2 8 8 4 Steam Locomotive

2-eight-8-iv "Yellowstone" Locomotives

Last revised: March 2, 2022

By: Adam Burns

The Yellowstone Type steam locomotive blueprint, of the 2-eight-8-4 bicycle system and an articulated pattern featured many of the peak technological advances of the motive power and existence adult in the belatedly 1920s had an extremely short lifespan, as some Yellowstones were barely ten years of age earlier being retired!

The two-8-viii-four'southward late evolution also meant that few, in comparison to other types, were ever built. In total 72 of these massive machines were manufactured for iv different railroads: the Baltimore & Ohio; Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway; Northern Pacific; and Southern Pacific.

The B&O would go along to own the most purchasing 30 of the locomotives in what would become their famous EM-i class.

The railroad would have rather purchased diesels at the time simply the big steamers proved adept in their consignment of moving heavy loads over stiff grades like Sand Patch.  Today, merely three of these magnificent locomotives are preserved.

Only a twelvemonth old, Southern Pacific 2-eight-8-iv #3800 (Air-conditioning-9) steams westbound with a seventy-car manifest outside of Tucumcari, New Mexico on May 11, 1940. Richard Kindig photo.

The Yellowstone Type was as well i of the longest steam locomotives ever congenital and could produce well over vi,000 hp in some classes.

While aesthetics usually affair little in over-the-route freight steamers, it is said that the B&O'southward EM-1 class was perchance the about beautiful Yellowstone with a somewhat streamlined tender and centered headlight.

The Yellowstone originally came about in 1928 when the Northern Pacific went looking for a steam locomotive capable of very high horsepower that could burn relatively depression-grade coal plant forth its mainline (known equally "Rosebud" coal).

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-8-8-iv #230 steams southbound at Alborn, Minnesota with a heavy load of fe ore on May 17, 1959.

Congenital by the American Locomotive Company, Alco, and designated Class Z-5 by NP, information technology produced less than desirable results at only around 5,000 hp due to its extremely big firebox.

Afterwards rectifying the problem by blocking off the kickoff few feet of the firebox and the NP went on to order eleven more Yellowstones, which were built by Baldwin. As with the NP's 2-8-8-4s, those ordered by Southern Pacific Railroad; Duluth, Missabe & Fe Range; and the Baltimore & Ohio were used in heavy-haul, heavy elevate service.

The Southern Pacific employed theirs, classified as AC-9s and built by Lima, in the railroad's southern regions where grades could be stiff only not brutal like in the Sierras (of note Espee's famous Cab Forwards were essentially a backward facing Yellowstone and were used exclusively in the Sierras where the many tunnels and snow sheds could cause asphyxiation to train crews).

Baltimore & Ohio 2-8-8-four #7600 (EM-one), and GP7 #729, announced to exist easing their way towards the roundhouse (just out of frame to the left) in Cumberland, Maryland during the early 1950's.

The DM&IR's Yellowstones, classified every bit One thousand-3s and K-4s and built by Baldwin (in that location was no departure in the ii classes relieve for they were ordered at different times), were used primarily for the railroad's heavy ore services that it was then well known for.

The latest congenital, Class Chiliad-4, were delivered in 1941 but survived barely xx years before the final ane was parked in 1961. Lastly, the B&O's EM-1 Class was lucky to accept been built at all. 30 of these locomotives would be built and were delivered to the B&O (from Baldwin) at the terminate of Earth War II between 1944 and 1945.

One interesting notation is that the B&O actually wanted and would have preferred newer diesel fuel engineering science for this latest locomotive order and non steamers.

Nevertheless, because the country was in the centre of WWII diesel fuel-electric construction had been halted to focus on the war endeavor and was not available for purchase.

Besides, the B&O (as did almost all of the railroads during this time) needed locomotives and lots of them to continue up with the blizzard of demand during wartime and so they settled on the next best matter, a well designed steam locomotive.

Railroads Operating two-8-8-iv Yellowstones

· Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Form EM-ane: 30

· Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway, Form M-three: viii

· Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway, Form M-4: 10

· Northern Pacific Railway, Class Z-5: 12

· Southern Pacific Railroad, Class Ac-ix: 12

And well built the locomotive was. It had a rather low boiler pressure level comparative to other models in its class merely this low force per unit area had a smashing benefit, a loftier factor of adhesion (4.22).

This high ratio immune the locomotive to start rather efficiently in that it was not as susceptible to wheel slippage as other designs. For case, this added incentive was an extra benefit in the type of service the B&O originally designated the EM-1, the torturous grades of the railroad'southward West End (its Cumberland Division), through the Appalachians.

The locomotive did a marvelous job at this, having lilliputian trouble hauling merchandise or coal drags over the steep climbs of Cranberry Grade, forth the West Virginia/Maryland border, or over Sand Patch in Pennsylvania.

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-viii-viii-four #235 (G-4), manufactured by Baldwin in 1941, is resplendent in the setting lord's day of June 11, 1959. The big Yellowstone is about to depart Virginia, Minnesota with a heavy ore railroad train bound for the ore docks along Lake Superior. Stan Kistler photograph.

As you can see, all Yellowstones were built for essentially one reason, to move heavy traffic over steep grades as efficiently as possible.

And, even though the steamers would become the most technologically advanced e'er adult they still could not achieve the efficiencies of new diesel-electric technology and all were retired by 1960.

In any event, they did their duty quite well, so well in fact that the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, upon borrowing a few from the DM&IR considered them the very best steam locomotives the railroad had always operated! While not every form survives today a few have been preserved, including at least three of the DM&IR's Yellowstones; 225, 227, and 229.

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Source: https://www.american-rails.com/yellowstone.html

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