USRA locomotives were born under unique circumstances. A confluence of circumstances led to the nationalization of many of America’s railroads under President Woodrow Wilson in 1917. The outbreak of World War I, which necessitated a ramp-up of American industrial production capacity, and the financial circumstances of the early 1910s led to a liquidity crisis for many of America’s most prominent railroads. The insolvency of railroads was not an option for a relatively young, rapidly developing and industrializing America, and so the United States Railroad Administration was born.
Click on the links to download the prototype locomotive allocations and the listing of United States Railway Administration (USRA) locomotive models that have been produced. – Ed.
Like another poster said easier to read in the mag, but still helpful none the less. Was there any reason that some railroads got engines and not others? Thinking SOO or GBW etc.
The article is great. I would recommend also the Trains article on Uncle Sam's locomotives. I also would like to know more about the later built copies, like N&W Y3, 4, 5 and 6 as well as S/S1.
the article in the magazine is definitely easier to read and navigate .. but very useful none the less..
Nice article, some brass produced and also forgot Bowser.
Keep it up
A useful article printed in the magazine, however, the presentation and layout of the PDF file on the website could be much improved.
Andy
This is a very meaning compilation for serious modelers…
Where are the units for the Delaware & Hudson system ?
I hope you are going to expand this list in the future……
You missed the 16 0-8-0s and 15 2-8-0s (heavy) bought by the Erie. And I agree with those unhappy with the format of the "USRA locomotive allocations." But the article is fine and very useful.
IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE THE ARTICLE ABOUT THE USRA LIGHT MIKADO THIS LOCO WAS SO SUCESSFUL THAT ALMOST EVERY RAILROAD BOUGHT THEM THEY ARE LIKE TO WHAT HAPPEN IN THE LATE 1940S WITH THE GENERAL MOTORS GP 7 DIESEL WHICH TOOK ITS PLACE AND ACCOMPLISH THE SAME TYPE OF WORK FOR THE railroads… Good job on that article keep it comming.
Great article. However, it was disappointing to not find the Illinois Central 2-8-2 included on the charts.
A much needed article that could be expanded upon. Thank you , keep up the good works.
Good article Andy. You forgot some very good USRA models though. Oriental Limited produced a line of economy brass models about 20 years ago called the Powerhouse series. You can still find them on eBay. I have a couple of their 2-8-8-2's and they can pull a ton, without the use of traction tires.
No IC Road Name
This is interesting if you’re modeling steam. But like most new modeler’s we model diesel.
As an after thought to my previous comment, I remember seeing on a web site recently, the address of which I cannot remember, a reference to a list of HO scale steam locomotives manufactured by many many companies, going back to Mantua and Varney's early days of scale models.
Maybe another commenter can remember seeing and cite the web site address to this valuable modelers info.
Hmmm, considering all the comments and suggestions here-in, are there plans to follow-up with them in future articles?
I for one could use all the info available on USRA engines and post USRA copies as I model the steam era up to and including 1923.
Great article to have for reference!
I might suggest that larger forms such as the USRA models available be put in the format of a simple spreadsheet so it can be opened by any spreadsheet program such as those available to anyone to download and use. Open Office is one of the best and is easily found for free download. This would make updates, changes and filtering much nicer as well as allow for far better printout schemes. The 'pdf' you made is unwieldy and hard to read as well as wasting a lot of paper on printout.
Thanks again, it was a well received bit of information!
GREAT Article……I have been wondering what critera was used by the railroads in purchasing steam engines. Please provide more info like this. Thank You
Interesting and helpful for the model, the better.
Well if I had a 22 radius and needed one engine –it would be a USRA 482–second one would be a 282
Yeah, I'm with Kyle on this one,… your files are NOT .pdfs.
I liked your USRA chart very much but you should have arranged it to print without wasting so much paper.
Where are the Model Power offerings?
It would be interesting to do an expansion of this article to document the copies or near copies of these designs. there are many locomotives that owed a good deal of their design to the USRA engines
Had often wondered how the break down by railroad was set up, great article.
The model chart was a good introduction. Depending on how you define mass-produced, I have some additions for the list. In S Scale, American Flyer (Lionel) produces a USRA 2-8-2A (Light Mikado). In N Scale, Bachmann produces a USRA 0-6-0.