Texas State Railroad 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class 7 (Locobase 3482)

Data from [],%20Leachville%20&%20Arkansas%20Southern%20Railroad (visited 18 Feb 2003) and DeGolyer, Volume 53, pp. 329+. Also StL&SW 1 - 1932 Folio 725 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange .See also the Texas State Railroad website at [], last accessed 30 January 2010. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 27 August 2018 email noting the correct boiler pressure.) Works number was 42300 in August 1915.

This small, relatively plain, but sturdy locomotive retained its saturated boiler throughout a long career, but it was fitted with Walschaert radial valve gear actuating 9 1/2" (241 mm) diameter piston valves. Moreover, a note in the Baldwin specs cautions that "particular attention to be given to general lines, finish, striping, lettering, etc. as this will be more of an exhibition locomotive." Chris Hohl's comment about the 7's settings suggests, that although it was delivered with its boiler pressure set to 180 psi, the engine seems to operated at 170 psi through most of its career.

The TSR was established to connect rich deposits of iron ore around Rusk, Texas with a foundry erected in 1884 within the walls of the new East Texas State Prison .The plan was to compete in steel-making by making charcoal out of the trees in the area and using convicts to produce the steel. A five-mile track heading southwest from the prison was extended gradually until it reached Palestine. The TSR interchanged with the Saint Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) at Rusk and the International Great Northern at the other end in Palestine.

The venture didn't make the money envisioned by its promoters and the TSR was shut down and sold to the Cotton Belt in 1921. Our little Mogul went to noted locomotive rebuilders Birmingham Rail & Locomotive, who refurbished and sold it to the Blytheville, Leachville & Arkansas Southern, which renumbered it 12.

The BL&AS was an 18-mile road developed by the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company beginning in 1908. It ran from Leachville south to Riverdale. It connected to Blytheville only through trackage rights granted by the Frisco and connect to the Cotton Belt over the next decade.

In 1928, the Cotton Belt undertook the St. Francis Basin Project, which was an effort to buy up six small railroads (including the BL&AS) on order to capture the promising business in Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas. Another 30 miles of new lines was required to link to Memphis, Tennessee. In the process, the 12 came into the SSW fold and received number 412 .

Nearly two decades later, in May 1946, the Cotton Belt sold the 412 to the Arkansas Railroad in Star City, Ark. This was the last stop, but the 412 staved off the ferro-knacker for another eleven years before being scrapped in 1957.