Nostalgia & History > An NWP locomotive question

What was the largest steam locomotive used on the NWP?

JDE

Steamjocky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What was the largest steam locomotive used on the
> NWP?
>
> JDE


I would say that these were the MK-2/MK-4 Mikados which did not operate beyond Santa Rosa, I believe.
None of these ever stayed for very long on the NWP...one particular Mike was 3214. Also used were some of the 3100
class light Pacifics.

Tom

PS SP ran the heavy ex-EP&SW 3300's out from Suisun to Schellville along with F-1 2-10-2's.

It would be interesting to see a "deck" straighten the curves on Ridge Hill!

—
Sam Reeves Photography
Pacific Grove, California
Website http://www.samreevesphoto.com

Stindt's history of the NWP has a list of leased SP locos. As Tom says, the 3200's show up between 1947 and 1950. Also of interest might be the 3100 Pacifics that show up between 1938 and 1945. Tom says the 3200's only went as far north as Santa Rosa, I wonder how far the Pacific's went....maybe Willits? And of course the more intriguing question is what SP power ended up on the NWP without benefit of formal leases.

JBW

John:
My 1987 timetable has a note on the NWP that there is 251,000lbs. load limit for the Russian River Bridge at Healdsburg (MP 67.6) . This might have been the restricting feature on the line. Just an aside if it helps.
—Mac

SD7s and SD9s, which ran on the NWP for most of the diesel era, have about 60,000 lbs per axle, 360,000 lbs per loco. This is same axle load and load-per-foot as many medium-sized steam engines on SP's roster, including many of the Pacifics, Mikes, and early 2-10-2s. But these engines were never used ion the NWP.

S.P. Harriman-era consolidations are lighter on their feet: 50,000 lbs per driving axle. So was something upgraded when the SD7s and SD9s arrived?

- Doug Debs

The weight on axle thing could be an interesting piece of analysis and history. You not only had engines getting heavier but freight cars going from 30 to 50 to 70 to 100 (nominal) tons (and onward). Presumably all that required periodic upgrades to the structure of the railroad. For example in looking at a 1925 NWP Southern Division timetable the "gross carload pounds" allowed between Tiburon and Willits was 169,000 pounds...I think today we would call that maximum weight on rail. On the Sherwood branch it was only 100,000 pounds. So obviously things changed over the years.