Omaha & St Louis / Wabash / Wabash Saint Louis & Pacific 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Locomotives in the USA


Class Details by Steve Llanso of Sweat House Media

Class 357 (Locobase 11781)

Data from Emory Edwards, Modern American Locomotive Engines: Their Design, Construction and Management. A Practical Work (New York: S. Low, Marston, Searle

& Rivington, 1883), p 119. See also DeGolyer, Volume 10, p. 145. Works number was 5131 in June 1880.

Connelly's Baldwin notes say that this engine was repossessed from the Philadelphia & Reading (although twelve more were delivered - see Locobase 8529) and sold to this Midwestern road. What the crews made of this single camelback isn't recorded. In 1888, the engine was sold to the Cairo, Vincennes & Chicago, itself an amalgam of several roads, as their #5. But at the same time that the road was leased to the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis (the Big Four), it sold the #5 to the Panther Creek Railroad in Pennsylvania.

Now reunited with the anthracite coal dross for which its Wootten firebox was better suited, the #10 operated on the Lehigh Coal & Navigation for six years before being sold to the Lehigh & New England where it ended its career.


Class I1 (Locobase 6926)

Data from WAB 1 - 1907 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also Report of the Railroad and Warehouse Commissoners of the State of Missouri, Year Ending June 30, 1896 (Jefferson City, Mo: Tribune Publishing Company, 1897), p. 29.

According to the Commissioners' report, the O&StL ran 144 miles (232 km) from Pattonsburg, Daviess County in Missouri northwest to Council Bluffs, Iowa. A history of Jay Gould's Wabash, St Louis & Pacific says this road was a spin off after the Wabash's liquidation in the 1893 Panic. At the time of its reappearance in 1896, it was projected to join the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf system.

Later Commissioners' reports offer a picture of the conflicts between the Wabash as it was and its relations with some of its components after the breakup. As so often happened in railroading, the answer lay in having the Wabash re-acquire the O&St L in 1900 as its Omaha Division.

(An additional reason may be found in an 1899 Commissioners' conclusion (p. 34) that its "physical condition ...is unsafe for the transportation of passengers in reasonable safety" and ordered a major-and likely expensive--rehabilitation "as soon as possible" Later in the year thr commissioners reported (p. 39) some progress in bridgework, but rails and ties still needed a lot of work,The Wabash doubtless had deeper pockets.)

The driver diameter was later increased to 52". Although the pair was still in service in 1917, they had been retired by 1929.


Class I3s (Locobase 6924)

Data from WAB 1 - 1917 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

When the Wabash superheated these Consolidations (see Locobase 5698 for the original layout), they didn't gain much power at speed. But, then, since they were short-haul, drag-freight engines that might not have been the point.

As it was, Locobase suspects that fuel economy was the principal goal and that was most likely realized. An increase in boiler pressure and the amount of superheater area implied the imparting of a good amount of supplemental energy. Although cylinder diameter increased by 1/2", their 12" (305 mm) piston valves did not change.

Principal Dimensions by Steve Llanso of Sweat House Media

Class357I1I3s
Locobase ID11781 6926 6924
RailroadWabash Saint Louis & Pacific (Wabash)Omaha & St Louis (Wabash)Wabash
CountryUSAUSAUSA
Whyte2-8-02-8-02-8-0
Number in Class1230
Road Numbers357 / 136716-17/266-2672301-2330
GaugeStdStdStd
Number Built12
BuilderBurnham, Parry, Williams & CoRhode IslandWabash
Year188018951916
Valve GearStephensonStephensonStephenson
Locomotive Length and Weight
Driver Wheelbase (ft / m)14.75 / 4.5015 / 4.5715.75 / 4.80
Engine Wheelbase (ft / m)22.83 / 6.9622.43 / 6.8424.50 / 7.47
Ratio of driving wheelbase to overall engine wheelbase 0.65 0.67 0.64
Overall Wheelbase (engine & tender) (ft / m)57.87 / 17.64
Axle Loading (Maximum Weight per Axle) (lbs / kg)52,450 / 23,791
Weight on Drivers (lbs / kg)119,000 / 53,978198,500 / 90,038
Engine Weight (lbs / kg)132,000 / 59,874224,100 / 101,650
Tender Loaded Weight (lbs / kg)77,000 / 34,927154,000 / 69,853
Total Engine and Tender Weight (lbs / kg)209,000 / 94,801378,100 / 171,503
Tender Water Capacity (gals / ML)2800 / 10.615000 / 18.948000 / 30.30
Tender Fuel Capacity (oil/coal) (gals/tons / Liters/MT)
Minimum weight of rail (calculated) (lb/yd / kg/m)50 / 2583 / 41.50
Geometry Relating to Tractive Effort
Driver Diameter (in / mm)50 / 127050 / 127058 / 1473
Boiler Pressure (psi / kPa)130 / 9185 / 12.80210 / 14.50
High Pressure Cylinders (dia x stroke) (in / mm)20" x 24" / 508x61020" x 24" / 508x61022.5" x 30" / 572x762
Tractive Effort (lbs / kg)21,216 / 9623.4330,192 / 13694.8846,741 / 21201.39
Factor of Adhesion (Weight on Drivers/Tractive Effort) 3.94 4.25
Heating Ability
Tubes (number - dia) (in / mm)197 - 2" / 51244 - 2" / 51223 - 2" / 51
Flues (number - dia) (in / mm)38 - 5.5" / 140
Flue/Tube length (ft / m)11.54 / 3.5213.58 / 4.1414.50 / 4.42
Firebox Area (sq ft / m2)167 / 15.52157 / 14.59214 / 19.89
Grate Area (sq ft / m2)76 / 7.0624 / 2.2350.50 / 4.69
Evaporative Heating Surface (sq ft / m2)1357 / 126.121892 / 175.842683 / 249.35
Superheating Surface (sq ft / m2)606 / 56.32
Combined Heating Surface (sq ft / m2)1357 / 126.121892 / 175.843289 / 305.67
Evaporative Heating Surface/Cylinder Volume155.44216.72194.28
Computations Relating to Power Output (More Information)
Robert LeMassena's Power Computation9880444010,605
Same as above plus superheater percentage9880444012,514
Same as above but substitute firebox area for grate area21,71029,04553,029
Power L12720472713,534
Power MT350.29601.26

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