More stuff from the Vollrath collection. The P&LE Berkshires, delivered unwanted late in steam time. Kind of strange built to old standards as opposed to the Niagaras. Here are three of them. 9401 appears to be "whitelined" so is in the deadline, probably McKees Rocks, PA 9402 And 9403
Jim, I was totally unaware of these P&LE Berks. Was their purchased forced by the War Dept.? I agree with your comment of "old standards" seeing the friction bearing pilot and trailing trucks, while the Niagaras, erected at the same time, were being supplied with roller bearing trucks. Though the boiler silhouette looks like a Niagara boiler with low domes and all. However, the cab and forward tender configuration look very much like CP and CN cold-weather designs. Ken, the raised headlight had become the preferred placement for late NYC locomotives, most commonly seen with the Niagaras. That position provided a longer distance coverage for the brighter bulbs that had been developed.
Hank, I doubt if the War Dept. (unless it was the NYC version of it) had anything to do with the purchase. There were only seven of them built, in 1948, and notice spoked drivers as well as friction bearings. They DO have overfire jets though. I seem to recall that they were too heavy to cross a certain bridge on the P&LE main, until it was strengthened later in their short career.
Ouch, I didn't realize those Berks were built that long after the War, especially since the Central was getting lots of F units by then. It makes one wonder how much oversight P&LE management was actually getting from the NYC Boardroom. It sounds like they were running almost independently of New York. Unless NYC Brass owed some sort of favor to ALCO.....?
These were the last steam locomotives built by ALCO before existing the steam locomotive business. Another odd thing is the ALCO Tender shop had been converted to build diesels, so the Tenders were built by LIMA Locomotives Works and had a LIMA builders plate on them. These were actually quite small locomotives but the boiler that only a utility company could love, the straight running boards, small (63") drivers and low clearance fixtures made them look bigger than they actually were. It must have been a pet project of someone at the NYC and the locomotives cost so much that they fund appropriated only covered 7 locomotives of the 10 ordered. Rick J
