Does anyone know of any books or other resources which cover the preliminary design stages of the PRR S1 between Baldwin and the Pennsylvania Railroad of 1936-1937 in detail?
Items such as locomotive diagrams or just more detailed descriptions of the designs presented? Or are these lost to history along with the rest of the Baldwin Locomotive Works stuff from the 1930s and 40s that’s not in the DeGolyer library?
What sparked my curiosity is that in the Wikipedia article on the S1, some brief statements are made:
“A conference was held between Baldwin Locomotive Works officials and W. F. Kiesel, J. V. B. Duer and W. R. Elsey for PRR, where PRR demanded a passenger locomotive to haul 15 standard cars at 100 mph on level track between Paoli and Chicago. Baldwin presented several 4-8-4 and 4-4-4-4 designs made for other railroads. However, PRR rejected the 4-8-4 design in favor of a rigid frame duplex and asked Baldwin to consider the wheel arrangement 4-4-6-4. In July 1936, PRR requested Baldwin Locomotive Works to submit a design for a 4-8-4 engine capable of handling a 2,000-ton train between Colehour and Harsimus Cove”
“Two months after the conference, Baldwin Locomotive Works officials presented four designs to PRR:
a 4-4-4-4 passenger locomotive that could haul 1,200 tons but exceeded existing weight and clearance restrictions
a 4-4-4-6 passenger locomotive that could haul 1,200 tons but also exceeded limits
a 4-8-4 freight locomotive with the same weight on drivers as an M1a, which failed to meet the requirements for a 2,000-ton train
an articulated 4-6-6-4 locomotive”
“PRR preferred 4-4-4-4 and asked Baldwin to consider a passenger version with 6 ft 8 in drivers and a freight version with 6 ft drivers”
Interesting the array of duplex wheel arrangement configurations
Stuff is getting commingled here. Your very best bet is to get access permission at the Hagley in Delaware, and spend a few happy days going through the PRR motive power records preserved there. A great many of your questions probably have direct, if presently somewhat uncatalogued, answers there.
I suspect this has been garbled in typical Wiki fashion. The original locomotive request as I recall it was 1000t of consist at peak speed of 100mph, which at the time (before the demonstration of Timken thin-section roller rods about 1936) was thought to involve 84" drivers. I do not know of any version of this engine that would use a rigid coupled wheelbase; this was from what I have read over the years going to be a 4-4-4-4 following the general layout Baldwin was proposing by 1933 (which had the cylinders at the corners, like the B&O 5600 or the ATSF 6-4-4-4) and I do not think originally there was any intent of making a long and heavy 6-4-4-6 for the desired performance.
What you will find is that Baldwin did an enormous amount of ‘research’ on duplex power on PRR’s dime… or, more like, PRR’s millions. There is complaining correspondence (I don’t remember who wrote to whom in the PRR organization) noting that Baldwin threw down somewhere between 2.5 and 3 million gold-backed dollars evolving the Big Engine, spreading the wealth at some point by extending parts of the development to Alco and Lima (which is something I suspect, but can’t prove,
My initial guess for a true 100mph engine in the ‘necessary’ window of time would be the select few 80"-drivered alternatives – the ACL R-1 and ATSF 3765 class being two from them that ought to have qualified. Note that this was not going to be an engine with 76" or 77" drivers; at that time PRR still considered the minimum for high speed to be 80", and while I suspect the stillborn E8 Atlantic would have had the 84" drivers, a rigid-frame 4-8-4 with the valve gear and rod design of that period would likely not.