Santa Fe 2-10-4 #5012 at the Pennsylvania Terminal at Sandusky Ohio - 1956

[Notch 8]

Santa Fe 2-10-4 #5012 at the Pennsylvania Terminal at Sandusky Ohio - 1956

The Pennsylvania RR did not have time to repair its own retired steam fleet, it need to move freight from Columbus to Sandusky and now! Not only was it quicker, but far less expensive to lease some surplus steam power from the Santa Fe.By this point in time, the Santa Fe had completely Dieselized and was in the process of scrapping some its relatively young steam locomotives.

A dozen oil-burning Santa Fe 5011-class 2-10-4's were leased to Pennsy between late April and early December 1956

Lloyd Stagner's article on Santa Fe 2-10-4's in the August 1975 Trains mentions that they did well above 20 mph, but tended to slip below that speed. With 74-inch drivers, the 5011's were built to outrun the melting ice in refrigerator cars full of perishables, not walk coal up to Lake Erie, and the flat, fast territory in the middle of the Santa Fe system where they spent most of their all-too-short careers was ideal. It's interesting that the last use of these engines, as well as some 80-inch drivered 4-8-4's, was in helper service on Abo Pass in the summer of 1956 and '57. Wonder if the trains they helped were able to maintain >20 mph. Pennsylvania Crews liked the oil burners better because they burned cleaner.

The engines were all returned, with the stipulation that Pennsy would pay for any needed repairs if Santa Fe decided to put any of them back in service. They never did. The dozen 2-10-4's were stored at Chillicothe, IL until 1959, then moved to Kansas City for scrapping. Only 1 was saved
Photo's by Robert Hale

[rrnut282]

Interesting that PRR had about three times as many of their own J1 2-10-4s even though PRR didn't like 4-wheel trailing trucks. Other than the large name on the side of the tender, one easy way to tell them apart was the round cab window on the PRR locomotives.

[zuluwiz]

There are a couple of videos of this operation available on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5zOCNNw6t0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jdz2An_9t4