Incredible story!
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This locomotive looks for all the world like a New York Central engine, doesn't she? Class O was not assigned, while classes P through R were assigned to straight electrics. When NYC did design a 4-8-4, they used class S. The Timken engine is a teriffic example of "what might have been", had the depression hadn't killed traffic growth until well into WWII. (I consider the start of WWII to be 1 September 1939 in Europe and 1931 in the far east when Japan invaded Manchuria.) So, here we have NYC's first class O, but NYC was happy with its Hudsons in 1931, and the "Four Aces" wound up on Northern Pacific, where this one of a kind served into the late '50s, and served well.
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So while The Timken Company was negotiating to purchase this engine the Northern Pacific scrapped it? Shame on you Northern Pacific. You would have made more money selling it than scrapping it. You deserve to be a fallen flag. At least she lives on in pictures.
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| Posted by on July 11, 2010 | |
As far as I am concerned, Whomever fumbled the ball and allowed the Four aces to be scrapped oughtta be run down and CASTRATED! Nuff said, No, its not. I wonder if that guy is still around.
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First of all, it was an experiment. Another story similar to this one is when rubber tires were first introduced farmers didn't want them because they had always used steel wheels. Eventually, as things usually do work out, one farmer bought tires and another noticed the advantage of rubber tires. They put more horsepower in any application while saving fuel. With steel wheels it took more fuel to move a tractor. With rubber the opposite. So, when Timkin roller bearings were first introduced the railroads had no use for them, but that eventually changed.
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