4-4-0

4-4-0 (American, Eight-Wheeler)

Front of locomotive at left

1836 Patent drawing of the first 4-4-0 locomotive

Equivalent classifications UIC class 2′B French class 220 Turkish class 24 Swiss class 2/4 Russian class 2-2-0

First known tank engine version First use 1849 Country United Kingdom Locomotive GWR Bogie Class Railway South Devon Railway Builder Great Western Railway

First known tender engine version First use 1836 Country United States Railway Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railway Designer Henry Roe Campbell Builder Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railway Evolved from 4-2-0 Evolved to 4-4-2 Benefits Better tractive effort than the 4-2-0 Drawbacks Could only pull a few cars due to its small size

4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and a lack of trailing wheels. Due to the large number of the type that were produced and used in the United States, the 4-4-0 is most commonly known as the "American" or "Eight-Wheeler" type, but the type subsequently also became popular in the United Kingdom, where large numbers were produced.^[1]

Almost every major railroad that operated in North America in the first half of the 19th century owned and operated locomotives of this type.

The first use of the name American to describe locomotives of this wheel arrangement was made by Railroad Gazette in April 1872.^[1] Prior to that, this wheel arrangement was known as a standard or eight-wheeler.

This locomotive type was so successful on railroads in the United States that many earlier 4-2-0 and 2-4-0 locomotives were rebuilt as 4-4-0s by the middle of the 19th century.^[1][2]

Several 4-4-0 tank locomotives were built, but the vast majority of locomotives of this wheel arrangement were tender engines.

Development

American development

Five years after new locomotive construction had begun at the West Point Foundry in the United States with the 0-4-0 Best Friend of Charleston in 1831, the first 4-4-0 locomotive was designed by Henry R. Campbell, at the time the chief engineer for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railway. Campbell received a patent for the design in February 1836 and soon set to work building the first 4-4-0.^[1]

At the time, Campbell's 4-4-0 was a giant among locomotives. Its cylinders had a 14-inch (360 mm) bore with a 16-inch (410 mm) piston stroke, it boasted 54-inch-diameter (1,400 mm) driving wheels, could maintain 90 psi (620 kPa) of steam pressure and weighed 12 short tons (11 t). Campbell's locomotive was estimated to be able to pull a train of 450 short tons (410 t) at 15 mph (24 km/h) on level track, outperforming the strongest of Baldwin's 4-2-0s in tractive effort by about 63%. However, the frame and driving gear of his locomotive proved to be too rigid for the railroads of the time, which caused Campbell's prototype to be derailment-prone. The most obvious cause was the lack of a weight equalizing system for the drivers.^[1]

At about the same time as Campbell was building his 4-4-0, the company of Eastwick and Harrison was building its own version of the 4-4-0. This locomotive, named Hercules, was completed in 1837 for the Beaver Meadow Railroad. It was built with a leading bogie that was separate from the locomotive frame, making it much more suitable for the tight curves and quick grade changes of early railroads. The Hercules initially suffered from poor tracking, which was corrected by giving it an effective springing system when returned to its builder for remodeling.^[1]

Richmond & Petersburg Railroad

, Richmond Virginia 1865

Even though the Hercules and its successors from Eastwick and Harrison proved the viability of the new wheel arrangement, the company remained the sole builders of this type of locomotive for another two years.

St Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad

Coos, c. 1856, Longueuil, Quebec

As the 1840s progressed, the design of the 4-4-0 changed little, but the dimensions of a typical example of this type increased. The boiler was lengthened, drivers grew in diameter and the firegrate was increased in area. Early 4-4-0s were short enough that it was most practical to connect the pistons to the rear drivers, but as the boiler was lengthened, the connecting rods were more frequently connected to the front drivers.^[1]

In the 1850s, locomotive manufacturers began extending the wheelbase of the leading bogie and the drivers as well as the tender bogies. By placing the axles farther apart, manufacturers were able to mount a wider boiler completely above the wheels that extended beyond the sides of the wheels. This gave newer locomotives increased heating and steaming capacity, which translated to higher tractive effort. Similarly, by placing the leading bogie axles further apart enabled the cylinders to be placed between them in a more horizontal orientation, thereby distributing the engine's weight more evenly when going around curves and uneven track. These advancements, combined with the increasingly widespread adaptation of cowcatchers, bells, and headlights, gave the 4-4-0 locomotives the appearance for which they are most recognized.^[1]

