If it is a Mikado, shouldn't it be in Japan?

Th locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is of the type commonly called the "Mikado". The wheel arrangement is 2-8-2 in the Whyte classification system. This particular locomotive is shown in the 1940s working on the Northern Pacific Railroad. This website (https://www.american-rails.com/mikado.html) has wonderful details about railroad history, so I have taken the following information from it: Written by Adam Burns. The Mikado type was the workhorse steam locomotive for the railroad industry during the 20th century and prior to the switch to diesel-electric technology. The design is often regarded as the classic American steam locomotive for this very reason. The 2-8-2 design (a blend of the 2-8-0 and 2-6-2 wheel arrangements) offered just the right amount of power, pull, and speed to be used for about any type of service, from passenger trains to freights moving over stiff grades. Additionally, they were built to both standard as well as narrow-gauge applications. The very first locomotive ever operated as a 2-8-2 design is said to have been an experimental built by the Lehigh Valley. The railroad took one of its 2-10-0 Camelbacks and cut it down into a 2-8-2 with the belief that it would reduce flange wear on the rear set of drivers. While the LV went on to become one of the early pioneers of the 2-8-2 the wheel arrangement was mostly shelved within the U.S. railroad industry for the following two decades. Ten years after the LV's first experiment Baldwin Locomotive Works built a fleet of narrow-gauge (three-foot, six-inch) 2-8-2s for the Japan Railways in 1893. It is here where the term Mikado, which refers to a Japanese emperor, is said to have been applied to the 2-8-2 design. The first 2-8-2s employed in standard road service that featured the larger fireboxes and boilers (for increased steam pressure, and thus, more power) is often credited to the Virginian Railway; in 1909 the coal-hauler acquired a fleet of 42 units from Baldwin (#420-461) listed as Class MB that provided tractive efforts greater than 53,000 pounds. Other railroads to use early examples of the 2-8-2 include the Bismark, Washburn & Great Falls Railway which used a few starting in 1903 and the Northern Pacific's initial batch of 1905 (often credited with kicking off interest in 2-8-2s as main line road power).

This post card was published by the company I only know as Railcards.com I have not been able to find any information about them on line at all.

The Underdog Wins this One!!

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a Mikado. The Whyte notation of steam locomotives would make it a 2-8-2. That means two wheels out front to help it get around corners, eight driving wheels and two wheels in the back to support the cab and firebox. This website gives us a short history of the Mikado Locomotive: https://railwaywondersoftheworld.com/mikado-locomotive.html "JAPAN was responsible for fostering the creation of one distinctive member of the family of locomotives. Increasing goods traffic in the island kingdom called for more power, and the “Consolidation”, despite its perfection, could not satisfactorily meet the situation. The fuel forthcoming was a most inferior quality of coal, with the result that the effective combustion necessitated a large grate area combined with a fire-box of pronounced depth and volume. The construction of the new series of locomotives was entrusted to the Baldwin Locomotive Works, whose technicians, in the resolve to satisfy the Japanese requirements, took the established “Consolidation” and gave it a wide, deep fire-box set behind the driving wheels. To provide the necessary support for the fire-box a trailing truck was introduced, giving the wheel arrangement 2-8-2. For purposes of distinction the new type was standardized as the “Mikado”, out of compliment to the Japanese Imperial Railways upon which it made its debut." The locomotive on the front belonged to the Grand Trunk Western Railway. Its story is told below as found at this website: https://www.american-rails.com/gtw.html Grand Trunk Western's immediate heritage begins when the Chicago, Detroit & Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railroad was formed on March 16, 1858 to connect Detroit with Port Huron, a distance of 60 miles. It opened a little over a year later, on November 21, 1859. It was soon leased by Grand Trunk Railway of Canada for the purpose of forming a Detroit-Chicago corridor. Grand Trunk Railway interests quickly realized that reaching Chicago would require a monumental battle with the Vanderbilts who sought to restrict competition across Michigan. The Vanderbilts were ruthless in their aim to spread New York Central's influence throughout the Northeast and Midwest. In a surprising turn of events the Vanderbilt of the day was ultimately outfoxed in attempting to block its entry. To do this he acquired the small Chicago & North Eastern (C&NE), believing this road of just 49 miles (opened in 1877) connecting Flint and Lansing was a key asset. His intuition proved correct but the Canadians countered by slyly picking up a series of disconnected railroads surrounding the C&NE. These included the Port Huron & Lake Michigan in 1879 (running between Port Huron with Flint it first opened in 1871 and totaled 66 miles); Peninsular Railroad of Michigan (opened between 1869 and 1872, at 115 miles in length it connected Lansing with South Bend, Indiana); and the Peninsular Railroad Company of Indiana (extending west from South Bend it opened 45 miles to Valparaiso by 1873). Cut off from friendly connections and with nowhere else to turn Vanderbilt capitulated and sold out to the Canadians. Service opened to Chicago via the Chicago & State Line Extension's completion on February 8th running 47 miles from Valparaiso to Chicago. At its zenith the Grand Trunk Railway was an impressive operation, maintaining its own 800-mile corridor from Portland, Maine to Sarnia while also linking Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto. In addition, it controlled the Central Vermont Railway.

