive Works; he led the development of the 2-8-4. Bernet and Black, while
at the Erie and then the Nickel Plate, took
Lima’s 2-8-4 and turned it into what is
best remembered as being—a high-speed
freight engine.
lima sees aN oPPorTuNiTy
During the 1920’s, the United States
experienced a period of rapid economic
expansion and, in sustaining this growth,
the nation’s railroads were severely
strained. Capital investment had come to
a halt during World War I, and now railroad infrastructure needed a major
investment to increase capacity. Doubletracking, more sidings, better signaling,
heavier rail, stronger bridges, and more
locomotives were all on the needs list.
Lima Locomotive Works looked this
situation and saw an opportunity—a big
one. Will Woodard knew that the easiest
and least expensive way to increase capacity was simply to run longer and faster
trains. Further, the railroads were ripe for
new power. The existing locomotive fleet,
with thousands of elderly Consolidations
and Ten-Wheelers (many non-superheated), was hopelessly obsolete. There were
far too few modern 2-8-2’s and 4-8-2’s.
Lima’s strategy was simple: design and
build faster, more-powerful locomotives.
lima
miCHiGaN CeNTral Lima introduced
many of the “Super-Power” ideas that
would make Berkshires great in MC 8000,
a 2-8-2 built in 1922. It was a star, prompting MC parent NYC to order 300 copies.
Lima’s initial entry was a state-of-theart 2-8-2 that did not require the development of any new technology. Woodard
simply used the very best of what was currently available. The locomotive had as
big a firebox and grate as could be supported by a two-wheel trailing truck. It
used the new Type E superheater, which
could be configured to provide both more
superheating surface and greater evaporative surface than a locomotive equipped
with the older Type A superheater. It also
came with a feedwater heater. This appliance tapped into the exhaust steam and
used a portion of it to preheat boiler feedwater. A feedwater heater could add as
much as 10 percent to locomotive performance simply by utilizing energy that
would normally be lost going up the stack.
In common with most freight power of
the time, its driving wheels were 63 inches
in diameter. It also was equipped with a
trailing-truck booster that added an additional 13,200 pounds of tractive effort at
low speeds and while starting.
The locomotive, given the number
8000, ran a series of trials on the Michigan Central, a subsidiary of the New York
Central. It was compared to a heavy
Mikado of about the same size (NYC’s
class H-7) that was only two years old. No.
8000 outperformed the H-7 by 26 percent.
The 8000 had been designed with a new
philosophy that emphasized drawbar
horsepower, and not just drawbar pull.
Given similarly sized trains, the 8000
could accelerate and pull its train faster
than the H-7. Additionally, when it wasn’t
working hard, it was more efficient than
the H-7. It burned less coal and used less
water. New York Central was impressed,
and purchased an additional 300 nearly
identical 2-8-2’s, classified H-10, for use all
over the system.
lima’s a-1
After the 8000, Lima pushed the envelope even further with the development of
a new high-capacity boiler. Good design
practice called for equipping a new locomotive with the most powerful boiler that
could be practically mounted to its frame.
However, to achieve the results desired by
Woodard, boiler capacity had to be pushed
beyond the then-current state-of-the-art.
The Lima men knew that fuel burns more
efficiently if it can be burned more slowly.
Let’s say a locomotive is burning 32 tons
of coal per hour. If this is burned on a 70square-foot grate, it takes a firing rate of
100 lbs. of coal per square foot per hour.
If the same amount of coal is burned on a
100-square-foot grate, the firing rate will
be only 70 lbs. per square foot per hour—
a substantial difference. The slower rate
allows more of the heat from the fuel to
be absorbed by the boiler.
A bigger grate was the answer. The difficulty was that 70 square feet of grate area
was just about at the practical limit of
what could be supported by a single-axle
trailing truck. So, to incorporate a 100square-foot grate, Lima introduced the
two-axle trailing truck. The 2-8-2 thus
became a 2-8-4—the first “Super-Power”
(as Lima called it) steam locomotive
design.
This locomotive had another innovative
feature: limited cut-off. Normally, when a
lima’s a-1 Building on MC 8000’s success, Lima developed a bigger boiler and
firebox. The added weight required a fourwheel trailing truck, and so the 2-8-4 was
born. Lima’s A-1 tested on several roads.
lima
10
STEAM GLORY 2
∣
2007
h . f. h a r v e y
BosToN & maiNe Hood-like Coffin feedwater heaters gave a menacing look to T-1a
4009 and her sisters, which were otherwise similar to the A-1. Ousted by FT’s, 7
went to the Santa Fe, 10 to the SP, in 1945.
locomotive is starting, steam admission to
the cylinders continues for about 85 percent of the full stroke, at which point the
valve closes and cuts it off. With limited
cut-off, the steam was cut off at 60 percent of the stroke and then allowed to
expand against the piston for the remainder of the distance. The benefit was that
this made use of the heat energy contained in the steam as it expanded—it was
more efficient. Of course, even a fullstroke engine used expanding steam once
it got moving. After speed increased, the
engineer would adjust the cut-off to 70
percent, then 60 percent, and, when speed
picked up some more, to 50 percent and
so on. The advantage with limited cut-off
was that the engine always worked with
expanding steam, no matter its speed. It
was a popular concept in the 1920’s and
was promoted heavily by Lima.
The new 2-8-4 otherwise employed
existing technology. This included the
Type E superheater, a trailing-truck booster, and an Elesco feedwater heater. However, it still had relatively low (by later
standards) 63-inch drivers. Lima gave it
the designation A-1 and sent it on a series
of trials in the East and Midwest. The first
were on another New York Central subsidiary, the Boston & Albany, in early 1925.
r a l p h e . h a l lo c k
BosToN & alBaNy NYC’s New England subsidiary was the first customer for production versions of Lima’s A-1. B&A 1426 and 1435 are eastbound with a freight near Chatham, N.Y., on May 31, 1946, hammering into the hills that gave the 2-8-4 type its name.
classictrainsmag.com
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STEAM GLORY 2
11
The B&A tests were run on a 60-mile
segment through the Berkshire Hills of
western Massachusetts. The line had many
curves, an average grade of 1 percent, and
some stretches of 1.5 percent. The A-1 was
compared against a two-year-old H-10
2-8-2 of the same design as Lima’s 8000.
Nine test runs were made, and the results
were nothing short of spectacular. The A-1
showed an increase in drawbar horsepower over the H-10 of 26 to 30 percent at all
speeds. Once again, the NYC knew a good
thing when it saw it: the B&A took delivery
of 45 2-8-4’s based on the A-1 in 1927 and
another 10 in 1930.
Upon completion of its trials on the
B&A, the A-1 moved to neighboring Boston & Maine. A competitor to the B&A,
the B&M had a parallel line across western Massachusetts that was then worked
by 2-10-2’s. During its tests on the B&M,
the A-1 cut two hours off the normal running time over the 210 miles between
Mechanicsville, N.Y., and Boston. While
the B&M was impressed with these
results, it was not until almost two years
later that the road placed an order for 20
engines for delivery in 1928; another five
arrived in 1929. Unlike the A-1 and the
B&A engines, the B&M 2-8-4’s came with
Coffin feedwater heaters. They were hung
on the front of the smokebox, giving the
locomotives a distinctive, hooded look.
After returning from the B&M, the A-1
tested on the Illinois Central. At the completion of a series of trials, IC ordered 50
similar locomotives that were delivered in
late 1926—ahead of both the B&A and the
B&M engines. Later, the IC also bought
the A-1 itself. All worked in southern Illinois. The IC Berkshires had an important
feature not included on the A-1 or the
B&A engines: two Nicholson thermic
syphons in the firebox. Syphons draw
water from the base of the rear tube sheet,
where it is coolest, and route it up through
the firebox to the top of the crown sheet.
Moving this cooler water through the very
hot firebox enhances the transfer of heat
to the water. The Boston & Maine engines
were also fitted with syphons.
Other builders joined in. American
Locomotive Co. built 12 2-8-4’s for the
Chicago & North Western in 1927. These
included all of the key features of the A-1,
including limited cut-off. The major
departure was the incorporation of a
Commonwealth cast-steel trailing truck
instead of Lima’s articulated model. The
C&NW locomotives were then copied by
Alco subsidiary Montreal Locomotive
Works, which in 1928 built two engines
for the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo—
Canada’s only Berkshires. Also in 1928,
Alco delivered five 2-8-4’s to Missouri
Pacific subsidiary International-Great
Northern, followed by Lima the next year
12
STEAM GLORY 2
∣
2007
Berkshire specs: A-1, AMC, and the rest
8000
railroad
Class
lima a-1 DesiGNs
MC
Lima
B&A
IC
2-8-2
A-1
A-1a
L-63
70007049
C&NW
B&M
MP
J-4
T-1a
BK-63
28012812
40004019
1121-1125
road Numbers
8000
1
14001424
Builder
Lima
Lima
Lima
Lima
Alco
Lima
Alco
year
1922
1925
1926
1926
1927
1928
1928
bore x stroke (in.)
