I was recently on another modeling board, and someone was looking for fotos of a mastadon(elephant) type steamer. Never heard of it. Anyone have any info? R. Staller
I believe they were locos with 12 driving wheels, but not sure if they were 0-12-0 or 2-12-0, or what road had them. Do a google on it and you may get your answer.
Mobilman44
The mastodon steam engine is a 4-8-0. They were developed in the late 19th c. about the time archeologists discovered fossils of the ancient mastodons. At the time the 4-8-0 was considered a huge engine, so they were nicknamed after the huge ancient animal.
The Duluth & Iron Range (forerunner of the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range) used them in ore service:
I second the 4-8-0 designation as a mastadon.
Many Thanks. R. Staller
4-8-0s were more commonly known as “twelve-wheelers.” While once considered large and powerful machines (but not exceeding the capabilities of 2-8-0s of the time), the late nineteenth-century models made good locos for branchline work in later years, at least for the SP, because there was less weight on each axle. (Yes, there were railroads with later versions of 4-8-0s which were relatively massive and powerful. N&W was one, if my brain hasn’t failed me.)
Edit – See this reprint of an early twentieth-century document identifying wheel arrangements of locomotives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Locomotive_classification--Colvin_1906--300dpi.jpg
SP had a “true” Mastodon, a 4-10-0. A totally unsatisfactory machine because its massive steam cylinders needed more steam than the boiler could produce.
Mark
Ahhhhaaaa! I was close, wasn’t I???
I recalled the association of Mastadon locos with “twelve wheels” - but wasn’t sure of the configuration. Yes, they were 4-8-0s and bigggg too for their time.
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
Mark–
There was one Mastodon 4-10-0 that evidently worked very well, but it was a model, not a prototype, LOL. It was on John Allen’s GD Lines, one of his kitbashes. I think it’s now owned by one of the MR staff. Saw a photo of it recently, and it sure was a Hunker!
But as a prototype, “El Gobernador” was certainly a big fizzle. I’ve never seen a photograph of it in action, just on a turntable. Evidently it was planned to work the Tehachapi’s as a helper, from what I understand.
Tom [:)]
Linn Westcott’s Steam Locomotives (MR Cyclopedia - Volume 1) identifies the Mastodon as a 4-10-0.
Central Pacific’s Gobernador was the first. Two were used to take trains over Stampede Pass (10 cars, push-pull) before the tunnel was completed. (John Armstrong designed a layout based on that idea.) I don’t know if there were others in the US.
One of the last classes of steam locomotives built for the Nihon Kokutetsu was the E10 class 2-10-4T, a tank mastodon.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - without E10s)
John Allen’s 4-10-0 was always one of my favorite locomotives. Never had the opportunity to see it first hand or possess it. Oh well, I’ll just admire my former Dick Truesdale customized 2-8-2+2-8-0 duplex.
Yeah, “El Gobernador” not only had insufficient steam to make good progress on the hill, it didn’t like the track curves either. There is another photo of the locomotive, but still not in operation, on page 49 of Diebert/Strapac’s out-of-print book SP Steam Locomotive Compendium. (I bought one of the last available books from Strapac in 2006 for two to three times the publication price.) The locomotive was brought out with considerable publicity in 1883 but was quietly dismantled a decade later.
Mark
Here is a picture of my SP TW-2 Mastodon and the Prototype I bashed. Peter Smith, Memphis 
Chuck, actually, the two 10-coupled steam locomotives used on the Northern Pacific’s Stampede Pass switchback were 2-10-0 Decapods, not 4-10-0s. Either way, they wound up being a dismal failure on the NP, spending more time in the shops than they ever did working the pass. They were smallish, low-wheeled brutes-55-inch drivers IIRC. After they were retired, the NP never ordered another 10-coupled type of locomotive ever again.
Tw at the SP meant “Twelve-wheeler” (and T for “Ten-wheeler,” C for “Consolidation,” M for “Mogul,” Mt for “Mountain,” etc.)
Mark
Here’s an ex-Norfolk & Western “Mastadon”, under steam at Strasburg this past October.
Wayne
Actually I’ve never heard a 4-10-0 being called a Mastodon - I don’t think enough of them were made to call them anything. Still, a lot of these names weren’t formalized until years later. “Big Boy” before WW2 meant any good-sized steam engine, until the name got attached to UP’s 4-8-8-4s. (In “Danger Lights” from the early thirties, one character refers to a Milwaukee 2-8-2 as “the big boy” for example.)