Steam & Excursion > Waiting For Orders This Steam Crew Is Ready To Ready To Roll!

The engineer of this huge Milwaukee 2-6-6-2 clearly is ready to depart Tacoma, Washington with his long consist as he looks back for his signals.  His train is under the overhead electric wires for which the MILW was famous in the West.

The date is March 1948 and NP engineer and ardent railfan Al Farrow has taken time out of his day to shoot this fine scene of MILW steam in grand form.  today we all can be glad that he saved this fine scene for us.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/18 03:01 by LoggerHogger.

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It looks like this was a very old engine that has been given lots of improvements over the years, based on the inboard bearing trailing truck.    It appears to have originally been a compound engine, that has been simpled, a coffin feedwater heater added and at sometime, probably not a long time previous, a larger 12 wheel tender was placed behind the engine.

Great photo!
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/18 16:03 by elueck.

Wonderful photo!  Super like everything about it.
ALLEN

The N2 class of 2-6-6-2 locomotives were state of the art when the CM&PS built west. The NP mountain power was nearly a twin to the MILW steamers. Electrification pushed the N west where there were more nonelectrified branchlines and the electrics worked so much better when it was 35 below over Pipestone Pass east of Butte.

Some but not all of the N2s got upgraded to N3s with feedwater heaters and welded larger tenders from F7 4-6-4 steam engines being retired. I can't believe how light the main rods were but these were slow speed engines. In spite of that my father tells of working troop trains in WWII and Korea when F6 Pacifics coming into Spokane were not strong enough to lift the train up Dishman Hill do they would add an N to the point as a helper. He said it was quite a sound echoing off the canyon with the F under a lighter load going chuff______chuff_______chuff______ and the N with 2 sets of small drivers in a near continuous exhaust.

How amazing the steamers built before 1909 were still hauling freight in the mid 1950s while much newer power was scrapped years before.

elueck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It looks like this was a very old engine that has
> been given lots of improvements over the years,
> based on the inboard bearing trailing truck.   
> I appears to have originally been a compound
> engine, that has been simpled, a coffin feedwater
> heater added and at sometime, probably not a long
> time previous, a larger 12 wheel tender was placed
> behind the engine.
>
> Great photo!
>  

Good detective work.  Not obvious, in addition to the abovementioned improvements, the engines were originally built in 1910-11 as class N1 saturated engines - superheating was added early in their careers.  Those large tenders were built new for the Mallets in the 1930's.

Only N1 engines, none of the N2's, were simpled into N3's.

More about these engines here:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4637533,4638459#msg-4638459

-Larry Doyle



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/18 11:02 by LarryDoyle.

Great picture.  I was two months old and freezing in Chicago when this was taken. 

 I'm wondering what the visible loads are, behind the tender.  The first one looks like maybe very small diameter pulp wood or fence posts. ?   What is that in the second car, the composite gon?  Looks like the load is sticking up verticle in the car, and maybe a couple more loads further back in the train.   It almost looks like the train may be backing into the yard, as the Engineer is looking back and the smoke is also trailing backwards.  I wish I knew more about Milwaukee's freight movements, into and out of this yard.  At this rather late date, I'd guess that most trains heading East from this point would have been handled by electrics.  If this train is loaded, where else might it be going?

The Milwaukee seemed to like those DeVoy style trailing trucks as they had them on many classes of their engines.     Most of their 2-6-2s had them, all of their 4-6-2s and many of their 2-8-2s both home built and store bought, and these 2-6-6-2s.

I've seen photos of these articulateds with at least three styles of tenders, but never any with the F-7 4-6-4 Hiawatha tenders, which were coal tenders, and had the visible rib sides.  I have seen the huge tenders from these retired 2-6-6-2s used behind USRA heavy L-3 2-8-2s though and wonder if those locos. were converted to run on oil, or if the tenders were modified to carry coal. ?   Those big tenders really dwarf even a heavy mike.

Thanks for the photo Martin

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

It's possible that this train came off the branch from Chehalis/Centralia or perhaps Morton and Mineral Branch, which would put it onto the mainline heading east and would require a reverse move into the Tideflats yard. I had seen that during the diesel era, perhaps it was done during the steam era as well.