28x30
28x30
28x30
28x30
28x30
28x30
28x30
maximum cut-off
full
stroke
60%
60%
60%
60%
60%
60%
63
63
63
63
63
63
63
Cylinders:
Driver dia. (in.)
Boiler:
pressure (Psi)
200
240
240
240
240
240
240
grate area (sq. ft.)
66.4
100
100
100
100.3
100
100.3
fuel
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
cmbstn. chmbr. (in.)
none
none
none
none
none
none
none
tube length (ft.- in.)
20-0
20-0
20-0
20-0
20-0
20-0
20-0
syphons
none
none
none
2
2
2
2
evaporative (sq. ft.)
4,578
5,110
5,110
5,164
4,872
5,131
5,118
superheater (sq. ft.)
1,780E
2,111E
2,111E
2,111E
2,243E
2,111E
2,121E
heating surfaces:
weights in
working order:
on drivers (lbs.)
245,500
248,200
249,500
248,000
253,500
250,200
267,500
engine (lbs.)
334,000
385,000
389,000 388,800
397,000
393,000
404,000
tender (lbs.)
199,700
275,000
201,900
287,000
216,400
285,600
74,500B 82,600B 81,400B 81,400B 79,500B 78,550B
81,400B
rated
tractive force
Factor of adhesion
Tender cap.: fuel
water (u.s. gal.)
286,000
3.86
3.58
3.6
3.57
3.77
3.61
3.79
16 tons
18 tons
16 tons
20 tons
20 tons
18 tons
18 tons
10,000
15,000
10,000
15,000
15,000
12,000
15,000
e or a = type e or a superheater; B = tractive force including booster
with 25 engines to the MoPac itself.
In 1927 Baldwin got into the act and
delivered 15 2-8-4’s to the Santa Fe. These
were not copies of the A-1. The grate area
was close to that of the A-1, but the Baldwin engines had the older Type A superheater, giving them less total heating surface. In another departure from the A-1
design, they were full-stroke engines. The
Santa Fe assigned them to fast freights
operating east of Kansas City, but they
really were not fast-freight engines. In
their later years they were converted to
burn oil and worked in Texas and New
Mexico. They were joined in 1945 on the
Santa Fe by seven 2-8-4’s from the Boston
& Maine, which was dieselizing.
Power aND sPeeD
In 1926 control of the Erie Railroad
had passed into the hands of Oris P. and
Mantis J. Van Sweringen. The brothers
were real estate developers in Cleveland
and had gotten into the railroad business
as a means to obtain a rapid-transit rightof-way from downtown Cleveland to suburban Shaker Heights, where they had a
large residential development. As a part of
this venture, they purchased the Nickel
Plate Road, followed by a controlling
interest in the Pere Marquette, the Chesapeake & Ohio, and the Erie.
The Erie was not a healthy company,
and the Vans brought in John Bernet, who
had previously turned around the Nickel
erie
TH&B
Erie
amC DesiGNs
NKP
oTHer DesiGNs
W&LE
PM
RF&P
L&N
C&O
N
--
M-1
K-4
27002739
VGN
AT&SF
DT&I
NS
P&LE
BA
4101
--
--
A-2a
505509
41014114
700-703
600-604
9400-9406
A
S-2
S
K-1
201-202
33253349
700714
64016410
1201-1210
571-580
19501963
Montreal
Lima
Alco
Alco
Lima
Lima
Baldwin
Alco
Lima
Baldwin
Lima
Baldwin
Alco
1928
1927
1934
1937
1937
1942
1942
1944
1946
1927
1935
1940
1948
28x30
28½x32
25x34
25x34
26x34
25x34
25x32
26x34
26x34
27x32
25x30
23½x30
26x32
60%
60%
full
stroke
full
stroke
full
stroke
full
stroke
full
stroke
full
stroke
full
stroke
full
stroke
full
stroke
60%
80%
63
70
69
69
69
69
69
69
69
63
63
63
63
240
250
245
245
245
245
265
245
245
220
260
250
230
100.3
100
90.3
90.3
90.3
90.3
90.2
90.3
90.3
99
88.3
80.3
90.3
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
soft
coal
none
none
42”
42”
42”
42”
42”
42”
42”
none
27”
?
42”
20-0
21-0
19-0
19-0
19-0
19-0
19-0
19-0
19-0
20-9
18-0
18-0
18-0
none
none
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
none
none
2
none
5,080
5,697
4,818
4,718
4,785
4,772
4,654
4,773
4,773
4,577
4,493
3,418
4,276
2,243E
2,545E
1,992E
1,924E
1,932E
1,932E
1,908E
1,932E
1,932E
1,246A
1,795E
1,350E
1,881E
249,500
274,000
254,000 259,500
278,000
270,900
268,200
292,000
295,600 268,200
248,600
202,900
270,500
383,000
457,500
416,000
407,500
445,500
433,200
447,200
460,000
460,400 396,500
411,500
335,400
426,000
228,000
309,000 358,800 364,500
358,000
358,000
384,200
390,000
401,000
285,100
361,370
245,240
342,000
69,000
72,00B
69,350
64,100
79,390B
83,750B
69,350
82,800B
65,780
60,400B
67,100
64,100
64,100
3.62
3.81
3.96
4.04
4.01
4.23
4.11
4.21
4.26
3.73
3.92
4.11
4.03
16 tons
24 tons
22 tons
22 tons
22 tons
22 tons
24 tons
30 tons
21 tons
20 tons
22 tons
16 tons
22 tons
12,000
16,500
22,000
21,700
22,000
22,000
22,000
21,000
25,000
15,000
22,000
14,000
20,000
illiNois CeNTral The A-1 itself, plus 50
copies, went to the IC, which made one
into a freight 4-6-4 but rebuilt the rest
in-kind and renumbered them 8000-8049.
cl assic tr ains collection
ToroNTo, HamilToN & BuFFalo Canada’s only Berkshires, TH&B 201-202, were
copies of C&NW’s J-4, with a few NYCstyle details. They worked the Starlight, a
nocturnal Hamilton–Niagara Falls freight.
r a i l fa r e
Plate, to take charge. What he found was
a railroad whose main line managed to
bypass almost all the major cities along
its route. Consequently, the Erie originated a disproportionately low amount of
traffic for its route-miles. Further, the
railroad had a “tonnage mentality” that
resulted in the operation of heavy drags
handled by 2-10-2’s and 2-8-2’s.
Bernet quickly grasped the situation.
He put together a plan that called for
turning the road into a high-speed bridge
route. The Erie’s city-skirting main line
could be turned into an asset when used
to expedite freight from Western connec-
tions to Eastern markets. However, before
this plan could be implemented, the railroad’s operating philosophy needed to be
turned on its head, and a new fleet of highspeed freight engines would be required.
One of the people Bernet brought with
him from the NKP was William Black,
who had been the chief of motive power
there. In collaboration with Alco and
Lima, he led a design team to develop the
new freight engine needed by the Erie: a
high-speed 2-8-4. All prior Berkshires—
those built by Lima and the copies from
other builders—were not fast engines. To
achieve the desired higher speeds, the
Erie specified that its new engines have
70-inch driving wheels, not the 63-inch
drivers used on previous 2-8-4’s. This
larger wheel was now big enough to hold
the additional counterweight needed to
balance it for operation at 60 mph and
above. The Erie Berkshires mated a powerful boiler with high-speed running gear,
thus marking a major milestone in the
development of the 2-8-4.
Erie’s first orders went to Lima and
Alco, with each supplying 25 engines in
1927. The boilers of each group were identical, but there were some significant differences in the valve events and running
gear. The Alcos were full-stroke engines
and had a Commonwealth cast-steel trailing truck. Lima’s Berkshires had the
articulated trailing truck and 60 percent
limited cut-off. However, to achieve the
same rated tractive force as the Alco
engines, Lima raised the boiler pressure
to 250 psi vs. Alco’s 225 psi.
