Chinese-built Iowa Interstate Railroad’s 2-10-2 Santa Fe type steam locomotive pulls a passenger train at Rock Island, Illinois.
Jim Wrinn
2-10-2
•YEARS BUILT: 1903 to 1931
•YEARS BUILT: 1903 to 1931
•MANUFACTURERS: Baldwin, Lima, Brooks, Canadian, Montreal, China
•OPERATED ON: Burlington Route; Baltimore & Ohio; Wabash; Atlantic Coast Line; Boston & Albany; Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range; Southern Railway; among others
•NAME: Santa Fe
•QUANTITY: 2,200; Santa Fe had the most with 342
•BOILER PRESSURE: 220 psi
•KNOWN FOR: Used in freight service up to 40 mph due to stability problems, but this was corrected when cast steel frames were developed
•STATUS: Several on display, including two Chinese-built that were last operated by Iowa Interstate
The QJs rode pretty well but were slippery. Riding 7007 from Linxi to Jing Peng, she was the lead loco of a doubleheaded freight and I was sitting in the engineer’s seat. We must have started to hit the grade before Galedesitai when suddenly the drivers started spinning. The engineer and firemen were looking at my friend’s pictures on the other side of the cab when it happened and I just instinctively reached up and closed the throttle, waited a bit, then came back out and worked her thru a couple of lighter slips. I got to run her for the next half hour or so, then worked her downgrade past the Simayi Bridge for a while. They had 6ET brakestands so something I was used to. Couldn’t work her too hard or she would slip again. The only English words the engineer said was “very good, very good.” My ultimate railroad memory.
Pennsylvania Railroad also had 2-10-2s. The first were USRA heavies eventually modified with a Belpaire firebox, the second PRR’s own design.
The B&O’s Santa Fe’s were nicknamed “Big Sixes”, because of the roster numeric designations they had throughout the majority of their operating lives, i.e., #6100, etc.