Wednesday Crew

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Arriving at Bonsal.  2/6/13

 Moving from Stone Mountain to Bonsal  Feb., 2013




The Cliffside  Railroad locomotive  #110

Vulcan Iron Works as you may know was one of the primary small and mid-size steam locomotive builders for industrial applications, particularly the lumber industry. Since lumber mills always had a cheap and abundant supply of wood to fire their steam engines, most lumber operations continued to order wood fired locomotives right up to WWII. Other industrial locomotive builders like Glover, Heisler, Baldwin/Shay, Porter and Davenport also carried options for wood fired locomotives, ie. grates, smoke boxes and smoke stacks, in their catalogs right up to WWII.


The 2-6-2 wheel arrangement fell out of favor with the big railroads in their push to operate locomotives that could haul more tonnage and go faster. However the 2-6-2 wheel arrangement was ideal for industrial and logging railroads that were on fairly flat profiles, with limited shop facilities and no turntables or wyes. A 2-6-2 would go in reserve just as fast as it could in forward. When you were operating logging cars or steel mill cars on light rail with tight radius, an engine like the #110 would serve you much better than a hand me down big engine from a Class I. The #110 was actually the largest and heaviest model Vulcan offered in its mid-1920s catalogs. Since its boiler was not superheated and it had a low boiler pressure it didn’t take a lot to get it going or keep it going. The lower pressure also equaled less maintenance. All of these attributes will serve the NHVR well on their railroad should they find the money to restore the engine.


Allan Paul

Manager - Fleet & Facilities Unit

NCDOT Rail Division

1553 Mail Service Center

Raleigh, NC 27699-1553




Builder: Vulcan Iron Works Construction Number: 3738 Completion Date: 07/1927

Wheel Arrangement: 2-6-2 Cylinder Size: 16” x 24” Boiler Pressure: 175 lbs.

Drivers Diameter: 44” Tractive Effort: 20,770 lbs. Empty Weight: 104,500 lbs.

Weight on Drivers: 80,500 lbs. Fuel: original wood burner, converted to coal 1933, converted to oil 1964.

Built for: McRae Lumber & Manufacturing Company as #1 at Quincy, FL, 07/1927.

Sale: 01/1930 to Beachwood Band Mill Company, Cordele, GA.

Sale: 04/1933 to Birmingham Rail & Locomotive Company (dealer).

Sale: 04/1933 to Cliffside Railroad Company as #110 at Cliffside, NC. Retired by Cliffside RR 07/1962.

Sale: 1963 to Echo Valley Park, Inc. (Swamp Rabbit RR) at Cleveland, SC.

Sale: 12/1969 to Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad “Yonah”.




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