Mobile & Ohio Steam Roster (Post 1900)

Published: October 9, 2026

The Mobile & Ohio stayed with the Ten-Wheeler until the main line outgrew it. Freight then moved to the Mikado, first a Baldwin engine of 1911 and later a copy of the United States Railroad Administration light 2-8-2. Passenger power closed with ten copies of the USRA light Pacific. The successor railroad made its last revenue steam run on October 7, 1949.

Mobile & Ohio 2-8-2 #457, one of several Mikados acquired throughout the 1920s from Alco-Richmond, Lima, Baldwin, and Alco-Schenectady.

The class grid below is the post-1900 roster in George H. Drury's Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pages 224 and 225. The company history is the Mobile & Ohio. The merged railroad is the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. Gulf, Mobile & Northern steam is the sister roster, and the diesels are the diesel roster.

On this page: At a glance · The 1910 numbers · Ten-Wheelers and Consolidations · Mikados · Pacifics · Switchers · Roster built since 1900

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Mobile & Ohio. Company page: Mobile & Ohio
This roster	Engines built since 1900, after Drury, pages 224–225. The quantity column sums to 242
Numbers	The 1910 renumbering. The table uses those numbers. Three notes give the earlier series: 6–9, 10–14, and 72–76
Switchers	48 six-wheel engines. Ten were USRA 0-6-0s, Cooke, 1918. Thirteen were copies, Richmond and Schenectady, 1927 and 1928
Freight	107 Ten-Wheelers. Fifteen Consolidations, 1914. Fifty-eight Mikados, 21 of them Baldwin, 1911–1916, and 37 copies of the USRA light 2-8-2
Passenger	Four Pacifics of 1912, built with a Southern Ps-2 group. Ten USRA light Pacific copies, Baldwin, 1923–1926. Ten-Wheelers 230–239 had 69-inch drivers
Control	Southern Railway, 1901 to 1938. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio from September 13, 1940. The Alton came in on May 31, 1947
Last revenue steam	October 7, 1949, on the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio

Roster follows Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives (revised edition), pages 224–225. Information compiled October 9, 2026.

The 1910 numbers

The Mobile & Ohio ran from Mobile, Alabama, north to St. Louis, with a branch from Artesia, Mississippi, to Montgomery, and with trackage rights on the Southern and the Illinois Central between Memphis, Corinth, and Birmingham. That geography, the Cairo & St. Louis, and the March 1940 timetable are the company history. Drury's chapter opens on the engines. The Southern controlled the railroad from 1901 to 1938. In 1940 the new Gulf, Mobile & Ohio bought it and consolidated it with the Gulf, Mobile & Northern. The merger date on the company pages is September 13, 1940. Steam purchases had already ended. In 1947 the Alton came in, and the combined railroad dieselized. The last revenue steam run was October 7, 1949.

The locomotives were renumbered in 1910. Drury calls it a convoluted scheme, aimed at engine crews and at anyone trying to sort the roster afterward. One group of 0-6-0s handed its numbers to another group, and other 0-6-0s kept the numbers they already wore. His picture of the result is a crew that greeted No. 12 as an old friend, the engineer and the fireman agreeing she was a good steamer, and then discovered that this No. 12 was a different engine. The table uses the 1910 numbers. Where he prints the earlier series, it is in the notes: 11–14 were built as 6–9, 18–22 as 10–14, and 23–27 as 72–76.

Ten-Wheelers, then fifteen Consolidations

Freight stayed on 57-inch and 63-inch Ten-Wheelers until eight-coupled power arrived. Drury's weight for the type runs from 129,000 pounds on Rogers engines 178–187, built in 1900, to 167,495 pounds on Baldwin's 310–321 and 325–384. Later in life those heavier Ten-Wheelers weighed 179,500 pounds. The largest group was sixty Baldwin engines of 1905–1907, numbers 325–384, with 63-inch drivers, 21-by-28-inch cylinders, and 33,320 pounds of tractive effort. No. 377, one of the sixty, leads a mixed train at Starkville, Mississippi, in February 1942 in C. W. Witbeck's photograph.

One Ten-Wheeler group was a passenger engine. Nos. 230–239, Baldwin, 1906, had 69-inch drivers. Three of them were later given 63-inch drivers.

In 1914 the railroad bought fifteen Consolidations, eight from Alco and seven from Baldwin, numbered 540–554. The builder cell reads Baldwin, Richmond. Like the early Mikados they had 63-inch drivers, and the cylinders were three inches smaller. They were meant to replace older and smaller power. Crews disliked them. The firebox was about the size of a 2-8-2 firebox, so the boiler sat higher to clear the rear drivers, and that rear pair tended to derail. The railroad went back to the Mikado for the orders that followed. Ten of the 2-8-0s were scrapped before 1940. The retirement cell for the class runs 1935–1948.

