Steam locomotives and freight service.

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Which were the most popular steam locomotives for freight service?

I was wondering about how popular the northern and mountain were vs. the others?

Thanks,

Mark

2

The two most widely used locomotives for freight were the 2-8-0 (about 30,000 built) and the 2-8-2 (about 14,000 built).

Hope this helps.

Andre

3

I would have to say the same thing

4

Northerns and Mountains were dual service. Passenger and fast freights.

5

2-8-0’s were used as heavy freight engines from the 1860’s and 70’s to the end of steam. Mountains and Northerns were from the 20’s thru 40’s.

Most railroads would have 10 to 20 times as many Consolidations and Mikados as Mountains or Northerns. The big power was some of the last engines photographed since they were the active engines at the end of steam (they was newer) by the Mikes and 2-8-0’s hauled more trains for more years on more railroads.

Dave H.

6

The answer to this one is highly dependent on the prototype railroad. The comments about Mikes and Consolidations above are generally absolutely correct, but for an example the VGN relied heavily on Mikes, but the N&W never owned one; the largest non-articulated freight loco on the line being a 4-8-0.
Northerns and Mountains were generally employed as passenger power, although UP hauled a lot of fast freight across the flatlands with Northerns.
Lastly, a lot of the 2-8-0s went out of general service long before the end of steam, whereas most of the Mikes lasted until the end of steam on most roads.

7

Actually, to be factually precise, the 4-4-0 was the most widely used steam engine used for hauling freight (or anything else) with over 50,000 built.

But Virginian’s right; we need to know the time period, region and prototype you’re interested in before we can really comment.

Northerns and mountains are at two ends of the spectrum, in terms of big steam designs. The 4-8-2 came at the end of two wheel trailing truck designs, and so really aren’t “superpower” in the traditional sense, although the IC and C&O certainly made superpowered Mountains! The Northerns, OTOH, are widely considered to be the pinnacle of modern steam design. They only ran a few years, and weren’t as popular as 2-8-2s, 2-8-4s, and 4-8-2s, but that’s probably because they were competing directly with diesels.