Central of Georgia Steam Roster (Post 1900)

Last revised: October 6, 2026

The Central of Georgia spent the twentieth century with a freight engine that looked like its parent’s. Harriman Mikados, sixty-seven of them by George H. Drury’s count, shared one design from the Baldwin batch of 1912 through the last of the type. Mountains took the passenger trains after the First World War. Eight Lima 4-8-4s, near-duplicates of a Southern Pacific design, were the last new steam, built in 1943 and gone ten years later.

Central of Georgia 4-8-4 451 at Birmingham AL in 1946

Central of Georgia "Big Apple" 4-8-4 #451 at Birmingham, Alabama in September, 1946. F. E. Ardrey photo.

The class grid below is the post-1900 roster in Drury’s Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pages 98 and 99. In 1925 the railroad renumbered the fleet. Both number columns are printed.

On this page: At a glance · Consolidations and Mikados · Santa Fes and the Mallets · Ten-Wheelers, Pacifics, Mountains · Eight 4-8-4s · Switchers · Roster built since 1900

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Central of Georgia. Mark CG. Company page: Central of Georgia
This roster	Engines built since 1900, after Drury, pages 98–99. The 1925 renumbering has its own column
Consolidations	Cooke C-1s for the Birmingham line, then Baldwin C-2, C-3, and C-4. Ten ex-Illinois Central 2-8-0s, rebuilt as 2-8-2s
Mikados	Harriman design. Drury’s total is 67. First fifteen from Baldwin in 1912
Santa Fe type	Ten USRA heavy copies, class J-1, Baldwin, 1926. Two ex-C&EI, class J-2. Seven ex-IC, class J-3
Mallets	Ten Richmond 2-6-6-2s, class ML, 1919. Returned to the Illinois Central in 1926
Passenger	Pacifics, then 32 Mountains, 1919–1926. Eight Lima 4-8-4s, class K, 451–458, in 1943
Last steam	May 1953

Roster follows Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives (revised edition), pages 98–99. Where a quantity cell and a number span disagree, both are printed and the difference is described in the text. Information compiled October 6, 2026.

Freight locomotives

Rogers built the Central’s last three freight Ten-Wheelers in 1904. On the grid they are 297–299, class T, with 61-inch drivers. They were lighter than the passenger 4-6-0s Rogers had just delivered, and the railroad turned to the Consolidation for freight.

The oldest Consolidations on the property were ten Baldwins built in 1887 for the Columbus & Western, a Central subsidiary between Columbus and Birmingham. They sit outside this grid. Larger 2-8-0s pushed them into switching, and all but one were gone by 1930. Cooke then built 22 Consolidations in 1901–1903, class C-1, later 111–132. Drury gives them 55-inch drivers and a weight of 193,400 pounds, for the Columbus–Birmingham route across the south end of the Appalachians.

The next group came from Baldwin in 1904 and 1905 for faster, lighter freight elsewhere on the railroad. Class C-2, later 150–187, thirty-eight engines, had 57-inch drivers and weighed 161,830 pounds. Two years later Baldwin delivered 25 more light 2-8-0s and 25 heavy ones. Both groups, later classed C-3 and C-4, had 57-inch drivers. The C-3s, 200–224, had 20-by-28-inch cylinders and weighed 163,390 pounds. The C-4s, 500–524, had 22-by-30-inch cylinders and weighed 203,100 pounds.

In 1912 the Central bought ten 2-8-0s from its parent, the Illinois Central. Brooks had built them in 1903. They are 1751–1760 on the pre-1925 list. They weighed about as much as a C-4 and had the same size cylinders, but 63-inch drivers made them faster and less powerful. The Central rebuilt one into a 2-8-2 in 1919 and another in 1921, then sent the remaining eight to Alco’s Richmond Works. Those rebuilds are the blank-class 2-8-2s numbered 571–580 after 1925, and 1771–1780 before it. Richmond’s dates on that row are 1919–1923.

The first Mikados were fifteen Harriman engines from Baldwin in 1912, virtual duplicates of Illinois Central Mikados of the year before. They were superheated, with piston valves, Walschaerts valve gear, 63-inch drivers, and outside-bearing trailing trucks. After 1925 they were 601–615. Lima built four more to the same design in 1915 and six in 1916, the six as part of an Illinois Central order. The grid carries that 1915–1916 group as 616–627, class MK, and prints a quantity of 10. The spans 616–627 and 1816–1827 each contain 12 numbers. A separate Lima row, 628–637, is ten engines of 1916. Ten Illinois Central Mikados of the same design arrived secondhand in 1921. Drury counts them in the total of 67 and leaves them out of the class grid.