Two generations of Mikados

Between 1911 and 1916 Baldwin delivered twenty-one Mikados, 400–420. The last three, 418–420, had Southern valve gear. The others had Walschaerts. All of them carried outboard-bearing trailing trucks. The Pacifics of 1912, described below, carried inboard-bearing trailing trucks. Drury gives the 400s 63-inch drivers, 27-by-30-inch cylinders, and a weight of 273,000 pounds.

The second Mikado was a copy of the USRA light 2-8-2. Alco's Richmond Works built ten in 1922. Lima built seventeen in 1923 and 1924. Baldwin built five in 1926. Alco's Schenectady Works delivered the final five in 1928. That is thirty-seven engines, numbers 450–486. The builder cell on the grid is clipped at the column edge after "Schen." The paragraph spells the works out. No. 459, built by Richmond in 1922, is the engine in R. J. Foster's photograph, a mainline freight Mikado with the Mobile & Ohio on the tender. The class lasted to 1946–1950.

Four light Pacifics, then ten USRA copies

The first Pacifics were 250–253, Baldwin, 1912. They were identical to a group of Southern Ps-2s and were built along with them. Drury calls them light machines, 232,000 pounds, with 72-inch drivers and inboard-bearing trailing trucks. They left the roster in 1939 and 1940.

In the 1920s the railroad bought ten more 4-6-2s, copies of the USRA light Pacific. Baldwin delivered them from 1923 through 1926 and they took 260–269. What set the copy off from the USRA engine was the cab roof. The USRA roof had a deeper curve. John B. Allen's photograph on the chapter's first page is No. 268, the cab number plain, two men in the gangway. These ten were still on the roster into 1946–1949. Alton Pacific 5296, the former Chicago & Alton 656, photographed at Brighton in March 1947, is a different roster. That picture is on the company page.

Forty-eight six-wheel switchers

The road was well supplied with switchers, and every one of them on this grid is an 0-6-0. The numerous group was the USRA switcher. Ten were allocated, numbers 40–49, built by Cooke in 1918. Thirteen copies followed from Richmond and Schenectady in 1927 and 1928, numbers 50–62. The notes on those two rows read "USRA" and "USRA copies."

Older six-wheel engines fill the rows above them. Rogers built 11–14 in 1900, originally 6–9. Baldwin built 15–17 in 1905, 18–22 in 1904–1905 (originally 10–14), and 23–27 in 1906–1907 (originally 72–76). Eight Lima engines of 1911, numbers 30–37, survived long enough to receive Gulf, Mobile & Ohio numbers. Their retirement cell is 1940–1948. The USRA engines and the copies lasted to 1948–1950.

Roster built since 1900

Type	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-6-0	11–14	4	Rogers	1900	1931–1934	Built as 6–9
0-6-0	15–17	3	Baldwin	1905	1934–1940
0-6-0	18–22	5	Baldwin	1904–1905	1934–1943	Built as 10–14
0-6-0	23–27	5	Baldwin	1906–1907	1934–1945	Built as 72–76
0-6-0	30–37	8	Lima	1911	1940–1948
0-6-0	40–49	10	Cooke	1918	1948–1950	USRA
0-6-0	50–62	13	Richmond, Schenectady	1927, 1928	1948–1950	USRA copies
2-8-0	540–554	15	Baldwin, Richmond	1914	1935–1948
2-8-2	400–420	21	Baldwin	1911–1916	1946–1949
2-8-2	450–486	37	Richmond, Lima, Baldwin, Schenectady	1922–1928	1946–1950
4-6-0	178–187	10	Rogers	1900	1918–1934
4-6-0	220–227	8	Baldwin	1903	1918–1940
4-6-0	230–239	10	Baldwin	1906	1931–1949
4-6-0	300–306	7	Baldwin	1904	1918–1940
4-6-0	310–321	12	Baldwin	1904	1930–1940
4-6-0	325–384	60	Baldwin	1905–1907	1918–1949
4-6-2	250–253	4	Baldwin	1912	1939–1940
4-6-2	260–269	10	Baldwin	1923–1926	1946–1949

The quantity column sums to 242. Cooke, Richmond, and Schenectady are Alco works. The 450–486 builder cell is cut off on the printed page after "Schen," and the chapter's own paragraph names Schenectady for the last five. USRA United States Railroad Administration.

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, Mobile & Ohio, pp. 224–225. Class grid, the 1910 renumbering, Southern control from 1901 to 1938, the Ten-Wheeler weights and the 33,320-pound tractive effort, the fifteen Consolidations, the two Mikado generations, Pacifics 250–253 and 260–269, and October 7, 1949
Drury's own citations on that page: Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Historical Society, gmohs.org. Railroad magazine, September 1934, p. 88. Railroad History No. 157, p. 85
Photograph credits on those pages: John B. Allen, Pacific 268. C. W. Witbeck, Ten-Wheeler 377 at Starkville, February 1942. R. J. Foster, Mikado 459, Richmond, 1922

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