Switcheroo

The 0-8-0 wheel arrangement appeared early in locomotive development in the United States, during the mid-1840s. The configuration became popular and was more commonly constructed as a tender locomotive. It saw extensive use as a heavy switcher and freight engine.

The locomotive on the front of this post card is an 0-8-0 type of locomotive working for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Beginning in 1844, Ross Winans developed a series of 0-8-0 types for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, starting with a vertical-boiler design where the crankshaft was directly above and geared to the rear driving wheel. With a horizontal boiler, this became the Mud Digger class of engines on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, of which twelve were built. In late 1847, the B&O moved to abandon geared drives and, in 1848, Baldwin delivered the first of a series of 0-8-0 freight engines. The USRA 0-8-0, designed by the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was a standard class during the First World War. This was the standard heavy switcher of the USRA types, of which 175 examples were built by ALCO, Baldwin and Lima for many different railroads in the United States. After the dissolution of the USRA in 1920, an additional 1,200 examples of the USRA 0-8-0 were built. In the 1920s the Pennsylvania Railroad wanted the best motive power possible to handle the switching chores at their yards and interchanges. Built in their own Juniata Shops, the PRR C1 class, at 278,000 lb, was the heaviest two-cylinder 0-8-0 switcher ever produced. The calculated tractive effort was 76,154 lb. The last steam locomotive to be built in the USA for a Class I railroad was 0-8-0 no. 244, a Class S1 switch engine erected by the Norfolk and Western Roanoke shop in December 1953.

The post card was published by RAILCARDS.COM out of Alameda, California. The webite does not exist any more, so I presume that the company went out of business. This is one of two hundred and four post cards that I have from this publisher. It is the third largest group of post cards in my collection.