The Lima engines tipped the scales at
457,500 lbs., the heaviest yet for a Berkshire. Additionally, with the generous
clearances on the Erie (a legacy of the
road’s original gauge of 6 feet) the engines
were physically imposing. They reached a
height of 16 feet 4 inches above the rail
and were 11 feet 2 inches wide. In 1928,
Baldwin delivered a further 35 2-8-4’s,
also full-stroke engines. Finally, in 1929,
the Erie received another 20 engines from
Lima, giving the carrier a total of 105
Berkshires—the greatest number purchased by a single railroad. They would
charles felste ad collection
CHiCaGo & NorTH wesTerN Bell ringing for a back-up move, 10-year-old J-4
2803 is at Proviso Yard, Chicago, in 1937.
C&NW’s dozen Berks were the first with
cast, rather than built-up, trailing trucks.
lima
missouri PaCiFiC The last 2-8-4’s of the
A-1 mold, MoPac’s 30 BK-63’s also were
similar to C&NW’s J-4. Nos. 1121-1125
worked a quarter century, but MP rebuilt
1901-1925 into 4-8-4’s in the early 1940’s.
be the road’s last new steam power.
Erie’s Berkshires transformed the
railroad from a drag-freight operator to
a very competitive high-speed bridge
route. Berkshires were placed in service
between Marion, Ohio, and Jersey City,
enabling the establishment of new
freight schedules offering third-morning
deliveries for Chicago–New York shipments. In particular, the Erie and the
Santa Fe developed a well-oiled connection in Chicago, moving hundreds of
thousands of carloads of Western produce to the East Coast. Additionally, the
Erie found that its Berkshires —despite
their high drivers—could work as helpers on mountain grades, and, at the other
end of the spectrum, even pinch-hit in
passenger service.
THe aPoGee
After having turned around the Erie,
and then spending time as the president
of the C&O, John Bernet again found
himself at the helm of the Nickel Plate in
1933. However, it was not the same railroad that he had left in 1926. Freight
schedules of other Eastern carriers had
left the NKP behind. Wabash and New
York Central had become very competitive
with their fast 4-8-2’s. The Erie, which
Bernet himself had transformed into an
efficient high-speed freight hauler, had
emerged has a formidable competitor as
well. Further, Erie and NYC had their
own routes to the eastern seaboard,
whereas Nickel Plate had to work through
connections at Buffalo. The NKP’s best
freight power consisted of a fleet of USRA
2-8-2’s that were no match for the fleetfooted competition.
In 1929 the Van Sweringens had created a centralized engineering bureau,
pooling talent from all four of their railroads. Called the Advisory Mechanical
Committee, it was led by William Black.
Bernet turned to Black and the AMC for
help. He needed a new high-speed freight
engine for the Nickel Plate.
From the beginning it was clear that
the new engine would be a 2-8-4. The
starting point was C&O’s T-1 2-10-4,
which the AMC had designed in 1930. The
T-1 took the Texas type to a new level by
mating a powerful boiler to 69-inch drivers. It was able to lug heavy drags or move
with alacrity, as the situation demanded.
Black’s design team quite literally scaled
down the T-1 into a Berkshire while
retaining its most important features.
Like the T-1, the new engine had a combustion chamber, the first Berkshire so
equipped. To accommodate it, the boilertube length was shortened to 19 feet and
the grate area reduced to 90.3 square feet.
These were excellent tradeoffs to gain the
greater firebox furnace volume necessary
for the complete combustion of fuel. Two
thermic syphons were placed in the firebox. Like the T-1, the new Berkshire had a
34-inch stroke. This had several benefits.
First, the engine got into its peak horsepower range at a lower speed. Second, it
permitted the use of a small piston diameter of just 25 inches. This reduced the
piston’s reciprocating weight and minimized clearance-volume losses. (Clearance volume is the space between the pissaNTa Fe Loyal Baldwin customer AT&SF
turned to the Eddystone, Pa., builder for its
Berkshires. They were a new design, not
directly derived from the A-1, but had the
63-inch drivers of the other early 2-8-4’s.
pau l h . s t r i n g h a m
erie The third fiddle in the New York–
Chicago market was the first of all roads
to have fast Berkshires. Built in 1929, S-4
3389 was from Erie’s final order, which
brought the road’s total to 105 2-8-4’s.
lima
classictrainsmag.com
∣
STEAM GLORY 2
15
ton and the cylinder head at the end of the
stroke, plus the passageway leading to the
valve. Steam filling this void does no work;
it is a source of losses. This space can represent as much as 10 percent of the cylinder volume.) Lastly, limited cut-off was
discarded in favor of a full stroke.
Upon completion of the design effort,
NKP solicited bids. The order went to Alco,
which delivered 15 engines in 1934. Ten of
them were put to work between Bellevue,
Ohio, and Chicago, and the other five
worked between Cleveland, Lima, and
Frankfort, Ind. All acquitted themselves
admirably in high-speed freight service.
During World War II the Nickel Plate
expanded its fleet with an additional 45
2-8-4’s—this time from Lima. Then, in
1949, after testing diesels and rejecting
them, NKP took delivery of 10 more Lima
Berkshires. These were the very last
2-8-4’s built and the last steam locomotives built by a commercial builder for use
in America. The very last, No. 779, is preserved near its birthplace in Lima.
oTHer amC eNGiNes
Toward the end of the Great Depression,
the 506-mile Wheeling & Lake Erie found
itself in need of new power. The railroad
was familiar with the Berkshire type, as it
had a Youngstown–Toledo run-through
agreement with the Erie, and Erie 2-8-4’s
were regular visitors. The Wheeling
arranged to borrow an NKP engine to see
whether an AMC Berkshire could also
handle the road’s heavy mineral traffic. It
was found to be more than capable of
handling ore and coal drags in the rolling
hills of southeastern Ohio, so the Wheeling ordered 10 2-8-4’s from Alco, which
delivered them in 1937. Since the Timken
Roller Bearing Co. was a key on-line customer, all locomotive and tender axles had
rollers, the first Berkshires so equipped.
In three more orders through 1943, the
Wheeling acquired an additional 22 Berkshires. In 1949, NKP leased the Wheeling,
and the smaller road’s 32 engines were
added to the Nickel Plate 2-8-4 fleet.
Also in 1937, the Pere Marquette Railway took delivery of 10 Lima Berkshires.
They were a slight departure from the
original AMC design, with 26x34-inch cylinders that raised the tractive force to
69,350 lbs. To keep the adhesion ratio at
4.0, engine weight was increased to
436,500 lbs. The 2-8-4’s did a superb job
handling the PM’s priority manufacturing
traffic across Michigan, and the railroad
returned to Lima for 29 more, which were
delivered in four orders through 1944. Of
these, 20 came equipped with trailingtruck boosters, giving the engines a rated
tractive effort of 83,750 lbs. These were
the first AMC engines with boosters.
During 1942, Lima expanded its pro16
STEAM GLORY 2
∣
2007
ATSF to W&LE: the 611 2-8-4’s
railroaD
Class
roaD Nos.
QuaNTiTy
BuilDer
year
ATSF
4101
4101-4114
15
Baldwin
1927
B&A
A-1a
1400-1424
25
Lima
1926
A-1b
1425-1444
20
Lima
1926-27
A-1c
1445-1454
10
Lima
1930
B&M
T-1
4000-4024
25
Lima
1928-29
C&O
K-4
2700-2789
90
Alco, Lima
1943-47
C&NW
J-4
2801-2812
12
Alco
1927
DT&I
-
700-705
6
Lima
1935-39
ERIE
S-1
3300-3324
25
Alco
1927
IC
L&N
MP
NKP
NS
PM
NoTes
1
S-2
3325-3349
25
Lima
1927
S-3
3350-3384
35
Baldwin
1928
S-4
3385-3404
20
Lima
1929
-
7000-7049
50
Lima
1926
2
-
7050
1
Lima
1924
3
M-1
1950-1991
42
BLW, Lima
1942-49
BK-63
1121-1125
5
Alco
1928
BK-63
1901-1925
25
Lima
1930
S
700-714
15
Alco
1934
S-1
715-739
25
Lima
1942-43
S-2
740-769
30
Lima
1944
S-3
770-779
10
Lima
1949
-
600-604
5
Baldwin
1940
4
N
1201-1215
15
Lima
1937
5
N-1
1216-1227
12
Lima
1941
6
N-2
1228-1239
12
Lima
1944
6
P&LE
A-2a
9400-9406
7
Alco
1948
RF&P
-
571-580
10
Lima
1943
TH&B
A
201-202
2
Montreal
1928
VGN
BA
505-509
5
Lima
1946
W&LE
K-1
801-832
32
Alco
1937-42
7
Notes:
1) seven to aTsF 4193-4199, 10 to sP 3500-3509, 1945. 2) 7038 rebuilt to 4-6-4 No. 1,
1937. 3) ex-lima a-1 No. 1. 4) rebuilt to 4-8-4’s 2101-2125, 1940-42. 5) To C&o 268599, 1947. 6) To be C&o 2650-61, 2670-81, not renumbered. 7) To NKP 801-832, 1949.
duction line of NKP engines to include 10
for the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac. Under the hood, these were stock
AMC engines, but externally they had
some details changed so they would
resemble other RF&P power. The differences included the sand dome, cab, and
the inside-bearing pony truck.