The design and subsequent improvements of the 4-4-0 configuration proved so successful that, by 1872, 60% of Baldwin's locomotive construction was of this type and it is estimated that 85% of all locomotives in operation in the United States were 4-4-0s. However, the 4-4-0 was soon supplanted by bigger designs, like the 2-6-0 and 2-8-0, even though the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement was still favored for express services. The widespread adoption of the 4-6-0 and larger locomotives eventually helped seal its fate as a product of the past.^[1]

Although largely superseded in North American service by the early 20th century,

in recent years, resembling early designs in appearance.

British development

The first British locomotives to use this wheel arrangement were the 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm)

The first American-style British 4-4-0 tender locomotive on 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

Britain's major contribution to the development of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement was the

Use

Australia

The first 4-4-0s appeared in South Australia in 1859. From that initial order for two locomotives, the numbers of this wheel arrangement multiplied and eventually appeared in most of the Australian colonies. Tender, tank and saddle tank versions, varying in size from small engines to express passenger racers with 6 feet 6 inches (1,981 millimetres) driving wheels, worked in

and 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) gauge.^[7]

The locomotives originally from British builders such as

Finland

In Finland, the 4-4-0 was represented by the Classes A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6 and A7.

• The Class A4 was a class of nine locomotives, built in 1872 and 1873 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for use on the Hanko–Hyvinkää railway.
• The Finnish Steam Locomotive Class A5 was a class of only two locomotives, built in 1874 and 1875 by the Finnish State Railroad's workshops in Helsinki. One of them is preserved at the Finnish Railway Museum.

Indonesia

The 4-4-0 two cylinder compound tender locomotives began to set its step on Java in 1900s. The Staatsspoorwegen (SS) ordered 44 of these from 3 different manufacturers, they were from Hanomag, Sächsische Maschinenfabrik (Hartmann) and Werkspoor and they were imported in 1900–1910.

After they had already arrived in Java, they were classified as SS Class 600 with 1,503 mm driving wheels which way much bigger than any operational SS locomotives at the time and used as the main workhorse for express trains. The SS 600s could be found hauling local trains in Tanah Abang–Rangkasbitung–Merak/Labuan, Madiun–Kertosono–Blitar and Babat–Jombang lines. Some of them were also found in Maos–Kroya–Kutoarjo and Surabaya–Pasuruan lines. Then, the SS sent their five SS 600s to South Sumatra due to the increasing needs of railway transport in there. These locomotives were withdrawn from active service momentarily in 1929-1934 during great depression because of their cylinder compound technology which has a complicated mechanism system so the SS had to save its budget by preserving these locomotives, but they received extensive maintenance so they still could be used normally.

During

between Jambu–Bedono.

Mozambique

Between 1895 and 1898,

In service, these locomotives were nicknamed Lawleys after the Beira Railway construction subcontractor. The construction of the last batch of ten F4 locomotives was subcontracted by Falcon to the Glasgow Railway Engineering Company in Scotland and these were consequently often referred to as the Drummond F4.[11]^[12][13][14]

The Falcon F4 was larger and heavier than the earlier F2, with a tractive effort that was increased from the 3,000 pounds-force (13.3 kilonewtons) of the F2 to 3,987 pounds-force (17.7 kilonewtons) at 75% boiler pressure. It could haul 180 long tons (182.9 tonnes) up the ruling gradients, compared to the 160 long tons (162.6 tonnes) that the F2 could manage.^[12]

New Zealand

The

.

