In the Whyte notation, a 2-8-4 is a railroad steam locomotive that has one unpowered leading axle followed by four powered driving axle s and two unpowered trailing axle s. This locomotive type is most often referred to as a Berkshire, but they have also been referred to as a Kanawha. In Europe, the wheel arrangement was seen in tank locomotives.

Contents

1 History in United States 1.1 Roster 1.2 Preservation 2 European 2-8-4s 3 References 4 External links

History in United States

In the beginning of the 20th century, the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was formed to manage American railroads during World War I. The USRA was a short-lived and expensive experiment in nationalization, but out of it came many standard steam locomotive designs that proved enormously successful long after the end of the war. The most successful of these types was the 2-8-2, but American railroads soon found that a locomotive with even greater steam heating capacity was necessary.

To produce more steam, one of the first experiments was to increase the size of the locomotive's firebox, but the 2-8-2 wheel arrangement left locomotive designers with a limitation. The single axle trailing truck could only support so much weight from the firebox and cab of the locomotive. It was only natural to add a second trailing axle to spread the increased weight of a larger firebox over a greater surface area on the rails.

Six years after the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway experimented with the first 2-10-4, the first 2-8-4s were built in 1925 by Lima for the Boston & Albany (B&A). The railroad's route over The Berkshires was a substantial test for the new locomotives, but the type proved its worth, outpacing the 2-8-2s already in use there. It is this mountain range that provided the name for the locomotive type, Berkshire. Buoyed by the success of the demonstrations on the B&A, Lima and ALCO both sold a few hundred of the new locomotive type.

The Berkshire's most substantial boost, however, came in 1934. It was that year that the Nickel Plate Road received its first Berkshires based on a new design from the Advisory Mechanical Committee (AMC) of the Van Sweringen empire. Under the Van Sweringen umbrella were the Nickel Plate Road, Erie Railroad, Chesapeake & Ohio and Pere Marquette railroads. The AMC's design generated 64,100 lbf (285 kN) of tractive effort and almost immediately became the standard design for subsequent Berkshires. The Erie Railroad purchased the greatest number of 2-8-4s, in all rostering 105 of this locomotive type.

The last new Berkshire was built by Lima in 1949 for the Nickel Plate Road. It became the railroad's road number 779.

Roster

Many of America's larger railroads rostered 2-8-4s. The following table lists data on the locomotives as they were built:

2-8-4 construction roster

Railroad (quantity)	Road numbers	Builder	Build year
Lima Locomotive Works (1)	A1 (demonstrator)	Lima	1924
Boston and Albany Railroad (55)	1400 – 1444	Lima	1926
	1445 – 1454	Lima	1930
Illinois Central (50)	7000 – 7049	Lima	1926
Erie Railroad (105)	3300 – 3324	Alco	1927
	3325 – 3349	Lima	1927
	3350 – 3384	Baldwin	1928
	3385 – 3404	Lima	1929
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (15)	4101 – 4115	Baldwin	1927
Chicago and Northwestern (12)	2801 – 2812	Alco-Dunkirk	1927
Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo (2)	201 – 202	Montreal	1928
Boston and Maine (25)	4000 – 4019	Lima	1928
	4020 – 4024	Lima	1929
International Great Northern (5)	1121 – 1125	Alco	1928
Missouri Pacific (25)	1901 – 1925	Lima	1929
Nickel Plate Road (80)	700 – 714	Alco	1934
	715 – 729	Lima	1942
	730 – 739	Lima	1943
	740 – 769	Lima	1944
	770 – 779	Lima	1949
Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad (6)	700 – 703	Lima	1935
	704 – 705	Lima	1939
Pere Marquette Railroad (39)	1201 – 1215	Lima	1937
	1216 – 1227	Lima	1941
	1228 – 1234	Lima	1944
	1235 – 1239	Lima	1942
Wheeling and Lake Erie (32)	6401 – 6410	Alco	1937
	6411 – 6415	Alco	1938
	6416 – 6422	Alco	1942
	6423 – 6432	Alco	1943
Norfolk Southern Railway (5)	600 – 604	Baldwin	1940
Louisville and Nashville (42)	1950 – 1963	Baldwin	1942
	1964 – 1969	Baldwin	1944
	1970 – 1991	Lima	1949
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (10)	571 – 580	Lima	1943
Chesapeake & Ohio (90)	2700 – 2739	Alco	1944
	2740 – 2749	Lima	1945
	2750 – 2759	Lima	1947
	2760 – 2789	Alco	1947
Virginian Railway (5)	505 – 509	Lima	1946
Pittsburgh and Lake Erie (7)	9400 – 9406	Alco	1948

Preservation

With the success of AMCs design, the Nickel Plate Road became synonymous with the Berkshire locomotive type. One of this class, number 765, is preserved in operating condition and is operated occasionally on the mainlines of Class 1 railroads around the United States.

Another 2-8-4, Pere Marquette Railroad number 1225, which occasionally runs in the upper Midwestern US, was used as the basis for the locomotive sounds in the 2004 movie The Polar Express.

European 2-8-4s

Many European railways rostered 2-8-4T large tank locomotives. In Germany, there were two classes of passenger locomotives, both built in the 1950s. Class BR65 was built in West Germany, while class BR65¹⁰ was built in East Germany.

References

• Farrell, Jack W. (1988). North American steam locomotives: The Berkshire and Texas types. Pacific Fast Mail, Edmonds, WA. ISBN 915713-15-12.

External links

• 2-8-4 or Berkshire http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/001/810hlyiy.asp (Trains Magazine)
• Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society http://www.765.org/ owners/operators of the preserved NKP 765.
• Steamtown: Nickel Plate Road http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/steamtown/shs2o.htm Special history study of number 759

Steam locomotive types
Single engine types
0-2-2 , 2-2-0, 2-2-2, 2-2-4 , 4-2-0, 4-2-2, 4-2-4 , 6-2-0
0-4-0, 0-4-2 , 0-4-4 , 2-4-0 , 2-4-2 , 2-4-4 , 4-4-0, 4-4-2, 4-4-4
0-6-0, 0-6-2 , 0-6-4 , 2-6-0, 2-6-2 , 2-6-4, 4-6-0, 4-6-2, 4-6-4
0-8-0, 0-8-2 , 2-8-0, 2-8-2, 2-8-4, 4-8-0, 4-8-2, 4-8-4, 6-8-6
0-10-0, 0-10-2, 2-10-0, 2-10-2, 2-10-4, 4-10-0 , 4-10-2
0-12-0 , 2-12-2 , 4-12-2
Duplex engine types
4-4-4-4, 6-4-4-6, 4-4-6-4 , 4-6-4-4
Mallet (articulated) types
0-4-4-0, 2-4-4-2
0-6-6-0 , 2-6-6-2 , 2-6-6-4, 2-6-6-6 , 4-6-6-4
0-8-8-0, 2-8-8-0, 2-8-8-2, 2-8-8-4, 4-8-8-2 , 4-8-8-4
2-10-10-2, 2-8-8-8-2 , 2-8-8-8-4