The Lima 2-8-2s of 1923, twenty engines, 638–657, were built along with Mikados for the Illinois Central and the Georgia Railroad. Ten more, 658–667, came from Baldwin. The grid dates them 1925 and still prints their pre-1925 numbers, 1858–1867. The chapter text dates that Baldwin batch to 1926 and says it brought the Harriman Mikados to 67, all of one design. Adding the number spans on the Mikado rows, and counting 616–627 as twelve engines, is what produces 67. The quantity cell on 616–627 is left as Drury printed it.

Ten Mallets, then the Santa Fe type

In 1919 the road received ten compound 2-6-6-2s from Richmond, class ML, later 790–799 and originally 1901–1910. They were about 10,000 pounds lighter than the USRA 2-6-6-2 and had larger cylinders, which gave them about 8,000 pounds more tractive effort. They went to work as pushers on a grade out of Sylacauga, Alabama, and proved too slow. The 1925 numbers were brief. In 1926 the Central traded them back to the Illinois Central for seven 2-10-2s.

Those seven are class J-3, 771–777, built at Schenectady in 1916–1918 as Illinois Central 2601–2607. The retirement cell is printed as Drury printed it, 1947–1943. The same year as the trade, Baldwin delivered ten new 2-10-2s, class J-1, 701–710, copies of the USRA heavy Santa Fe. On the Central, as on the Illinois Central, the type was called the Central type and was first classed CT. They suited the Birmingham route better than the Mallets and could be used on other lines as well.

In 1945 the Central bought two USRA heavy 2-10-2s from the Chicago & Eastern Illinois for a surge of wartime traffic. They are class J-2, 711 and 712. The built cell is 1918, the year Baldwin built them for the C&EI, and the retirement cell is 1950.

Passenger locomotives

Not until after 1900 did the Central treat the Ten-Wheeler as a passenger engine. Rogers delivered six 4-6-0s with 69-inch drivers in 1902 and five more in 1904. That is the other class T row, 400–410, eleven engines, 1902–1904. Some were later rebuilt with piston valves and Walschaerts valve gear. The three freight Ten-Wheelers of 1904, described above, were the lighter 61-inch engines.

The first Pacifics came from Baldwin in 1905 and 1906. They are class P-1, 414–428, fifteen engines. Drury calls them typical early Pacifics: slide valves, inboard-bearing trailing trucks, 68-inch drivers, and a weight of about 192,000 pounds, with about a third more tractive effort than the Ten-Wheelers. Ten heavier Pacifics followed from Baldwin in 1912, class P-2, 431–440. The grid dates that row 1912–1913. They had 69-inch drivers, outside-journal trailing trucks, and superheaters, and weighed about 239,500 pounds. They were still classed as light Pacifics. Lima added four more P-2s in 1916, 441–444.

After the First World War the Central needed new passenger locomotives and chose the Mountain. Between 1919 and 1926 Richmond and Baldwin delivered 32 of them, class MT, all of the same dimensions, with only minor differences from one group to the next. The post-1925 numbers, in the order Drury gives the groups, are 481–490, then 491–497, 476–480, 471–475, and finally 466–470. Builder numbers and road numbers ascend inside each group. The grid folds the first four groups into one Richmond row, 471–497, twenty-seven engines, 1919–1925. The last five, 466–470, are Baldwin, 1926, and have no pre-1925 numbers.

Eight 4-8-4s

The Second World War first left the Central with extra locomotives. Traffic to the military posts, above all Fort Benning at Columbus, then put them to work. Florida trains outgrew the Mountains. Wartime limits on new designs sent the railroad to a locomotive that already existed. Lima delivered eight class K 4-8-4s in 1943, numbers 451–458, near-duplicates of Southern Pacific’s GS-6. The Central’s engines differed in the pilot and the smokebox front, carried Elesco coil feedwater heaters, and rode on short eight-wheel tenders set by the turntables. Southern Pacific’s GS-6s had skyline casings and Worthington SA heaters. Drury’s caption nicknames the Central’s 4-8-4s “Big Apples.” The class retired in 1953.

