Everytime I think I have almost seen most steam engines along comes a new photo and I’m amazed where these remain hidden, what a treat to see these phantoms appear out of the mist, this 0-10-0 is an odd, but nice looking switcher, why would any road need a large size switcher like this, and the size of the tender is enormous, what were they pushing and pulling around??? also I note there is no headlight, guess they didn’t work at night.
C-12
Produced only in 1919 (10 produced) and 1921 (5 produced)
http://www.cohs.org/history/steamroster.htm
The C&O also took to the practice of making older road locomotives into switchers as their design became outdated.
New York Central, “The Water Level Route,” used its few Mallets for hump engines. So did the Norfolk and Western (which had a lot more of them!) It was simply a matter of providing sufficient tractive effort to move what had to be moved.
Are you sure it doesn’t have a headlight. Chessie mounted some of them just above the pilot beam.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I can’t find a good photo of the loco, but a brass model seems to show something round above the coupler and almost underneath the boiler front, that could be the light. does anyone have a decent photo of this monster locomotive? ?
There are some good photos of the C-12s in the book “C&O Power”, by Shuster, Huddleston and Staufer. A builder’s photo taken at Richmond in 1919 shows a cylindrical headlight - looks like a Sunbeam - on the top of the smokebox, in front of the stack.
Later photos show the engines were fitted with a small conical Pyle National headlight in a variety of mounting positions - on the pilot deck, as noted by Chuck, the top front of the smokebox above the door, or in the original location on top of the smokebox.
Cheers,
Mark.