Chesapeake & Ohio, following the lead
of its subsidiary Pere Marquette, began
assembling its own fleet of Berkshires in
1944. All came with 26-inch-diameter cylinders and trailing-truck boosters.
Through 1947, C&O acquired a total of 90
2-8-4’s—70 from Alco and 20 from Lima.
They were initially put to work hauling
coal trains along the New River Gorge in
West Virginia, but could later be found all
over the railroad, handling everything
from hot manifests to heavy passenger
trains in the mountains. After the PM was
merged into the C&O, the latter road
became the owner of the largest fleet of
Berkshires: 129.
After World War II, a change of management brought some former C&O (and
NKP) men to the helm of the Virginian
Railway. One of the new team’s first acts
AMC
action
Pere marQueTTe West of Porter, Ind.,
PM ran on NYC into Chicago, and here’s
N-1 1227 rushing east through Gary; it’s
May 1948, nearly a year after the C&O
acquired PM and its 1200’s. In ’49, NKP
got W&LE’s AMC Berks through merger.
b. andrew corsini
riCHmoND, FreDeriCKsBurG &
PoTomaC Though not a Van Swearingen road, RF&P had 10 Berks built to
NKP specs during World War II. Train
control box, cast pilot, and raised cabside numbers gave them the RF&P look.
dementi studio
r a i l p h oto s e r v i c e : g e n e l . h u d d l e s to n
CHesaPeaKe & oHio From the front,
C&O’s K-4’s were as distinctive as the
name the road gave to them: Kanawha.
Nos. 2771 and 2755 meet on the Coal
River branch south of St. Albans, W.Va.
The Virginian Railway’s five 2-8-4’s were
virtual copies, but they lacked boosters.
classictrainsmag.com
∣
STEAM GLORY 2
17
b a l d w i n ; h . l . b r oa d b e lt c o l l e c t i o n
louisVille & NasHVille Only 2 inches
of cylinder stroke and 20 psi of steam
pressure separated L&N’s “Big Emmas”
from the AMC-designed Berkshires.
was to modernize the road’s locomotive
fleet. Not surprisingly, they adopted C&O
designs, including the AMC Berkshire.
The Virginian took delivery of five 2-8-4’s
—exact copies of the C&O engines, albeit
without boosters—from Lima in 1946.
They were put to work hauling manifest
freight between Roanoke and tidewater at
Norfolk, replacing 34-year-old 2-8-2’s.
They cut more than 30 minutes off the
running time.
almosT aN amC eNGiNe
The Louisville & Nashville went shopping for a new freight engine in 1941. Its
newest steam locomotives were 4-8-2’s
and 2-8-2’s from the late 1920’s, and, with
traffic increasing because of the hostilities in Europe, the road was feeling the
crunch. L&N had some constraints that
limited its locomotive choices. Infrastructure issues prevented it from considering
a large, heavy engine such as an articulated or a big 4-8-4. Consequently, management settled on a 2-8-4, and placed an
order with Baldwin to design and build 14
engines. Baldwin—being the minority
builder of 2-8-4’s—borrowed heavily from
the AMC. The key departure was in the
use of a 32-inch stroke vs. the AMC’s 34inch. To achieve a tractive effort comparable to that of an AMC engine, the boiler
pressure was raised 20 lbs. to 265 psi.
The L&N M-1’s (“Big Emmas”) proved
extremely successful. Like their purebred
AMC cousins, they were at home in the
coalfields, on manifest freight, or heavy
passenger trains. Testing with a dynamometer car showed they were capable of
producing 4,500 h.p. at the drawbar. In
1944 Baldwin added another 6 engines,
and in 1949, Lima delivered 22 more.
These last M-1’s shared the production
line with the final 10 NKP 2-8-4’s, bringing down the curtain on Lima’s steam
locomotive production.
PoTPourri
The Advisory Mechanical Committee
2-8-4 represented the high point for the
wheel arrangement. After its introduction,
most railroads that ordered Berkshires
adopted it. Nonetheless, three did not.
In 1935, one year after the NKP engines
had been introduced, the Detroit, Toledo
& Ironton took delivery of four Berkshires
from Lima that represented a step backward. For unknown reasons, they came
DeTroiT, ToleDo & iroNToN Built after
69-inch drivers had become standard for
2-8-4’s, DT&I’s engines had 63-inch
wheels. Following its 6 Berks of 1935-39,
DT&I bought 12 heavy Mikados in 1940-44.
simon e. herring
ernest se vde
with 63-inch drivers and a proportionately
shorter boiler. The railroad bought two
more in 1939. Although they were handsome, they did not have the same capability as an AMC engine.
Down in North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, the Norfolk Southern
Railway took delivery of five 2-8-4’s in
1940 weighing almost 100,000 lbs. less
than a typical AMC engine. The north end
of the NS main line between Charlotte,
N.C., and Norfolk, Va., was plagued by
numerous weight restrictions on bridges,
PiTTsBurGH & laKe erie Perhaps the
oddest 2-8-4’s of all were the seven built
for P&LE in 1948. This very last 2-8-4 design was in some ways a throwback to the
original A-1, though much less powerful.
and its motive power had to conform to
these requirements. Nonetheless, the new
engines helped turn the NS into a competitive bridge route. The NS “pocket”
Berkshires were notable on two counts:
They were very much the smallest built,
and they were the last to run in North
America. After the NS dieselized in 1950,
they were converted to burn oil and found
a new home in Mexico, where some ran
into the early 1960’s.
Alco delivered its last steam locomotives—seven Berkshires of a unique design
—to the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie in 1948.
The big question is why this happened.
Two years earlier, P&LE’s parent, the New
York Central, had made the decision to
dieselize, yet it chose steam for its subsidiary. Further, they were a new design, with
63-inch drivers, not based on the AMC
NorFolK souTHerN Smallest by far of
all Berkshires, and among the last ones to
be designed, were NS’s quintet of 1940.
No. 602 stands at Raleigh, N.C., in 1945.
engine. They were intended solely for service on the P&LE, handling steel, ore, and
coal drags. However, after the P&LE dieselized, they wound up on NYC’s Big Four
Division on the flatlands of Ohio, where
they were ducks out of water. They could
not maintain the pace of the road’s
speedy, 69-inch-drivered 4-8-2 Mohawks.
The Berkshire proved to be a highly
versatile locomotive. It was the first of the
“Super-Power” engines and it led a revolution in locomotive design. It was equally
at home at the head of hot manifests, coal
and ore drags, and heavy passenger
trains.
cl assic tr ains collection
Campaign train rides, exemplified by this
scene on the New Haven at Bridgeport,
Conn., November 4, 1944, were actually a
minority of rail trips for the 32nd President.
FDR’s
wartime train travels
Unlike his very public excursions in the 1930’s, President Roosevelt’s trips by rail
during the war had to employ the highest security and secrecy
Herbert H. Harwood collection; Fdr inset above, Franklin d. roosevelt library; botH pHotos courtesy bob witHers
by Fred b. Wrixon
F
ranklin D. Roosevelt was an experienced train traveler by
the time he became President and set records by logging
243,827 miles during his 12 years in the Oval Office. But
his most important time on the rails was spent as
commander-in-chief during World War II.
Roosevelt’s first rail journey after beginning his presidency was
a 4½-hour trip from Jersey City, N.J., to Washington, D.C., on April
21, 1933. He went by train a number of times during his first two
terms, traveling to Springwood (his Hyde Park, N.Y., home), to his
“Little White House” retreat at Warm Springs, Ga., and for
political and campaign purposes. As with any President traveling,
there was nothing simple about any of these journeys.
Chief Executives’ trains had carried the designation POTUS,
for President of the United States, since at least Benjamin Harrison’s term (1889-1893). By the early 1930’s, presidential railroad
trips necessitated detailed planning. According to railroad
histories such as Bob Withers’ The President Travels by Train (TLC
Publishing, 1996), arrangements were made—beginning months
in advance—by the railroad on which the journey began. Officials
of the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania railroads, through
liaison with other carriers, handled the majority of FDR’s rail
arrangements nationwide. (Roosevelt liked train travel and was
well-acquainted with the U.S. rail network. In fact, he might’ve
been a “rare mileage collector,” a term decades away from being
coined, because he liked to be routed over lines new to him. He
also liked to fill out his private car’s space diagram cards himself!)
