Few, if any railroads, duplicated what the Wabash Railroad did in 1930 and ’31 when it ordered 50 big locomotives from the Baldwin Locomotive Co., split half and half between the tried-and-true 4-8-2 wheel Mountain type and the still relatively new 4-8-4 Northern. It was a remarkable decision, given the slight differences between the two classes. So slight, in fact, that gazing at the front end you’d have to identify them by the numberplate below the headlight, so similar were they in size and appearance.
The “Wabash 50” were ordered at a difficult time in the company’s history. Control of the approximately 2,200-mile railroad had gone to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1928 in a move seen as defensive, as PRR felt it necessary to respond to an alliance between the Wabash and Delaware & Hudson that gave them control of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, part of a strategic plan to reorganize Eastern railroads. When PRR muscled its way into the plan, the D&H backed out, leaving Pennsy with the Wabash and LV. Meanwhile, the swirling economics of the Depression had taken hold, forcing Wabash into receivership in 1931, a status it would be stuck with for another 10 years.
But that didn’t prevent Wabash management in St. Louis from making its big move on steam, buying the 2800-class 4-8-2s and 2900-class 4-8-4s in succession. It was a large expenditure for a modest-size Midwestern railroad, but necessary if Wabash was to respond to the growing demands for higher-speed delivery of tonnage along its main line between Detroit and Kansas City. The railroad was ideally situated to serve Detroit’s automobile industry. That, along with the carrier’s traditional heavy load of agricultural traffic, rendered inadequate the Wabash’s roster of World War I-era 2-8-2s and 2-10-2s.
It’s instructive to note both the identical and differing aspects of each class of engine in the Wabash 50. Visually they were strikingly similar. Both had outside bearings, 70-inch driving wheels, vestibule cabs, centered smokebox-mounted bells, and matching air-pump shields on the pilot beam. Power for both groups was delivered via boiler pressure of 235 p.s.i. delivering steam to 27-by-32-inch cylinders; the boiler pressure later was raised to 245 p.s.i. on the 4-8-2s, 250 p.s.i. on the 4-8-4s. Other key differences included 12 more square feet of grate area on the 4-8-4s and 11% more heating surface. All the 4-8-2s and most of the 4-8-4s had Walschaerts valve gear; the last five Northerns came with Baker gear.
Both the Mountains and Northerns were big by any standard. With an engine weight of 406,400 pounds and 66,570 pounds of tractive force, the Wabash 4-8-2s eclipsed nearly every other operator of the wheel arrangement other than Boston & Maine and Lehigh & Hudson River, whose identical engines weighed 415,000 pounds and developed 67,800 pounds of tractive force. Similarly, the Wabash’s Northerns clocked in at an engine weight of 454,090 pounds, with 70,800 pounds of tractive force, smaller than such giants as Santa Fe’s or Union Pacific’s 4-8-4s but still imposing.
Steam locomotive reference books generally describe the Wabash’s decision to go with two similar classes of machines as a mystery. As author George H. Drury put it, “The question of ‘why not 50 of one type’ remains unanswered.” It’s possible the 4-8-4s were ordered to take on the larger burden of freight trains to free up the Mountains for the Wabash Cannonball, Banner Blue, Blue Bird, City of St. Louis, City of Kansas City, and other heavily patronized Wabash passenger trains, a practice quickly adopted once the Northerns arrived. Whatever the original purchase rationale, Wabash began scrapping the 4-8-4s in October 1955 and had completed the task by February 1956, with the 4-8-2s presumably following a similar timeline.
Alas, none of the Wabash 50 were saved.
