The 4-8-2 Mountain Type Steam Locomotive

The Mountain Type was originally built by the American Locomotive Company (Alco) for the C&O but by the time production ended on the design, Baldwin and Lima Locomotive Works had also contributed to the over 2,000, in total, built for U.S. carriers. While the Pennsylvania and New York Central would come to own the most Mountain Types several other Class I systems also rostered 4-8-2s by either purchasing from a manufacturer or simply building their own. For a look at some of the railroads which rostered Mountains, and their designated classes, please have a look at the table below (Please note that the class listing here is very general as many railroads broke the locomotive down into further designations such as H-1a, H-1b, H-1c, etc. Also, not all railroads are listed that owned Mountains):

· Baltimore & Ohio: Class T3 – 44

· Burlington: Class B-1 – 21

· Chesapeake & Ohio: Class J-1/J-2 – 10

· Florida East Coast: No Designated Class – 90

· Illinois Central: No Designated Class – 136

· Lackawanna: No Designated Class – 45

· Missouri Pacific: Class MT – 33

· New Haven: Class R (1-3) – 70

· New York Central: Class L (1-4) – 600

· Norfolk & Western: Class K (1-3) – 48

· Pennsylvania: Class M1 – 301

· Rock Island: Class M50 – 62

· Santa Fe: No Designated Class – 51

· Southern Pacific: Class Mt (1-5) – 83

· Southern Railway: Class Ts – 58

· Union Pacific: Class MT – 60

Today, several of these beautiful locomotives survive including many from the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (the Frisco) and at least one is still in operating condition, Canadian National #6060, owned by the Rocky Mountain Rail Society based in Calgary, Alberta.

For more information on the Mountain Type please click here to visit SteamLocomotive.com to learn much, much more about this steam locomotive.

For more information on the Mountain Type steam locomotive consider Guide to North American Steam Locomotives by author George Drury, which includes nearly 500 pages of information on virtually all of the steam locomotive wheel arrangements and designs (including streamlined steamers) ever developed. The book is a great resource on steam locomotives and a fine reference tool; you should find it very useful.

Also, consider the book American Steam Locomotives from author Brian Solomon. While this publication does not include quite as much technical data as Guide to North American Steam Locomotives it is still a very good resource with lots of information and best of all, is loaded with photographs! If you're interested in perhaps purchasing these books please visit The Railroad Diamond by clicking the tab in the menu to your left marked "TRD Store".