Rhodesia

When the Beira Railway in Mozambique was regauged to 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) by 1900 and the whole 4-4-0 Lawley locomotive fleet was staged, six of the Mozambican F4 locomotives were acquired by the Ayrshire Railway, which was then under construction in Southern Rhodesia. They remained in service there until 1914, when this line was also converted to Cape gauge and became the Sinoia branch of the Beira, Mashonaland and Rhodesia Railway.^[11][12][14]

South Africa

Narrow gauge

In 1907 and 1910, the

]

In 1915, thirteen of the Beira Railway's retired narrow gauge Falcon F2 and F4 locomotives were acquired from Mozambique by the Union Defence Forces for use in South Africa, where they replaced locomotives that had been commandeered for the war effort in German South West Africa during World War I. At the end of the war, these locomotives were staged until they were placed back in service by the South African Railways (SAR) in 1921. When a system of grouping narrow gauge locomotives into classes was eventually introduced by the SAR between 1928 and 1930, they were classified as Class NG6.^[11][14]

In 1936, Bagnall built a single 4-4-0 tank locomotive, named Burnside and with 11+1⁄2 by 15 inches (292 by 381 millimetres) cylinders, for the 2 ft 0+1⁄2 in (622 mm) gauge line of the Natal Estates sugar plantation at Mount Edgecombe in Natal. ^{[citation needed]}

Standard gauge

The third locomotive of the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

Cape gauge

Seven side-tank locomotives were built for the

In 1879, the Cape Government Railways placed four 1st Class tender locomotives in service, built by the Avonside Engine Company. They were intended for fast passenger service on the Cape Western and Eastern systems and were followed by eleven more from Neilson & Company in 1880.^[15][17]

In 1881, the CGR placed six more 1st Class tank-and-tender locomotives in service on its Cape Midland system. These were built by Neilson & Company as tender locomotives without on-board coal bunkers and with permanently attached coal and water tenders. Two of them became SAR Class 01 in 1912.^[15][17]

Between 1882 and 1891, eleven 4-4-0T tank locomotives for the Wynberg suburban line in

In 1882, two tank locomotives named Grahamstown and Bathurst entered passenger service on the private Kowie Railway between Grahamstown and Port Alfred, which was still under construction at the time.^[15]

Eighteen tender passenger locomotives were delivered to the CGR from Neilson & Company in 1883, designated

In 1884, the CGR placed two experimental 3rd Class tender locomotives in service, designed by the Cape Eastern System to be able to use the low-grade local coal with its high incombustible matter content.^[15]

In 1889, the CGR placed 24 3rd Class tender locomotives in service. They were the first stock locomotives to be built in quantity to detailed designs prepared in the Cape of Good Hope.^[15]

In 1898, the CGR placed six 3rd Class Wynberg Tender locomotives in passenger service on the suburban lines in Cape Town.^[11][15]

In 1901, the CGR placed another six 3rd Class Wynberg Tender locomotives in suburban service in Cape Town. They were a heavier and more powerful version of the locomotives of 1898 and were built for speed, with the largest coupled wheels of any locomotive on the CGR to date at 60 inches (1,520 millimetres) diameter.^[11][15]

In 1903, the CGR placed the last eight 3rd Class Wynberg Tenders in suburban service in Cape Town. While they appeared to be virtually identical to the locomotives of 1901 at first glance, they were heavier and more powerful.^[11][15]

United Kingdom

Tank locomotives

4-4-0T classes began to appear on 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) broad-gauge lines in the United Kingdom from 1849. The Great Western Railway built its

built twelve Class 1 4-4-0T locomotives.

Inside cylinder tender locomotives

Between 1876 and 1903,

From the mid-1890s until after

The

.

Although the inside cylinder 4-4-0 had largely been superseded by larger locomotives for mainline express trains by 1920, the type remained in use in Scotland and East Anglia, where lines that could not support heavier or larger locomotives were common. Thus both the

of traditional inside cylinder 4-4-0s for secondary passenger working.

Three-cylinder tender locomotives

Experiments were conducted with three-cylinder compound locomotives by Wilson Worsdell of the North Eastern Railway in 1898, Samuel Johnson of the Midland Railway in 1901 and Francis Webb of the London and North Western Railway. Of these, the development of Johnson's design by Richard Deeley of the Midland Railway into the 1000 Class was the most successful. This class continued to be built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) after 1905, until 1932 with the almost identical LMS Compound 4-4-0.