Prior to a trip, a series of actions occurred along the chosen
routes. Train dispatchers had to avoid conflicts with scheduled
passenger and freight trains. Pilot trains preceded presidential
specials, and sometimes a decoy engine and consist were included. Replacement locomotives, crews, and parts were often placed
at key locations. Division superintendents or road foremen of
engines in a given territory often rode, or operated, the locomotive
hauling the President’s train. Each road’s plainclothes special
agents (police) worked with the Secret Service and local police to
guard station platforms, control crowds, investigate threats, and
screen persons who boarded the special trains.
Advance operations involved stopping most trains for 30
minutes before a presidential train would pass, although some
passenger trains occasionally were granted slow passage. Other
preparations ranged from right-of-way inspections to building
reserves of water supplies and carefully choosing high-grade coal.
In FDR’s era, the typical POTUS train consisted of a locomotive; a baggage car (often containing automobiles for conveyance
to civic centers, hotels, etc.); a communications car (from 1942
onward, having world-wide links); three or four Pullman sleepers
for news people; a press car with tables for rows of typewriters,
photographers’ darkroom facilities, and Western Union telegraph
equipment; dining cars; a lounge car; three or four Pullman
sleepers for presidential staff, Secret Service, and railroad police;
and, at the rear, the President’s open-platform private sleeping car.
From public to private
Roosevelt’s first important summit meeting, while representing
the still-neutral United States, was with British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Canada. For
that meeting, FDR took a series of rail and ship rides. They began
at Washington Union Station on August 3, 1941, on the Pennsylvania Railroad to New York and the New Haven to New London,
Conn. There he boarded the presidential yacht USS Potomac and
sailed to the water-borne meeting in Canada. Upon its conclusion,
he disembarked from the Potomac at Rockland, Maine, on August
16, and rode by train back to Washington on a route that included
Maine Central, Boston & Maine, New Haven, and Pennsylvania.
After the United States’ entry into World War II, FDR’s journeys had to have the highest security and secrecy. With enlarged
White House staff and more Secret Service details, railroad
agents, and local police involved, much greater care was taken
www.ClassicTrainsMag.com
★
Railroads and World War II
21
w. r. osborne
FDR was said to prefer the B&O over the Pennsy, and P-7 Pacific 5319 President Arthur
hauled him, including on April 13, 1943, on the first leg of his second big nationwide tour.
regarding the “need to know” for all
aspects of all presidential itineraries.
FDR’s first top-secret train ride took
place on Tuesday, January 6, 1942, from
Washington to Hyde Park. Rather than
beginning the trip from high-profile Union
Station, the President went by auto to a
quiet point in suburban Silver Spring, Md.,
to board the Baltimore & Ohio (FDR was
said to prefer the B&O over the PRR). The
train contained no press cars, and after
this unheralded beginning, Roosevelt’s
staff managed to keep his location a secret
until he returned to the capital the following Sunday.
These “blackout” visits to Hyde Park
continued with White House aides trying
various D.C.-area departure venues while
juggling security and secrecy with convenience for the polio-stricken leader.
Along with Silver Spring, these sites included the Bolling Field Army Air Corps
Base, Catholic University, and PRR’s 14th
Street yard.
Roosevelt made at least 40 WashingtonHyde Park rail trips during his last two
years and four months in office, and the
normal route bypassed Manhattan. Out of
the capital, the train used the B&O and its
New York City route partners Reading
Company and Jersey Central to Claremont,
a junction in Jersey City, where B&O and
NYC motive power was exchanged. After a
short run on Lehigh Valley’s National
Docks subsidiary, the train entered NYC’s
West Shore line for the run up to Highland, N.Y., across the Hudson River from
Poughkeepsie. The party would then motor
the 12 miles across the Mid-Hudson Bridge
and north to Hyde Park.
This routing avoided tying up PRR’s
busy Washington-New York main line and
going through the Hudson and East river
tunnels, through Penn Station, and across
Hell Gate Bridge, all requiring more
security. When FDR’s trains did use this
route, they would back up from New
Rochelle, N.Y., on a New Haven branch to
Mott Haven Yard in the Bronx, then go up
NYC’s Hudson Division to a private siding
behind his Hyde Park home.
special cars For security
wayne brumbaugH
En route from Washington to Hyde Park, FDR frequently traveled NYC’s West Shore line,
exemplified by train 25, the West Pointer, leaving the west portal of Palisade (N.J.) Tunnel.
22
Railroads and World War II
★
2008
While the Washington embarkation
sites were changing, Roosevelt began a
series of his most important train travels.
From September 17 to October 1, 1942, he
went on a nationwide inspection tour of
military bases and defense production
centers. On September 22, he was at his
most westerly point, Fort Lewis, Wash.,
near Tacoma. All told, he covered 8,396.5
miles while visiting sites in 25 states [see
“A Day of Excitement and Mystery” in
Winter 2007 CLASSIC TRAINS]. The President could traverse such a distance from
Washington because he was able to remain
u.s. army, robert wayner collection, courtesy bob witHers
Military personnel and a color guard wait for Roosevelt to alight from the Roald Amundsen at Fort Lewis, Wash., September 22, 1942.
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4/29/43
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© 2007, Kalmbach Publishing Co.,
CLASSIC TRAINS: Bill Metzger
Based on two maps by Kenneth L. Miller in
The President Travels by Rail (TLC Publishing,
1996), with permission of publisher Thomas W. Dixon
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Vancouver
FDR’s two big wartime
inspection rail trips
Corpus Christi
TM
4/21/43
4/20/43
FDR’s two secret nationwide trips in fall 1942 and April 1943 encompassed 32 days through 33 states over 15,640 miles on 24 railroads.
www.ClassicTrainsMag.com
★
Railroads and World War II
23
★ Staying in touch via the 1401 ★
Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first President in office during a war to be able to travel extensively without compromising his
status as Commander-in-Chief, thanks to a special communications
railroad car.
In May 1942, the White House Signal Detachment (WHSD), in
charge of presidential communications, had been assigned the task
of developing such a car with comprehensive and rapid message
capabilities. WHSD instructed the U.S. Army Transportation Corps
to obtain a car, which the Corps did—a combination baggage-coach
(“combine”) owned by the Baltimore & Ohio, numbered 1401.
WHSD leased the car, keeping its B&O number, and began a
series of technical tests even as the car was being modified. The
alterations were necessary to meet the needs of the President as
well as the requirements of the Association of American Railroads,
which was responsible for technical standards nationwide. The
results were described by a White House official as “. . . an aweinspiring mass of wires, tubes, decoding machines, and other 20th
century apparatus.”
Eventually 1401’s equipment included special send-and-receive
antenna wires in roof-mounted copper tubing; two Federal BC-339
transmitters; a number of 50-watt FM transmitter-receivers; teletype
and telephone exchange equipment; and a section for U.S. Army
cipher machines that provided extra protection for messages.
The modifications had some problems. Standard procedures did
not work when securing the communications equipment. WHSD
staff shock-mounted all the mechanisms only to receive a disappointing surprise—changes in train speed created changing vibrations. The shock-mounted devices oscillated so badly that several
pieces were permanently damaged. The WHSD had to hand-bolt the
equipment to steady it.
Power for transmissions was first supplied by a gasoline generator. But the AAR faulted WHSD for placing a gasoline tank below the
frame of the car. AAR people directed that a double-walled tank with
CO2 be used between the walls. This created its own problems, for
each time the train neared a tunnel, it would have to stop so the CO2
tank could be emptied, and upon exiting, it would halt again so the
tank could be refilled. Such an operation obviously would not work,
in direct contact with government and
military officials when necessary. This was
possible owing to special features of a
special communications car, B&O 1401
[see sidebar, above].
As car 1401 was being outfitted, Dewey
Long, White House travel director; Michael
Reilly, head of the Secret Service; and
other planners by October 1942 had
decided on a standard Washington embarkation point: the annex of the U.S. Bureau
of Engraving and Printing. Here, on the
east side of 14th Street, a railroad spur had
been built to receive supplies. The site was
below street level and concealed from
normal lines of sight.
From his first term in office, President
Roosevelt most often traveled aboard the
Roald Amundsen, one of a series of seven
Pullman office-type cars built 1927-29, six
of which were named for famous explorers. After Pearl Harbor, Mike Reilly and
Steve Early, an influential presidential
24
Railroads and World War II
★
2008
tHomas w. dixon collection
In government service, leased B&O combine 1401 is unlettered.
and the remedy finally was found in two diesel generators.