Those numbers sit inside the Mountain series. The 4-8-4s took the open 1925-series numbers 451–458.

Switchers, and May 1953

Few of the Central’s early 0-6-0s lasted until the 1925 renumbering. After that the only switchers were a dozen Baldwin 0-6-0s of 1904 and 1906, class S-1, later 50–61. Some were eventually superheated and given piston valves. In 1913 Rogers delivered two 0-4-0s, 1191 and 1192, for light duty. They were sold in 1918 to the United Verde Copper Company at Jerome, Arizona, before the 1925 renumbering.

By the end of the Second World War the oldest 2-8-0s had given way to diesel switchers from Electro-Motive, Alco, and Baldwin. A dozen Electro-Motive E units took the mainline passenger trains between 1946 and 1950. Hood units finished the freight trains in the early 1950s. Steam was gone by May 1953. Those diesels are the diesel roster.

Central of Georgia steam locomotives built since 1900

Type	Class	Numbers (1925)	Numbers (pre-1925)	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-4-0			1191, 1192	2	Rogers	1913	Sold 1918	United Verde Copper, Jerome, Arizona
0-6-0	S-1	50–61	1150–1161	12	Baldwin	1904–1906	1950–1953
2-8-0	C-1	111–132	1011–1032	22	Cooke	1901–1903	1935–1946
2-8-0	C-2	150–187	1050–1087	38	Baldwin	1904–1905	1934–1947
2-8-0	C-3	200–224	1200–1224	25	Baldwin	1906–1907	1935–1953
2-8-0	C-4	500–524	1700–1724	25	Baldwin	1906–1907	1950–1953
2-8-0			1751–1760	10	Brooks	1903		Ex-IC, bought 1912. Rebuilt to 2-8-2s 1771–1780
2-8-2		571–580	1771–1780	10	Richmond	1919–1923		Rebuilds of the Brooks 2-8-0s
2-8-2	MK	601–615	1801–1815	15	Baldwin	1912	1939–1952
2-8-2	MK	616–627	1816–1827	10	Lima	1915–1916	1948–1952	Quantity cell reads 10. Each number span contains 12
2-8-2	MK	628–637	1828–1837	10	Lima	1916	1948–1953
2-8-2	MK	638–657	1838–1857	20	Lima	1923	1948–1953
2-8-2	MK	658–667	1858–1867	10	Baldwin	1925	1952–1953	Chapter text dates this batch 1926
2-10-2	J-1	701–710		10	Baldwin	1926	1950–1953	Copies of the USRA heavy Santa Fe. First classed CT
2-10-2	J-2	711, 712		2	Baldwin	1918	1950	Ex-C&EI. USRA heavy. Bought 1945
2-10-2	J-3	771–777		7	Schenectady	1916–1918	1947–1943	Ex-IC 2601–2607. Retirement cell printed as in Drury
2-6-6-2	ML	790–799	1901–1910	10	Richmond	1919		To IC in 1926
4-6-0	T	400–410	1600–1610	11	Rogers	1902–1904	1935–1944
4-6-0	T	297–299	1397–1399	3	Rogers	1904	1934
4-6-2	P-1	414–428	1614–1628	15	Baldwin	1905–1906	1939–1952
4-6-2	P-2	431–440	1651–1660	10	Baldwin	1912–1913	1935–1952
4-6-2	P-2	441–444	1661–1664	4	Lima	1916	1950–1952
4-8-2	MT	471–497	1671–1697	27	Richmond	1919–1925	1948–1953
4-8-2	MT	466–470		5	Baldwin	1926	1951–1953
4-8-4	K	451–458		8	Lima	1943	1953

C&EI is the Chicago & Eastern Illinois. IC is the Illinois Central. The ten Baldwin Consolidations of 1887 for the Columbus & Western are older than this grid.

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, Central of Georgia chapter, pages 98–99. The class grid is the table “Central of Georgia steam locomotives built since 1900.”
Richard E. Prince, Central of Georgia Railway and Connecting Lines (1976).
W. Forrest Beckum Jr. and Albert M. Langley Jr., Central of Georgia Railway Album (Union Station Publishing, 1986, ISBN 0-9615257-1-1).
Published rosters cited by Drury: Railroad magazine, December 1932, page 135, and June 1948, page 116.
Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society, cofga.org.

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