> Hi Aaron!
> Just as a matter of information, the
> "Camelback," Mother Hubbard or as
> actually known on the railroads, Center cab.
> Is NOT an ALCO design. The B&O had the
> first center cab locos built by Ross Winans
> and were merely called "Camels."
> The later versions to burn leftover culm
> from the mining operations were built to the
> railroads orders by almost all of the
> manufacturers and even the railroads
> themselves! The Lehigh Valley RR even had a
> class of Camelback Pacific. Certainly these
> were rare birds, and they were built by
> Baldwin.
> So, as you see, they were not an ALCO
> innovation!
> Keith Taylor
The names are so similar, you might think they are the same design of engine. Not so.
Ross Winans built the first Camel (named "Camel") for the B&O in 1848. The engine was an 0-8-0 with a deep firebox behind the rear driver and a big steam dome like a camel's hump (hence the name). The engineer's cab was a big cabin on top of the boiler. Winans camels were coal-burners, and the best heavy haulers of their day. The Reading bought a fleet of them starting in 1850 and so did the PRR. All Winans camels were 0-8-0's but B&O built two groups of 4-6-0 camels in 1853-4 and 1869-75. The two surviving camels are 4-6-0's from this last group.
Camels burned soft coal well, but not anthracite. Reading shops built a 4-4-0 ("Hiawatha") in 1859 with a 9-foot long firebox between the drivers that did burn anthracite, which led to a class of 4-6-0 freighters callad gunboats in 1863.
In 1877, John Wootten of P&R built a modified gunboat (408) with a wide firebox to burn waste anthracite. At first, the cab was atop the firebox but engine 412 went to an exhibition in Paris, (France, that is) and would not meet continental clearances with the high cab, so the cab was moved in front of the firebox and there is your camelback. 408's cab was later modified the same way.
So, a camelback is a different design from a camel, and is not directly descended from one. P&R still had a lot of Winans camels in 1877 so the name camelback was undoubtedly derived from the older engine.
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