Southern Pacific class AM-2

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Southern Pacific class MM-2
Type and origin
Power typeSteam
Builder
Southern Pacific Company
ClassAM-2
Numbers4200 – 4211 (MM-2), renumbered 3900 – 3911 (AM-2)
First runSeptember 19, 1911
Retired1946 – 1948
DispositionAll scrapped

leading axle making them 4-6-6-2 locomotives. They reclassified their MM-2 as AM-2. This was done to improve handling at speed. These locomotives were the predecessors of the AC-12 class
cab forward locomotives built during World War II.

SP used these locomotives in the

Sierra Nevada for about 20 years, retiring them in the mid-1930s. They were stored in the railroad's Sacramento, California, shops for a couple years before being rebuilt with 4B Worthington feedwater heaters and uniform cylinders ("simpling" them) measuring 22 in diameter × 28 in stroke (559 mm by 711 mm). The rebuilds increased the class weight to 424,200 lb (192,410 kg) with 356,900 lb (161,890 kg) on the drivers, 210 psi (1.45 MPa) boiler pressure and 76,800 lbf (342 kN) tractive effort
.

The rebuilt locomotives were renumbered into the 3900 series then used on SP's Portland Division in Oregon until they were again retired in the late 1940s. The locomotives were all scrapped soon after retirement with the last, 3907 (originally 4207), on September 23, 1948.

References

  • Diebert, Timothy S. & Strapac, Joseph A. (1987). Southern Pacific Company Steam Locomotive Conpendium. Shade Tree Books. .