This engine is spot on for the n scale model power 4-4-0, and it's the first SP 4-4-0 I've seen with a lowered pyle light!:tb-biggrin: http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/SP268.JPG
Yeah, that's as BIG a 4-4-0 as I've ever seen. Some modern features like piston valves - yet still Stevenson valve gear. Superheated? Anybody have any specs on that thing?
Specs for the engine can be found at Steam Locomotive dot com, in the table towards the bottom of the page, listed under Class E-73... http://steamlocomotive.com/american/?page=sp It would appear that the Class E-23s were similar... SP 1433-1458 and T&NO 261-264.
It's an SP E-23. They were built by Cooke and Schenectady in 1899-1900. Originally, they were built with slide valves. A number of them were modernized with superheating and piston valves while retaining the Stephenson valve gear. They were built with 73" drivers. The same boiler was used on SP's M-4 moguls. Pictures of the class as built and modernized can be seen on pp 65-68 of Guy Dunscomb's "A Century Of Southern Pacific Steam Locomotives". Andre
The MP mogul/eight-wheeler is based on a Harriman prototype. The funny thing is that MP never sold it with a Harriman cab, just ALCo or arched roof. It is possible to bash the ALCo cab into a Harriman lookalike. The boiler on both is unmistakeable as that of a Harriman oil burner. MP was going to issue the eight wheeler with a Vanderbilt, as it did with the mogul. There was so much noise from the SP modellers that they issued it with the box tenders. Funny thing is that some SP eight wheelers did have Vanderbilts. The photographs that I have seen of E classes with Vanderbilts were taken in the SF Bay Area. I do not know if E classes in Southern California or on the Sunset Route had Vanderbilts.