Thanks for sharing a photo of a wonderful loco. Too bad none of these locos was saved. Did anyone make any brass models?

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

Challenger Imports made an N3 in early 2000. Item #2278.1 was factory painted #63. At $1868.00 from a discount dealer it is the most expensive brass model I ever bought. It runs like a watch, is fully detailed and the finish is excellent.

Now it needs sound and DCC installed but I need more experience before I try that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/18 11:04 by fbe.

I couldn't afford one of these either, but I had to have one.   Mine runs like a Rolex also.  They are some of the last models built by Samhongsa, and imported by Challenger Imports.   They even went so far on the details, as to put water inside the tender.   It's really fun to watch it snake around really tight curves.   The last one I saw sell on Ebay went for $2100+.
    Over here in Idaho, these locomotives ran on the non-electrified "Gap"and on the I&WN branch line to Metaline Falls, Wa. and also the branch from St. Maries, Idaho to Bovil, and Elk River, ID.   There was a color slide of one of these N-3s double headed with a set of gray and orange F units near Avery , ID a couple years ago on Ebay.  I got beat on that one.   I think the last one ran over here in 1954.

Craig Hanson
Vay, ID

I don't remember seeing any photos of the Ns at Avery. I wonder if the Avery turntable was long enough to handle one. There was no room for a wye track in town.

No Ns in Avery ?   That's an interesting thought, although I have seen a few photos of them there.   They probably didn't regularly run to Avery.  It may be that they were being run through to Harlotown for repair or service work.  I do know of a person that owns one of the photos, as he beat me out of that one on Ebay also.  I don't think I should say his name without asking first.  If I remember correctly, it was a B&W photo or negative of one of the early Ns, N1or N2, at Avery.    They had a shorter tender to start with, that might have fit the turntable.   They all had to run through there at one time or another, at least on their way West.  A few of them were used in the East, I think as helpers, but most went West of Avery, ID. and eventually got scrapped around Tacoma.  If anybody knows more, I'd love to hear it.   70+ and still learning.

C. Hanson
Vay, Idaho

When the Milwaukee built the Pacific Extension they invested heavily in 2-6-2's as their primary freight power for both the prairies of the Dakotas and for the mountains of Montana.  Though this worked fairly well on the prairies they soon discovered that traffic demands made them double head in the the mountains.  Big mistake.

So, they built and bought 2-8-2's which did the job for awhile.  But, still not enough power.

So, they bought single unit unit engines that were essentially a bit more than a double headed 2-6-2 set - the 2-6-6-2's - for use from Harlowton west.  The 2-6-2's each delivered 31,433 lbs of tractive effort.  The 2-6-6-2's were rated at 70,396.

The 2-6-6-2's were pushed out of mainline service by the electrics.

So, yes, the 2-6-6-2's were used from Harlowton west, and did fit on turntables.  The electrics were 110 feet overall length for a two unit set, while the 2-6-6-2's were 88' 7" with their original tenders, and even with the huge tenders they got in the 1930's they were only 101' 5 1/4".  With electrification most of the 2-6-6-2's were pushed further west, and were primary power on the Idaho Division ("The Gap") until diesels arrived.  They were frequent visitors to Harlowton, and received major servicing at Miles City.

They actually were used briefly farther east, as well.  Though I've never seen photographic documentation, I have a first-hand account by Frank Leahy who was an operator on the "Short Line" between St. Paul and Minneapolis.  About 1950, as the 2-6-6-2's were being phased out in the West, they tried some at St. Paul/Minneapolis as a replacement for triple headed USRA Heavy 2-8-2's on the Short Line Hill!  Unsatisfactory.  They wound up buying three-unit sets of Baldwin AS-616's for the task.

-LD



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/18 14:21 by LarryDoyle.

Just so Loggerhogger doesn't think nobody looks at his posts, these are all about 2-6-6-2's on the branchline out of Tacoma:

Date: 09/23/18 04:02
She's Quite A Beast To Send Up On A Branch Line Like This One!
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4637533,page=1

Date: 04/11/17 03:15
How Would You Like To See This Steam Beast Bearing Down On You!
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4269067,4269067#msg-4269067

Date: 05/22/14 04:21
Heading Up The Tacoma Eastern-MLW 2-6-6-2 #50!
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3416590,3416983#msg-3416983