Buffalo, Rochester, & Pittsburgh 4-8-0 "Mastodon" Locomotives in the USA

Class S (Locobase 8884)

Data from TraitT pratique de la machine locomotive ... By Maurice Demoulin, 1898

Librairie polytechnique, Baudry et Cie, p 404-405. See also "Twelve-wheel Locomotive: St Lawrence & Adirondack Ry," Engineering News, Volume XXXV, No 25 (18 June 1896), pp. 405; and See also "Brooks' Twelve-Wheelers for the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh," Railroad Gazette, Volume XXIX [29], No 39 (24 September 1897), pp. 662-663; and NdeM 1950 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in December 2010 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. Works numbers were 2780-2782 in July 1897.

. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 27 July 2021 email noting several differences in data in the original entry. Locobase realized that this entry needed to be split into two and created Locobase 16551 to show the original St Lawrence & Adirondack engine.)

Builder info from B.Rumary, 25 Kingscombe, Gurney Slade, Radstock, BA3 4TH, ENGLAND and Jeremy Lambert as supplied by Allen Stanley in March 2004. Works number was 2667 in May 1896 and 2780-2782 in July 1897.

Purchase of a single Twelve-wheeler by the St Lawrence & Adirondack in May 1896 (Locobase 16551) led to several dozen entering service on the BR&P. Brooks built three more to an almost identical design. Player's Improved Belpaie firebox heating surface area included 24 sq ft (2.23 sq m) of arch tubes.

These were followed a year later by a much more numerous batch; see Locobase 2987.

The original quartet was sold in 1920. Locomotive rebuilder/reseller Southern Iron & Equipment bought this trio.

140 was sold in March 1920 to Texas Gulf Sulphur Company. 141-142 went to the Nacional de Mexico in April 1920 as their 3-A and 4-A. Later, the NdeM placed them in Class N-11 and renumbered them 2853-2854.

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Class S-2/E-42 (B&O) (Locobase 2987)

Data from Catalogue Descriptive of Simple and Compound Locomotives built by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, NY (Buffalo, NY: Matthew-Northrup Company, 1899.. (Builder info from B.Rumary, 25 Kingscombe, Gurney Slade, Radstock, BA3 4TH, ENGLAND and Jeremy Lambert as supplied by Allen Stanley in March 2004.) Works numbers were 3010-3013 in August 1898, 3078-3087 in November, 3162-3166 in March 1899, 3356-3365 in November.

After the BR&P had tried its quartet of Twelve-wheelers (Locobase 8884), the railroad went back to Brooks for a repeat order, but with slightly less cylinder volume. Like the originals, the boiler was Improved Belpaire. These were used in pusher service. Brooks delivered a later, larger set of twelve-wheelers; see Locobase 3929.

200 and 212 were sold to the Fort Smith & Western in 1920 as the 35-36. The pair ran until the mid-1930s. 36 was scrapped in April 1934 and 35 in November 1935.

Another (works number 3081/road #203) was converted to a 2-8-0, sold to Cumberland & Manchester in 1919 as their #53, then to the Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Western in 1923 as # 315, renumbered 321, and finally absorbed into the Baltimore & Ohio as the sole member of the E-42 class, #435 in 1927. It was retired in December of 1928.

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Class S-3, S-4 (Locobase 3929)

Data from "Twelve--Wheel Wide Fire-Box Freight Locomotive--Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway," Railroad Gazette, Volume XXXII [32], No 41 (12 October 1900), pp. 666-667. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 24 October 2015 email noting the 32's revised valve gear; see Mike Condren's [], last accessed 4 December 2015) Works numbers were 3586-3595, 3603 in August 1900 and 4014-4019 in October 1901.

Ordered from the same company as the earlier S-2s (see Locobase 2987), these had shallower and much wider fireboxes suitable for burning bituminous slack coal. Like the earlier engines, these had piston valves operated by inside valve gear. Both the pistons and the valves had extended tail rods.

The RG report noted the controversy over shallow versus deep firebox, saying "It is now held by a few prominent men that for inferior grades of bituminous coal it is not only desirable to have a wide grate, but a deep firebox is fully as essential, and it is an important thing to determine whether a sufficiently deep firebox and wide grate can be applied to consolidation and 12-wheelers." RG pronounced this design of "unusual interest."

BR&P used these engines in helper service for years, replacing some of them with 2-10-0s in 1907-1909. Four were sold to locomotive rebuilder/reseller Southern Iron & Equipment in 1918-1919, which found a buyer in the Fort Smith & Western. 31-32 arrived in February 1918 and 33-34 joined in August 1919. Three were scrapped at Fort Smith in April 1934; 32 held on until it was sold in 1940 for scrap by Kansas City Contracting Company of McCurtain, Okla. A 1939 photograph shows the 32's Southern valve gear; neither Chris Hohl nor Locobase can say when it was installed.

Three more served Georgia's Gainesville Midland (106-108), Detroit & Mackinac had one (154) as did the Georgia Northern; the Georgia, Ashburn, Sylvester & Camilla, which gave theirs road #7; and the Tennessee Central, which numbered theirs #36 (later 336). Two ended up on the F. C. Cubano de Hershey in Cuba as their 7 and 8.