The antennas also caused problems. WHSD staffers learned that
a given car’s vertical limits were 13½ feet from railhead to roof, which
left just 6 inches of working room for antennas and their insulators.
As this problem was being solved with special equipment applications, a second regulation had to be met—the AAR required the
antennas to be placed in wooden troughs as a precaution against
electrocution.
WHSD’s first solution placed the antennas in a covering called
poly tubing. The plan seemed to be working during practice runs
until a railroad inspector asked about the “neon sign” atop 1401. The
“sign” was an arcing of the antennas owing to water that had condensed in the poly material. This problem was eventually rectified by
putting the equipment in copper tubing and painting it black.
When all tests were complete, the 1401 was designated as railmobile radio station WTE. With it, President Roosevelt had links to
the private radio network of the White House, to WAR (the War
Department’s primary station), and through WAR, the international
U.S. Army Command and Administration Network. This made him
the first global leader to have 24-hour access to domestic and international locations while he was mobile.—Fred B. Wrixon
secretary, decided that, in the interest of
safety and security, the President should
have a specially assigned, specially
equipped car. FDR agreed after being told
that the improvements would benefit
future Presidents as well. Reilly, Early, and
Pullman officials chose the Ferdinand
Magellan, one of the explorer-series cars.
Pullman’s Calumet Shops in Chicago
gave the Magellan a complete overhaul that
included armor-plating and other custom
features [see sidebar on page 26]. FDR first
saw the car on December 18, 1942, and
fully approved of all the changes. On that
particular Friday, he was again on his way
to Springwood and thoroughly enjoyed the
renovations during the ride.
to casablanca, via miami
Roosevelt’s trips to top-secret meetings
often began by train. For example, on
January 9, 1943, FDR left the capital and
went north on the B&O, the usual routine
for his trips to Hyde Park. But not far out
of Washington, at the Fort George Meade
Army base in Maryland, the train was
turned around, destined to Florida.
The President traveled to Miami over
the normal fast passenger route, using
PRR; Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; Atlantic Coast Line; and Florida East
Coast. At Miami, U.S. Army vehicles
transferred baggage and supplies to a place
called Dinner Key; a few hours later, FDR
and his companions left the train and went
there by auto. At a Pan American Airways
site, the President’s plane, the Dixie Clipper,
and his staff’s aircraft, the Atlantic Clipper,
were being readied for a flight to crucial
meetings at Casablanca, Morocco.
Everything had run smoothly for the
President, but the same would be not true
for his aides who stayed stateside. White
House travel office director Dewey Long
had made last-minute checks on board the
planes before bidding the travelers God-
speed. He and two Secret Service men
returned to the Miami location where they
had left the train, but it was no longer
there! Someone (apparently never identified) had ordered the train to be moved.
As Long later said, “Nobody was supposed to know that train was there, and I
didn’t want to go around asking people if
they’d seen anything of my train.” Long
and the two Secret Service men, toting
machine guns, finally spotted the locomotive and consist more than a half mile
from its original stopping point. When
FDR returned from the Casablanca
conference, the train was waiting for him
in Miami. He arrived in Washington on
the evening of January 31 and resumed an
active schedule.
an international First
The President’s next extensive rail-borne
endeavor was a second national inspection
and morale-boosting tour, April 13-29,
1943. While the journey encompassed a
smaller, circle-like route of 7,243.7 railmiles, it still involved 23 railroads and 67
locomotives. The latter ranged from B&O
P-7 Pacific President Arthur to a three-yearold, two-unit Union Pacific Electro-Motive
E6 diesel, No. 8M1/8M2.
In the first stage of this journey, Roosevelt visited with passenger Mrs. Chiang
Kai-shek, wife of the leader of Nationalist
China. After she departed, the route took
FDR south through Virginia and the Carolinas to South Carolina’s Parris Island and
the U.S. Marine base there. The train then
crossed Georgia into Alabama to visit
Maxwell Field, then returned to Georgia
for stops at Fort Benning, the U.S. Army’s
parachute school; Warm Springs, the
southern White House; and Fort Oglethorpe, a Women’s Army Air Corps training base. From Saturday, April 17, to
Tuesday, April 20, the President visited
sites that included Camp Forrest, Tenn.
(U.S. Army’s 80th Division); Camp Gruber,
Okla. (U.S. Army’s 88th Division); and
Douglas Aircraft’s plant in Tulsa, Okla.
On April 20, FDR made history as the
first U.S. President to visit Mexico. A National Railways of Mexico crew handled
his train from Laredo, Texas, to Monterrey,
Mexico, where Roosevelt met with Mexican
President Manuel Avila Camacho, and they
attended a series of festivities. Their private talks resumed after President Avila
Camacho’s private car and one other car of
his train were coupled ahead of the Ferdinand Magellan. The remainder of Avila
Camacho’s consist followed Roosevelt’s
train. President Avila Camacho eventually
traveled from Laredo, Texas, on the TexasMexican Railway to Corpus Christi, Texas,
where he and FDR parted with a statement
that their nations were firmly united for
victory over the Axis powers.
national arcHives, courtesy bob witHers
james c. seacrest collection
Eleanor Roosevelt (middle of platform, at left in top photo) waves to Mexican President
Manuel Avila Camacho’s party at Flour Bluff Junction, Texas, April 14, 1943, as the two
trains part ways. Tex-Mex diesels 601 (above) and 600 handled the trains out of Laredo.
The meetings and events were deemed a
complete success, but the journey had had
its share of unusual occurrences. Before
leaving Monterrey, Dewey Long nearly had
a meeting with a bayonet. As he described
it, “I got off the train to rig up a field
tele-phone when this character (a zealous
Mex-ican guard) came at me. Every time
I’d try to go for my credentials, he’d come
at me with that bayonet.” Unable to speak
Span-ish, Long had to let the guard take
him to a Mexican officer, where the
mix-up was resolved.
A greater security concern was caused
by a delay en route northbound to Laredo.
At 2 a.m. Wednesday, the train came to an
unscheduled stop, so Long, Secret Service
man Mike Reilly, and other staff went
outside. They were nonplussed to find that
the Mexican crew had left the train in the
middle of the dark countryside. After some
anxious searching, Reilly and Long located
the trainmaster, who casually replied that
the crew was enjoying its usual late-night
snack off the train.
Still puzzled, Long complained, “But
they can’t do that. There’s a couple of
presidents on board.” At some point, Reilly
and Long were pointed toward a barely
visible light. They ended up walking nearly
half a mile to a small shack, where they
found the crew enjoying sandwiches
washed down with tequila. As presidential
secretary Grace Tully later wrote, “Conversation in neither English nor [Spanish]
could prevail upon them to return to the
train until they had finished their meal.”
The train got moving again, and the
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Railroads and World War II
25
★ The heaviest Pullman ever ★
In late 1942, Secret Service head Mike Reilly and presidential presidency, although records exist of trips to State College, Pa.,
secretary Steve Early saw the need for President Roosevelt to and Defiance, Ohio, plus one, in 1953, to address the Canadian
travel in a more secure car than the standard ones he had been Parliament in Ottawa, Ontario. Mamie Eisenhower, who preferred
using, and asked the Pullman Company to create one.
train travel, made the last official trip on the Magellan, from WashFDR had been using Pullman office cars in a series of seven, ington to Groton, Conn., to christen the USS Nautilus in 1954.
mostly Roald Amundsen. Reilly, Early, and Pullman officials chose
After sitting idle for four years, the Magellan was transferred to
a sister car, the Ferdinand Magellan, built in 1929 and due to be the U.S. Army at Fort Holabird, Md., in April 1958, and declared
shopped. It had been used to transport FDR once, in 1939. (Others surplus later that year. The Smithsonian Institution was offered the
in the series were Pioneer plus four also named for explorers: car but did not act, and rail historians at the University of Miami
David Livingstone, Henry Stanley, Marco Polo, and Robert Peary.)
learned of the car’s availability. After a complex transaction, the
At Pullman’s Calumet Shops in Chicago, the Magellan was given group beat the Smithsonian’s offer of $1 by $99 and was awarded
a thorough overhaul. The standard arrangement of staterooms the car. The university group became the genesis of the Gold
was changed from five to four, permitting a full interior revision Coast Railroad Museum, which was given custody of the car by
from the dining/conference room to the attendants’ quarters, gal- the school in 1959.
ley, and pantry.
