SW 1's and Steam Locomotives / Something to ponder

Alan S. Levy · **Posted:** Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:52 am

While thinking about my earlier post regarding Wilmington & Western I came up with a question.

How many SW 1's and how many steam locomotives in the USA are fired up at this writing? I think they are almost equally rare at this point!

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:09 pm

"Rare" gets to be a relative term. It would perhaps be better to compare operable 0-4-0's to SW1's.

Just off the top of my head and after comparing a couple online rosters, I'm coming up with twenty "preserved" SW1's that are preserved for the sake of being an SW1, as opposed to locomotives that just happen to be there and are usable. Presumably, most are operable.

Second Diesel Spotter's Guide says 660 built. Just to make the math neater, I'll add in two other SW1's I know are also preserved, calling it 22 out of 660--or one out of thirty built preserved, or 3.33% of production.

How many steam locomotives have ever been built in North America? Just for the sake of round numbers, let's say 150,000, which is actually a quite conservative estimate. According to the Gospel of St. J. David, in 1986 North America had 1,875 steamers, and of those I can scratch five or ten. So: 1.865 into 150K equals about 1.24% of the "fleet" preserved. The number only looks worse if the number of steamers built is more like 250K or 300K.

Now, if someone else home sick has more time to crunch numbers, go find out how many 0-4-0's were built and how many saved.........

Alan S. Levy · **Posted:** Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:13 pm

Sorry you are sick Sandy. Have some chicken soup, put in a train video and fall asleep.

survivingworldsteam · **Posted:** Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:20 pm

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

Second Diesel Spotter's Guide says 660 built. Just to make the math neater, I'll add in two other SW1's I know are also preserved, calling it 22 out of 660--or one out of thirty built preserved, or 3.33% of production.

How many steam locomotives have ever been built in North America? Just for the sake of round numbers, let's say 150,000, which is actually a quite conservative estimate. According to the Gospel of St. J. David, in 1986 North America had 1,875 steamers, and of those I can scratch five or ten. So: 1.865 into 150K equals about 1.24% of the "fleet" preserved. The number only looks worse if the number of steamers built is more like 250K or 300K.

Now, if someone else home sick has more time to crunch numbers, go find out how many 0-4-0's were built and how many saved.........

A friend of mine is compling a world wide list, not only of survivors; but all steam locomotives built worldwide (a bigger glutton for punishment than I.)

He came up with a total of 177,000 for the U.S.A., and 637,715 worldwide. To date, I have 21,919 believed to remain worldwide, or 3.44% worldwide. Pretty close to your SW-1 total; though China is skewing the totals.