I was scanning some negatives for the "auction site" and noticed a couple of the Wabash 4-4-2s equipped with Locomotive Valve Pilot. Kind of surprised me.

Awesome picture! Thanks for posting! I couldn't find any information on the Wabash using Valve Pilots, and I was really puzzled by that. The Wabash had the perfect flat track profile coupled with a corporate obsession with "faster" that would make it a natural Valve Pilot customer. It is quite rare to see a Valve Pilot on something as small as a 4-4-2, although not entirely surprising considering the Wabash's full throttle proclivities. I'm wondering if the Valve Pilot addition was part of a comprehensive rebuilt? Cast pilot, drop coupler, modern nonlifting injector, Alco Type G power reverse, tender and Okadee cylinder cocks are definitely new. The lead truck and mechanical lubricator are likely retrofits as well. The valve gear also looks more modern than the locomotive. Specifically, the design of the eccentric crank and link as well as the union link connection at the wrist pin seem to be more modern practice, although there are so many detail variations in Walschaerts that I may very well be wrong. Overall, a really gorgeous engine, but then its hard to make an Atlantic unattractive. Any idea what kind of service this engine was used in? Thanks again!
-Chris Zahrt

Wow, not only does it have a Valve Pilot, it has power reverse, and a cast drop coupler pilot. Quite modern for a 4-4-2.

Good looking engine. Wonder how fast she'd go? And if anyone ever tried it?

Howard P.

Just took another look at this gorgeous photo, and realized how many details I'd missed, including that cast pilot.

Certainly a very thorough rebuilding--the original locomotives in class E-4 dated to 1904:

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/atlantic/?page=wabash

I wonder what inspired Wabash management to rebuild these engines into this form when they were 20 years old. Granted, the Wabash is a flat road, but it still seems a little unusual for the company to put that kind of work and money into something that light at that date.

Left side shot:

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/WB621.JPG

Boiler tube pilot, no Valve Pilot, but check out the striping! And the nickeled valve and cylinder head covers! I wonder if this engine was actually blue; Wabash painted a number of its passenger engines in that color.

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/423615/

An earlier E-3 from Richard Leonard's collection:

http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/wab613.htm

Also from Richard Leonard, the same No. 606, with Valve Pilot, lagged smokebox, but before getting the cast pilot:

http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/wab606.htm

From Mr. Leonard again, the 602, with the cast pilot and presumably the Valve Pilot (not visible, shot is from the left side); most of the striping is gone, but the nickeled valve and cylinder head covers remain:

http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/wab602.htm

Don't you wish more Wabash power had been preserved?

http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/wab660.htm

http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/wab683.htm

http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/wab1502.htm

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/WB2804.JPG

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/WB2822.JPG

http://www.nationalcorridors.org/df/df06022003e.jpg

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/WB2904.JPG

As things should be:

http://www.llarson.com/steam/schenzinge ... /NA139.jpg

YES! I commented in another thread here on RyPN some time ago, that I found a photo of a Wabash 4-6-2 in blue paint parked outside the Decatur shops for an inspection on what I seem to recall was a fantrip. That particular Pacific survived beyond all other 4-6-2's on the railroad. I ventured a guess that perhaps it had been held for display outside of those Decatur shops but then some high official nixed the idea. We will probably never know if such a plan ever existed, but it sure would have been nice!

Les

I'm a Wabash fan. I lived and still do on the Wabash line from Montpelier OH to
Gary IN. My mother and father built a house in 1952 and by then the Wabash had
converted to all diesel. One day the local stopped short of IN 39, so I biked on down
to talk to the crew, got a okay to come up in the cab of a F-7. So after a while whatever was the problem, they were ready to proceed and the tower at Magee IN
gave them a clear signal. I was asked to ride with them Westville, I eagerly agreed,
knowing that my mother would be slightly mad. So that was my first cab ride. It was only about a 7 mile trip, but well worth the consequnces I suffered later. Today its all gone, except for a few miles of remaining track. I remember the local that travelled every day each way with a combine at the end. Never did I know that you could buy a ticket to ride also along the line. I remember the passenger trains from Chicago on Saturdays that were football specials to Notre Dame, South Bend and returning later that evening. The dome cars stood out in my mind as they passed with all the Partying Passengers that were up in dome.

Long live the WABASH RAILROAD

Before we get too far afield, Wabash 578 is undergoing restoraton at the Museum of Transporation in St. Louis. Work commenced this past summer. I'll take some photos if I make it out this weekend.

.

David -

You are talking about Wabash 2-6-0 #573. Photos would be much appreciated. One other thought about that longest surviving Wabash 4-6-2, if not held for display at the Decatur shops, I thought maybe she might have been earmarked for the Museum of Transportation. The museum did not have a Pacific type locomotive at that time, and perhaps the engine was going to go there. And then the 573 became available, and it might have been one or the other. MoT seemed to have a policy of no more than one engine from any railroad, probably to stay on the good side of the railroads. This may be why the museum ended up with a Pacific from Canada. Of course, this is all just speculation on my part. Maybe somewhere in the MoT records the story might exist.

Les

Speaking of modernized locomotive power, after this thread appeared, I noticed these two images in both my 1941 and 1947 editions of The Locomotive Cyclopedia. Pictured is the layout from the 1947 edition.

It appears that the Wabash liked to modernize older steam power, in this case a 2-6-2 that the Wabash rebuilt into a 4-6-2.

I find it a bit ironic that both the 4-4-2 at the start of this thread and this old 4-6-2 ended up with pilots we normally associate with modern steam, such as NYC 4-6-4s or UP 4-8-8-4s.

"How fast can she go? Why, I've had her up to 55 myself. I heard that Fearless Frank Fargo got one of these up to near 70 out past Verde Junction."

Had to ;-)

Jason