Erie No. 2603, later No. 5014, was built in 1914 by Baldwin in Philadelphia. None of these 850,000-pound-plus locomotives were preserved.
Herb Broadbelt
Q With so much talk about Union Pacific’s Big Boy, I was wondering about other North American “big steamers.” Do you know the current location of any of the Erie Railroad’s three 2-8-8-8-2 Triplexes? — Bennett Meyer, Winston-Salem, N.C.
A Once the largest steam locomotives in North America, all three of Erie’s Baldwin Locomotive Works-built 2-8-8-8-2 Triplex locomotives were used in pusher service over Gulf Summit near Deposit, N.Y. All were scrapped by the 1930s. The only preserved Erie steam is a 4-6-2 shipped to South Korea to re-build that country’s railroads following the Korean War. — Jim Wrinn
Clifford Jones, it was a matter of money in virtually all cases. Some railroads were impacted more than others when it came to the money crunch, B&O being a classic example. If equipment could not perform up to expectations where operating expenses on that equipment made it expensive to operate against revenues made, it would be abandoned. As much as railroad aficionados would have liked to see a particular piece of equipment saved or preserved for whatever reason(s), money was always the determining factor in these decisions whether or not to save a particular piece of equipment.
What an absolute shame none of these monsters was preserved. I imagine the economics of the day made scraping a no-brainer at the time. Was there no one who suggested saving ANY of these old behemoths at the time? Nobody thought saving any of the Erie (or other eastern compounds) was worthy of consideration?
What really burns my bridge is that nobody saved a NYC Niagara. Somebody had to realize there would never be anything like these machines ever built again. Ws there a lack of vision? Or was it simply a matter of money?
I’d really hate to think that the same imagination that could draw up a hundred miles of blueprints for one of these things couldn’t also think to keep an example or two of this unique era alive for following generations to see a hands-on example of their handiwork.
To quote from reportage on the peccadilloes of a sportsman concurrent with the era: “say it ain’t so, Joe!”