LV 2-10-2 Unique 4-6-2 Locomotive

The Lehigh Valley Railroad needed more motive power to handle the surge during World War I and bought Seventy-six "Santa Fe" type locomotives from the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Forty were delivered in 1917 and the other thirty-six came in 1919. These locomotives were designated as Class R-1 and given road numbers 4000 through 4075. They had 63" diameter drivers, 29" x 32" cylinders, a 200 psi boiler pressure, exerted 72,620 pounds of tractive effort and each weighed 370,000 pounds. The firebox with its 100 square foot grate area was designed to burn a combination of anthracite and soft coal.
These locomotives were bought for slow-freight services between Manchester, NY and Sayre, Pa, a distance of 88 miles with a ruling grade of .4%. Each of these R-1s replaced two "Consolidations". In this service they were rated at 4,000 tons and 6 1/2 hours.

After the war, as traffic diminished and the needed for fast freight returned the 2-10-2s proved too slow for main line traffic and the LV sold eleven of them to the Hocking Valley in 1920 and then another five in 1923. It rebuilt twenty of them to be 2-8-2s. These remaining forty, numbers 4000 through 4039 were used until the end of steam.

There are no surviving LV 2-10-2 "Santa Fe" type locomotives.

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