The Magellan was listed in the National Register of Historic
The four staterooms were designated, front to rear, as D, C, B, Places in 1978, and the next year, Gold Coast received permission
and A. The President’s room (C) was connected through a full to place the seal of the President of the United States back on the
bathroom to the First Lady’s room (B). Rooms D and A were guest rear-platform railing.
rooms on either side. The removal of the fifth room provided three
In fall 1984, the Gold Coast group took the car to Washington
feet of increased space for the dining and rear observation areas. for a rail convention and to get it inspected toward qualifying as a
The dining room could accommodate a 38x72-inch mahogany National Historic Landmark. Since the election campaign was on,
table. It had eight chairs upholstered in green-and-gold striped the museum asked the White House staff if President Ronald Reasatin damask. The walls were paneled with limed oak, and the gan would like to make a speech from the famous car platform.
ceilings were ivory with antique gold etchings. The observation The White House came back with a surprise, requesting use of the
lounge was 12 feet long, with its walls done in a light brown mate- Magellan on a one-day, whistle-stop campaign trip from Dayton to
rial that had a leather-like appearance. Chairs and a sofa provided Perrysburg, Ohio. The five-stop trip took place on October 12.
comfortable viewing through eight windows that were glazed with
The Magellan returned to its Miami display site, and all was
bulletproof, three-inch-thick glass.
quiet until Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida, including
The Magellan’s security was formidable. Steel armor plating of the museum, in August 1992. Although steel beams fell on the car,
a 5 ⁄8-inch thickness lined its full surface. The door between the rear it sustained little structural damage. After a two-and-a-half-year
lounge and open platform weighed 1,500 pounds and could be restoration, the Ferdinand Magellan in October 1996 was placed
opened only from the inside. Extra features included escape back on public display.—Fred B. Wrixon and Michael Hall
hatches in the ceiling of the lounge and above the shower in the
presidential suite’s bathroom. The rear steps on both sides of the
open platform were replaced with electric platform elevators to
avoid having to use a ramp for FDR’s special needs.
Refrigerators, ice and storage spaces, hot- and cold-water
tanks, and air-conditioning and steam-heat equipment all added
to the car’s bulk. Its weight grew from a standard 80 tons to 142½
tons, the heaviest Pullman ever! Painted in dark Pullman green,
the Magellan was 14½ feet high, 10 feet wide, and 83½ feet long.
Only the name “Pullman” appeared on the letterboards, not the
car name, and as a security precaution it carried no exterior number, though its official designation was U.S. No. 1.
two pHotos, micHael Hall collection
The car served three office-holding Presidents after Roosevelt.
Like FDR, Harry Truman loved to travel by rail, and used the Magel- Pullman office car Ferdinand Magellan is stripped for rebuild in
lan more than any other Chief Executive. As Truman’s guest, Win- 1942 at the company’s Calumet Shops on Chicago’s south side.
ston Churchill in 1946 rode the
Magellan to Jefferson City,
Mo., to speak at Fulton, where
he first used the term “Iron
Curtain.” In the 1948 campaign, Truman covered 28,000
miles and made almost 350
speeches from the car. Its rear
platform is the setting for the
famous photos of Truman
holding a Chicago Tribune with
the erroneous headline “Dewey
Defeats Truman.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower seldom used the car during his For security reasons, Ferdinand Magellan displayed neither its name nor its number, U.S. No. 1.
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Railroads and World War II
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presidents parted after a photo session at
the Flour Branch Junction wye near
Corpus Christi.
FDR’s train moved north on the MoPac.
At Fort Worth, the presidential party
visited the Roosevelts’ son Elliott at his
ranch. Mrs. Roosevelt and her staff
remained there, but FDR resumed his
travels, heading west on April 22. By the
24th his train was in Colorado, and at
Camp Carson near Colorado Springs, FDR
got to see one of the arsenal of democracy’s
important new weapons, the bazooka.
The last Colorado stop was in the Denver area, with visits to a hospital, airfield,
and the Remington weapons factory. There
followed a series of similar tours on a
generally easterly route with visits in
Kansas (Fort Riley), Nebraska (Martin
bomber plant), Indiana (Republic Aviation
Corp.), and Kentucky (Fort Knox). The
train returned to Washington on April 29.
classic trains collection
San Diego & Arizona Eastern train 362 leaves San Diego on October 16, 1944, behind the
same engine, T-31 4-6-0 2362, and on the same line FDR took east September 25, 1942.
canadian respite
After a busy spring and early summer,
the rails provided the President with some
extended off-the-record recreation in
Ontario on Lake Huron. On July 30, FDR
left Washington. Along with his regular
staff was a group of dignitaries including
Adm. William D. Leahy, chief of staff;
Jimmy Byrnes, director of the Office of
War Mobilization; Rear Adm. Ross T.
McIntire, White House physician; and
special advisors Edwin M. Watson and
Harry Hopkins (the latter arriving later).
After a short stop at Springwood, New
York Central took the train on to the
border crossing into Canada at BuffaloFort Erie. At Welland, Ont., a new engine
crew and pilot came on board for a short
run to Hamilton on the Toronto, Hamilton
& Buffalo, an NYC-Canadian Pacific
subsidiary. There, CPR power and crews
took over for the run up to the fishing
camp site of Little Current, Ont., on
Manitoulin Island in Georgian Bay. Rail
access was a CPR branch off its SudburySault Ste. Marie main line.
Mike Reilly, Dewey Long, and their
staffs had scouted Canadian locations and
had chosen Georgian Bay, renowned for its
fine black bass. At Little Current, they
found a CPR spur that was near the water,
so the well-stocked train could provide
many amenities that were otherwise scarce
in the remote region.
Along with the equipment on car 1401,
communications were also set up at Birch
Island. These connections consisted of
twice-a-day airmail, plus phone and telegraph links with the White House. Thus
prepared, Roosevelt and his friends were
able to spend some restful days away from
the hubbub of Washington.
The Canadian days were not without
incident. When some communications
robert F. collins; louis a. marre collection
r.r. wallin; louis a. marre collection
MoPac 4-6-2 6614, at Sallisaw, Okla., with train 125 (middle photo), stalled on the hill into
Camp Robinson, Ark., near Little Rock, with FDR’s train April 18, 1943. Rare 1938 EMC
NW4 diesel 4102 helped switch the train April 26 at the Martin bomber plant near Omaha.
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Railroads and World War II
27
★ FDR’s last ride home ★
When Franklin D. Roosevelt died in Warm
Springs, Ga., at 3:35 p.m. Thursday, April 12, 1945, dozens of railroad officers scrambled to transform FDR’s
train into a funeral procession. Southern Railway, having
delivered the President to the “Little White House” on
March 30, was storing the 10-car train in Atlanta.
Railroaders quickly prepared two Southern light Pacifics, Nos. 1262 and 1337, for the 74-mile deadhead trip
south, and added an additional Pullman sleeper in time
for a 9:53 p.m. departure. At Williamson, the locomotives were turned to be headed north the next day, and
another engine pulled the train up the branch to Warm
Springs, arriving at 1:25 a.m. Friday.
Government and railroad personnel spent the rest of
the night loading the special party’s autos and personal
belongings. The casket would not fit through the Ferdinand Magellan’s rear door, and the lounge’s sealed windows couldn’t be removed. So Conneaut, a 7-compartment/buffet/lounge that housed the Secret Service, was
switched to the rear of the train to receive the body. This
required removal of the lounge’s furniture and construction of a ramp—and a strong table to serve as a bier.
With the funeral party on board, the train eased away
from Warm Springs at 11:13 a.m. Friday and headed
back toward Atlanta. It followed a slow, hastily devised
24-hour schedule on Southern to Washington, D.C., to
accommodate the thousands of mourners at trackside.
The only stops permitted were for operational purposes,
at division points and coal and water stations.
In Atlanta, immense clusters of people stood, awed
and hushed, as the train threaded between factories,
warehouses, and residences. Downtown traffic was
jammed for blocks. Eight of Southern’s heavy Ps-4
class Pacifics forwarded the train north—Nos. 1409 and
1394 from Atlanta to Greenville; 1401 and 1385 to Salisbury, N.C.; 1400 and 1367 to Monroe, Va.; and 1366 and
1406 to Washington.
After dinner, Eleanor Roosevelt, who had hurried to
her husband’s side after she received the news, slept—
or tried to—in his bed in Room C of the Magellan.
“I lay in my berth all night with the window shade
rolled up,” she wrote, “looking out at the countryside he
loved and watching the faces of the people at stations,
and even at the crossroads, who came to pay their last
tribute all through the night.”
In the wee hours, the train stopped at a water tank
between two cliffs of farmland. An impromptu choir of
African-Americans sang “Hand Me Down My Walkin’
Cane”—a song with which the polio-stricken Roosevelt
would have identified.
After a Saturday afternoon funeral at the White
House, the cortege left for Hyde Park at 11:03 p.m. for
the burial at Springwood, Roosevelt’s beloved home.
