Steam & Excursion > GN 2-8-2 (1952)

GN 2-8-2 #3370, with 3 non-camera shy workers @ Minneapolis on 8/22/52. By Bruce Black.

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A BIG mikado!  A REALLY big mikado. With 75,900 lbs. tractive effort. 

Some of these were built with new boilers, some with boilers from older 2-6-8-0 articulateds.

-LD

Love that smokebox/front end.  Ferocious looking beast !
Tnx for posting

The GN O-8 Class 2-8-2s were the heaviest and most powerful 2-8-2s in the world, and even had 69" diameter drivers!

My undersstanding is that the rear trailing truck had an axle load of around 80,000 lb.  Since some roads would not have allowed an axle load that high, it would have had to be a 2-8-4.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/19 16:36 by LTCerny.

Great shot.  That appears to be pretty light rail for that brute.  But it's yard or terminal and I'm no expert.

A big engine with an even bigger tender.   Great photo.  Until these came along, the Frisco 4200s held the title of world's biggest mike.

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Great photo, that is one of the O-6 Class that were built using the boilers from the L-1 class 2-6-6-2's. O-7's were built with some of the M-class 2-6-8-0 boilers while the O-8's, at least the last of them if I'm not mistaken, were built with new boilers....but I'm going from memory here...GN certainly got the most from their locomotive investment, often with pretty interesting results.

I dug a little deeper. Pictured is an O-6 that was rebuilt using the boiler from an L-2 2-6-6-2. It sports 56" drivers (probably the 55" drivers from the L-2 with thicker tires) has an engine weight of 320,000lbs and 74,000lbs of tractive effort. Slow but Strong.
Also, the biggest of all, the O-8's had 71" drivers, engine weight of 425,540lbs and 77,793lbs of tractive effort. Fast and Strong...

Cheers, Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/19 16:13 by Hillcrest.

It's hard to imagine going to work one day, and your boss says OK guys, we're going to butcher this old 2-6-8-0 and then put it back together as a 2-8-2.  Where to start ?  Somebody had to light the first torch, or lift the first wrench.   Would love to see a time laps movie of that.   How long did it take to do one complete job, or did they do several at once ?   Were these rebuilds done at Hilyard, Washington ?
     I might have a photo of this old girl in the scrap line at Allouez yard near Superior, Wis. about ten years later.

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

I read some where that Illinois Central had some 2-8-2's with a TE of 80,000 lbs.  Is that correct?  Or was it a booster equipped engine?

Many thanks for posting the photo of GN 2-8-2 #3370.  I am enclosing a photo of the builder's plate from this locomotive.  It was built as GN 2-6-6-2 #1909 in March 1908.  You will note that the month and year have been removed from the plate and I am sure this was done when the boiler was used on the #3370.  I have had the plate since the 1960's and it is great to put it with a photo.  This is why I enjoy TO is much!

Ron

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Tom, 
Remember that the IC computed the tractive effort of their engines at 90% MAWP as opposed to the industry standard of 85%.  Just the same, during the late 1930's they rebuilt 41 Harriman 2-8-2's using frames and cyinders from the 2-10-2's that they converted into 4-8-2's.  All were numbered in the 2100-2140 series.  28 of those engines had 28 X 30 inch cylinders, and with 225# BP generated 79,000# TE under the IC formula and 74,900# under the industry standard formula.  The other 13, however got 30 X 32 inch cylinders, and with the same 225# BP generated 90,000# TE under the IC formula and 85,000# under the industry standard formula.  As a child growing up along the Charter Line in Illinois, these were the regular freight power for the road freights on the line, so my first memorable encounter with steam was probably with one of those monsters.  They were a regular sight as US 51  and US 52 paralleled the charter line, for most of the distance to my grandmother's house south of Freeport, IL, which was the north end of the line.  Unfortunately I don't have too many memories of them as they vanished before my 9th birthday.  The photo is the 2106 southbound on the Charter Line at Heyworth, IL about 15 miles south of where I grew up.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/19 23:13 by elueck.

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