Steam locomotive profile: 0-4-0

Baltimore & Ohio 0-4-0 Tom Thumb

Baltimore & Ohio constructed this replica of the 0-4-0 Tom Thumb, its first steam locomotive. The original Tom Thumb was built in New York by inventor Peter Cooper, and made a successful first trip on August 25, 1830, when it pushed an open car hauling 18 passengers from Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills. Early four-coupled locomotives […]

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Styled to sell: The names behind the Streamlined Era

Zephyr and M10000

The Streamlined Era For the industrial designer, no object was as enticing, dramatic, or attention-getting as the streamlined passenger train. Pulling together contemporary aeronautical theory and function, American designers in the 1930s created a whole new breed of streamlined trains with names such as Zephyr, Comet, Mercury, and 20th Century Limited — names that implied […]

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Steam locomotive profile: 0-6-0

Rock Island USRA 0-6-0 switcher No. 283

Rock Island switcher No. 283 was one of ten USRA 0-6-0s delivered to the railroad in 1919. W. Krambeck The 0-6-0 began life as a road engine in the late 1830s but was built only in limited numbers. Like the 0-4-0, the 0-6-0 could not easily traverse the poor track of the day, and within […]

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Steam locomotive profile: 0-8-0

Norfolk & Western 0-8-0 switcher No. 244

Norfolk & Western 0-8-0 switcher No. 244 holds the distinction of being the last U.S. reciprocating steam locomotive built for an American Class 1 railroad. It was the final steam engine to emerge from N&W’s Roanoke Shops, delivered to the railroad in December 1953. Norfolk & Western The first 0-8-0 was built in 1844 by […]

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Steam locomotive profile: 0-10-0

Duluth, Missabe & Northern 0-10-0 switcher

One of Duluth, Missabe & Northern’s mammoth 352,000-pound 0-10-0 switchers works the yard at Proctor, Minn., on September 15, 1951. J. C. Seacrest collection The first 0-10-0 was built in 1905 at Alco’s Brooks Locomotive Works as a hump engine for the New York Central. Over the next five years, New York Central took delivery […]

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