There were now three trains—FDR’s, swelled to 17 cars
and carrying the new President, Harry S. Truman; a second train of 13 cars for Congressmen and Supreme
Court justices; and a third for an escort of 454 Marines.
The trains were pulled by Pennsylvania GG1’s to New
York and NYC Hudsons the rest of the way.
Roosevelt’s body arrived in Hyde Park at 8:40 a.m.
Sunday, and it was soon laid to rest in his mother’s rose
garden.—Bob Withers
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atlanta History center
Greeted by troops, the Roosevelt funeral train, pulled by Southern Ps-2
Pacifics 1262 and 1137, arrives Atlanta’s Terminal Station on April 13, 1945.
nyc pHoto by ed nowak; classic trains collection
nyc pHoto by ed nowak; classic trains collection
Car Ferdinand Magellan wouldn’t accommodate the casket, so it ran ahead
of the Conneaut on the funeral train, shown passing Cold Spring, N.Y. (middle photo) and arriving Hyde Park behind New York Central 4-6-4 5283.
gear on the 1401 broke down, Long and
Reilly “strung” to the rescue, politely
commandeering the telegraph office in the
CPR station. There, it was primarily Long
and his staff who connected to a line
linked with U.S. telegraph wires. After a
tense wait to make certain they had White
House contact, Long and his aides maintained a 30-hour vigil, which concluded
when they were certain the repairs aboard
car 1401 were completed.
The relaxation time was beneficial, for
the President resumed a busy schedule
after returning to Washington on August 9.
Canada was soon to be the scene of highlevel business with a rail trip on August 16
to the first Quebec Conference, held
August 17-24. B&O led the way to Claremont, N.J., and the change to the NYC. At
Albany, the Delaware & Hudson took over
up to Montreal, and Canadian Pacific
forwarded the train to Quebec City.
Conference participants included Great
Britain Prime Minister Winston Churchill
and the combined Anglo-American Joint
Chiefs of Staff. Discussions involved
sharing atom bomb research, aspects of
the future invasion of continental Europe,
and rebuilding the post-Mussolini government of Italy.
According to Mike Reilly, FDR’s rail
route had been a successful secret in
Canada until the return trip through
Montreal. During a short operational
station stop, there were two obvious
giveaways to an important personage’s
presence and then to Roosevelt himself.
The first clue was a large contingent of
Canadian police at the station, while the
second was the sighting of Fala, FDR’s
black Scottish terrier. By this time, Fala
had earned the nickname “The Informer,”
since his daily off-train exercises were a
clear indication that his owner was nearby.
Rail travel was not involved with FDR’s
journey to the linked conferences at Cairo,
Egypt, and Tehran, Iran. Departing on
November 11, 1943, he went by auto to
Quantico, Va., to board the yacht Potomac,
which took him to the battleship USS Iowa
for the ocean voyage. On his return, he reversed passage via these ships, with the
Potomac returning him to the Washington
Navy Yard.
Though a seasoned whistle-stop campaigner, Roosevelt did not travel by train
extensively for political purposes early in
the 1944 presidential race. Since he was
the armed forces’ leader, he and his advisors decided it was not appropriate for
him to be linked with the ballyhoo of
multiple stump speeches on the chickenand-peas circuit again. With his nomination as the Democrats’ candidate a certainty, he didn’t even make a direct appearance
at his party’s national convention in Chicago. Instead, he accepted being chosen for a
canadian paciFic
This scene on CPR’s main line along Lake Superior’s Jack Fish Bay exemplifies the getaway nature of FDR’s 1943 fishing trip on Manitoulin Island, reached by a CPR branch.
fourth term via a live radio broadcast to
the convention delegates on July 20, 1944.
He gave his speech from the lounge of
the Magellan while visiting the U.S.
Ma-rines’ site at San Diego. From that
port, he left for base visits and war-planning meet-ings in Hawaii and Alaska. After
returning to Seattle, he rode the rails back
to Wash-ington. At its August 17 conclusion, his journey had amassed 13,912
combined miles of rail and ocean travel.
Within a month, FDR made another
visit to Canada for the Second Quebec
Conference, held September 9-21. The train
followed the same route as before: B&ORDG-CNJ-NYC-D&H-CP. Again meeting
with Churchill, other British officials, and
Canadian officials, Roosevelt discussed
post-D-Day diplomacy and military
decisions. Subsequently, his aides let some
time pass before permitting the President
to resume more political journeys.
assistant presidential press secretary, the
Chief Executive had a difficult time trying
to personalize his speech before the
full-capacity stadium crowd.
Nor were weather and audience
conditions ideal in the East. As autumn
progressed, campaign visits to New York
and Boston had problems. In Gotham, the
rail journey went smoothly, but rain kept
at-tendance down and played havoc with
the President’s speech for friend Sen.
Robert Wagner at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
In Boston, the conclusion of FDR’s last
campaign swing, the audiences were
nu-merous and friendly, but rail limitations caused problems. The long campaign
train proved too much for a Boston &
Albany suburban tank engine to manage.
The cars had to be pulled in reverse from
B&A’s Beacon Park Yard some 11 miles to
the Riverside area.
on the campaign trail
diplomatic Finale
Closer to election time, FDR did hit the
campaign trail by train. On the evening of
Thursday, October 26, he rode the B&O
northward, with a stop in Wilmington,
Del., followed by a full day of tours at sites
in Philadelphia. The Reading took over
from the B&O at Eastwick, Pa., to Grays
Ferry, Pa., where PRR accepted the train,
bound for Chicago. En route, the President
made one stop for a speech, in Fort Wayne,
Ind., before arriving in Chicago at 6 p.m.
In the Windy City, FDR stayed aboard
the Magellan on Illinois Central trackage
before motoring to nearby Soldier Field.
On a cold evening, he spoke from a
re-portedly awkward auto ramp arrangement. According to William D. Hassett,
Victory in the November election
re-turned FDR to the Oval Office for
another unprecedented term. After holiday
festivities, Roosevelt began what would be
his last major diplomatic journey.
Just two days after his inauguration on
January 20, 1945, the presidential train
secretly left the Bureau of Engraving spur.
With FDR, the passenger list included
Chief-of-Staff Admiral Leahy; Adm.
Wilson Brown, and Maj. Gen. Edwin
Watson, the naval and military aides
respectively; political advisor Ed Flynn;
and Roosevelt’s daughter, Anna, acting as
his secretary.
Leaving Washington before 11 p.m., two
engines took the train via RF&P to Dos-
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Railroads and World War II
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Frederick l. yeo
Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac 4-8-4 610, which led the first leg of FDR’s April 1943 nationwide tour, rolls south in 1948 at Doswell, Va., where on January 20, 1945, the POTUS train carrying FDR bound for the historic Yalta meeting moved from RF&P onto C&O.
ricHard e. prince
Southern Ps-4 class 4-6-2 1401, pictured in Atlanta, participated
on FDR’s funeral train; today it is on display at the Smithsonian.
well, Va., then on the Chesapeake & Ohio to
U.S. Navy facilities at Newport News,
where the train stopped at Pier Six alongside the cruiser USS Quincy. Roosevelt
boarded after sunrise and sailed at 8 a.m.
He was headed for the world-changing
meeting with Prime Minister Churchill and
Soviet Premier Josef Stalin at Yalta, on the
Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea.
The physical and mental rigors of the
Yalta Conference took their toll on President Roosevelt’s already declining health.
When he returned to the United States on
February 27, his burdens were increased
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Railroads and World War II
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e. F. pHillips
Pacific 1222 stands in for all Southern’s light 4-6-2’s that hauled
FDR to and from his Warm Springs, Ga., retreat on an SOU branch.
by the loss of his close advisor, Edwin
Watson, who had suffered a fatal stroke
while sailing back aboard the Quincy. The
rail return to Washington was one of
mixed moods. FDR had to be upbeat for
his address to Congress on March 1 regarding the Yalta meeting, but his family
and advisors knew of his inner torments
and wanted him to have a long rest.
He gained some respite from Washington’s complexities with a visit to Springwood at Hyde Park in late March, and a
major break was planned with a fortnightplus stay in April at his southern retreat in
Warm Springs, Ga. When the presidential
special left the capital on March 29, the
schedule for his future activities was already being set. After a return to the White
House on April 18, he was to go west on
April 20 to arrive in San Francisco in time
for the United Nations Conference April 25.
But the 721.5-mile rail journey to western Georgia, mostly via Southern Railway,
would be the last Franklin D. Roosevelt
would take. On April 12, 1945, while at the
Little White House in Warm Springs, he
died of a cerebral hemorrhage.