British three-cylinder simple expansion (simplex) locomotives included Nigel Gresley's LNER Class D49 Hunt and Shire 4-4-0s of 1927–28. However, the most powerful and one of the most successful 4-4-0 designs ever constructed was the Schools class of the Southern Railway, designed by Richard Maunsell and built between 1930 and 1935. These were used on secondary express trains between London and South Coast towns, until their withdrawal in 1962.^[19]

United States

Since the first locomotives in the United States were imported from the United Kingdom, the British 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

as railroads began to be joined. Apart from freight reloading issues, another result was that new locomotives for some of these railroads had to be delivered on flatcars.

The 4-4-0 played a major role in the development of rail transport in the United States. Some of the notable 4-4-0 locomotives that saw service on United States railroads are:

• Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company No. 3, built in 1842 by Eastwick & Harrison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of the oldest surviving locomotives of the 4-4-0-wheel arrangement, and the sole surviving 4-4-0 of the Reading Company. ^[20]
• Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor in Paterson, New Jersey, was the fleeing locomotive during the Great Locomotive Chase of the American Civil War.^[21][22]
• Danforth, Cooke & Company in Paterson, New Jersey, was the pursuing locomotive during much of the Great Locomotive Chase.^[23][24]
• The
  Golden Spike ceremony upon the completion of the First American Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.^[25]
• Rogers Locomotive & Machine Works of Paterson, New Jersey in 1868, was the other locomotive at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869.^[26]
• The
  Carson City and Minden in Nevada in 1906.^[27]
• The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad no. 999, built in 1893 to haul the railroad's Empire State Express, is believed to have been the first in the United States to travel at a speed of more than 100 miles per hour (160 kilometres per hour).^[28][29]
• Orlando, Florida.^[30] Since January 2024, this locomotive has been shipped to the Strasburg Rail Road for an extensive overhaul.^[31]

By 1910, the 4-4-0 was considered obsolete being replaced by Mikados, Pacifics and other larger engines, although they continued to serve to an extent into the 1950s. The last 4-4-0 to be built was a diminutive Baldwin product for the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán in 1945. Fewer than forty 4-4-0s survive in preservation in the United States, reproductions excluded.^[1]

Between 1959 and 1989, the

.

Operational historic locomotives

North America

There are a handful of full-size 4-4-0 steam locomotives built prior to 1945 that are still operating in the US and Canada.^[32][33] The following is a list of locations with at least one working example and tracks on which to run it.

Location	Address	Road number(s)/Name(s)	Track gauge	Number of 4-4-0s	Year(s) built	Notes
Dan Markoff private residence	Las Vegas, Nevada, US	4 Eureka	3 ft (914 mm)	1	1875	It retains its original boiler.
Nevada State Railroad Museum	Carson City, Nevada , US	22 Inyo	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)	1	1875	Appeared in over twenty Hollywood Westerns
Prairie Dog Central Railway	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada	3	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)	1	1882
South Simcoe Railway	Tottenham, Ontario, Canada	136	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)	1	1883
Walt Disney World Railroad (Magic Kingdom)	Bay Lake, Florida, US	4 Roy O. Disney	3 ft (914 mm)	1	1916	Significantly altered from its original appearance to resemble steam locomotives from the 1880s.[34]
Weiser Railroad (Greenfield Village)	Dearborn, Michigan, US	1 Edison, 7	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)	2	1870; 1897	The steam locomotive built in 1870 was originally an 0-4-0; it was rebuilt as a 4-4-0 in 1932 by the Ford Motor Company.[35]
Wilmington & Western Railroad	Marshallton, Delaware, US	98	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)	1	1909

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 4-4-0 locomotives.

• Building a 1/8 scale Live Steam 4-4-0 locomotive This site includes a full 1875 shop drawing of a Baldwin 4-4-0
• Winchester, Clarence, ed. (1936), "A famous locomotive type", Railway Wonders of the World, pp. 1173–79, illustrated account of the development of the 4-4-0 in Britain