Illinois Central 2-6-4 "Adriatic" Locomotives in the USA

Class 1442 (Locobase 6978)

Data from IC 1928 locomotive diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 17 April 2017 email noting the increase in tender capacity some years after the upgrade described below.)

This class was originally produced by Schenectady and delivered to the IC as a set of Moguls in 1889 (Locobase 7023). About 23 years later, Lima rebuilt the first three in May 1912 and the IC's Burnside Shops converted a fouth to these suburban commuter locomotives. Burnside added four more in 1920-1921.

About all that entailed was removing the tender, extending the frame, and grafting on a bunker and tank. The rest of the engine may have been renewed, but the dimensions, proportions, and ratios remained those of the 1889 2-6-0s.

Chris Hohl points out that by 1933, the class's bunker and tank capacity increased to 5 1/2 tons (5 metric tons) of coal and 2,750 US gallons (10,409 litres) of water.

Three were scrapped in 1928, four in 1935, and one in 1936.

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Class 1449 (Locobase 6977)

Data from IC 1913ca locomotive diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. (Thanks to Jerry La Boda for his 8 November 2017 email reporting a different post-Illinois Central user from other sources.)

Bigger even than the two delivered from Rogers in 1892 and described in Locobase 6948, these were the largest suburban tanks of this arrangement on the IC. Like most of the IC's 2-6-4Ts, however, these were makeovers of earlier six-coupled locomotives and consisted of several Moguls from the huge class of 2-6-0s (Locobase 6966). About thirty years after that class began service in 1892, the IC converted them to this tank-engine arrangement.

In order of their later road numbers, the Moguls so adapted were 485 (1449), 438 (1450), 408 (1451), 402 (1452), 430 (1453), 416 (1454), 410 (1455), 476 (1456).

Several were fitted with 15.8 sq ft (1.47 sq m) of arch tubes in the Belpaire firebox.

Bryer's meticulouse compilation of an all-time IC roster states that 438/1450 was stationed at Purdue University (as part of its widely respected locomotive research program) from 1916-1943.

Sources differ on where the 1450 and 1452 went after their service on the IC. Several report that the two were sold to Roux Crate & Lumber in Florida. 1450 was renumbered 3 and went to Bartow, 1452 took #7 and went to Lake Garfield.

On the other hand, Jerry La Boda and Byer's Illinois Central compilation says the two leaving the IC in November 1926 for the Central of Georgia as the latter's SB class 300-301. And the CofGa's 1927 Locomotive Diagram book page 29 shows the 300-301 with specifications identical to the IC's 1913 Diagram.

William Edson's and Prince's Central of Georgia compilations resolve the apparent contradiction. First of all, the IC absorbed the CofGa in 1927, so the two locomotives moved within the combined railway system to operate on the semi-independent CofGa for a few years. In October 1933, however, the 301 was sold to Roux Crate & Lumber; 300 followed four months later in March 1933.

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Class 231/1422 (Locobase 6949)

Data from IC 1913ca locomotive diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also "Suburban Locomotives, Illinois Central RR", National Car and Locomotive Builder, Volume 24, No 4 (April 1893), p. 61; and E E R Tratman, "Tank Locomotives", Official Proceedings of the Western Railway Club (Chicago: W F Hall Printing Company, 1903), pp. 342 et seq. Works numbers were 4797 in November 1892 and 4798 in December.

A bigger Forney type, clearly enlarged by Rogers to put more power at the head of the commuter train. The NL&CB report provides an insight into what was regarded in US journals as "all the latest improvements" in its description of the design's firebox. The brich arches supported by studs weren't novel, but Chicago's insistence that railroads reduce locomotive smoke within city limits is apparent in the use of steam jet smoke preventers.

"While the engines are working," the article said, "there are continuous jets of steam discharged into the fire-box, and when the throttle is closed a blower is automatically thrown into operation."

See Locobase 6546 for an extended account of smoke-prevention technologies discussed in the same year as the delivery of these two locomotives.

Chris Hohl noted that the engines were delivered with boilers set to 180 psi. That setting was later reduced to 160 psi. Both were renumbered 1422-1423 in 1900.

The IC sold 1423 to the Gravel Company of Coleman, Ill in November 1926. The railroad scrapped 1422 in March 1928.