B & O steam roster question

NPRR284 Mar 25, 2020

  1. NPRR284

    NPRR284 TrainBoard Member

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    I've looked at a few steam rosters from the Baltimore Ohio steam era and read where they had the Light Mikado 2-8-2 but I haven't seen any reference to them having the heavy Mikado. Does anyone know if B & O had any of the heavy Mikados? Sure appreciate the help
     
  2. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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  3. Inkaneer

    Inkaneer TrainBoard Member

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    The USRA standard design heavy 2-8-2's had 233 copies made with an additional 724 copies. The B&O is not listed as owning any. They did have 100 of the original light 2-8-2's. The B&O had a total of 610 Mikados but I could not locate any reference to any Heavy types.
     
  4. NPRR284

    NPRR284 TrainBoard Member

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  5. brokemoto

    brokemoto TrainBoard Member

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    The Q-4 was B&O's heavy 2-8-2. It looked nothing like a USRA heavy 2-8-2. To my knowledge, no one does a Q-4 in N scale. Unlike the Q-3, the USRA light, the Q-4s had sixty four inch drivers (the Q-3s had sixty three inch drivers. The USRA heavy 2-8-2 also had sixty three inch drivers). B&O equipped all of them with steam lines and signalling devices. Not only did they pull troop trains, but, also they protected the schedules. Occasionally, they even double headed on 29, 30 and 31.
     
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  6. Maletrain

    Maletrain TrainBoard Member

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    The B&O Q-4 "heavy" Mikados had boilers that looked much like the USRA Light Mikados, not that USRA Heavy Mikados.

    With respect to the 1" differences in drive diameter, you really can't see that in N scale. The unprototypically large flanges on N scale steam loco drivers are much more apparent than the actual driver diameters.
     
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  7. NPRR284

    NPRR284 TrainBoard Member

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    I was reading where B&O and NYC were experimenting with different drive diameters for different efficiancy purposes in the early 1900's. B&O no longer wanted to use the odd drive dia. numbers and settled on the 64's. Interesting stuff man. Many thanks
     
  8. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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  9. brokemoto

    brokemoto TrainBoard Member

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    ^^^^^^^^Quite the informative link. Thank you.

    The first USRA locomotive does still exist, the light 2-8-2 built for the Baltimore and Ohio and numbered 4500. It is at the B&O Museum. It does not run. I have no idea if it ever could run again. Still, it is the first USRA locomotive that was built. B&O had one hundred of the USRA light 2-8-2s, all Baldwin built. There were thirty USRA light 4-6-2s; twenty from Baldwin, ten from ALCo, class P-5. There were fifteen more USRA light 4-6-2 copies from
    Baldwin, Class P-6, but with Vanderbilt tenders. There were forty USRA 0-6-0s; twenty from Baldwin and twenty from ALCo. That was the extent of B&O's use of USRA power. The USRA s did last until the end of steam on the B&O, as they did grunge jobs cheaply. The light 2-8-2s could run almost anywhere on the B&O.
     

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