The post card was published by www.railcards.com at PO Box 3081 in Alameda, California. Unfortunately, those addresses not longer valid. I looked on line for the website and found nothing. The sad part is that I have 204 post cards from this publisher and I know nothing about them.

A Long Way from Japan.

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card represents one of the most popular

classes of steam locomotives ever built. It is a "Mikado". This webiste is very good at giving a history of the engine and its popularity. This is only an excerpt; I recommend that you link to the original ariticle. https://www.american-rails.com/mikado.html The Mikado type was the workhorse steam locomotive for the railroad industry during the 20th century and prior to the switch to diesel-electric technology. The design is often regarded as the classic American steam locomotive for this very reason. The 2-8-2 design (a blend of the 2-8-0 and 2-6-2 wheel arrangements) offered just the right amount of power, pull, and speed to be used for about any type of service, from passenger trains to freights moving over stiff grades. Baldwin Locomotive Works built a fleet of narrow-gauge (three-foot, six-inch) 2-8-2s for the Japan Railways in 1893. It is here where the term Mikado, which refers to a Japanese emperor, is said to have been applied to the 2-8-2 design. he first 2-8-2s employed in standard road service that featured the larger fireboxes and boilers (for increased steam pressure, and thus, more power) is often credited to the Virginian Railway; in 1909 the coal-hauler acquired a fleet of 42 units from Baldwin (#420-461) listed as Class MB. Other railroads to use early examples of the 2-8-2 include the Bismark, Washburn & Great Falls Railway which used a few beginning in 1903 and the Northern Pacific's initial batch of 1905. Other railroads that would own several hundred examples of Mikado types include the Baltimore & Ohio, Santa Fe, Chesapeake & Ohio, Burlington, Milwaukee Road, Illinois Central, Louisville & Nashville, Missouri Pacific, Pennsylvania, Southern, and Union Pacific. The locomotive pictured is shown on the Kentucky & Tennesee Railroad (K&T). While no trains run under that name any more, there are trains that travel on the tracks once owned by the K&T. This website gives an excellent history of the line: https://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/railroads/historic-appalachian-railroads/kt/ The Kentucky & Tennessee Railroad was formed in 1902 to serve the timber and coal reserves of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company. The original line was a short spur off the Cincinatti, New Orleans and Texas Pacific mainline run by the Southern Railway. After a reorganization into the Kentucky & Tennessee Railway in 1904, the line was extended along the South Fork of the Cumberland River to access the rich coal and timber resources owned by the parent company and included the classic concrete arch bridge at Yamacraw. Although there were aspirations to extend the line south into Knoxville, Tennessee, the K&T’s mainline progressed as far as Bell Farm, KY, in 1923. At Bell Farm the road met with the 25-mile long logging railroad also owned by Stearns Coal and Lumber , and timber was hauled the 21 miles to the railroad’s origin and sawmill at Stearns, KY. The last addition to the railroad was the mile-long spur from Comargo to the “modern” coal operation at Devils Jump (Blue Heron) in 1938. Traffic consisted of timber to the sawmill and coal from numerous mines hauled back to Stearns to be interchanged with the Southern. The K&T also ran a modest Passenger service between Bell Farm and Stearns. At its high tide, the K&T hauled about 1,000 passengers and 3,500 tons of coal daily. Coal operations on the western end of the road at Exodus and Fidelity played out in the 1930s leaving only the timber connection at Bell Farm to keep the line open, but the lumber railroad was shut down in 1948 and the line between White Oak Junction and Bell Farm abandoned in 1949. The large mine at Cooperative was closed in 1950, and the line was cut back to Oz in 1953. Passenger service was systematically cut back following the closure of the mines until the last segment between Stearns and Worley ran its last in 1952. In 1953, the tipples at Yamacraw and Worley were closed leaving only the mine at Blue Heron and Mine 16 at Oz. K&T operations remained similar for the next decade, and every year brought more visitors to see the eclectic steam locomotive fleet operated by the railroad. The K&T also operated a pair of fan trips for the NHRS along its “route of the painted rocks” using one of its now-rare steamers. The K&T finally dieselized in 1963 when it bought a trio of used Alco S2s from the Denver & Rio Grande Western followed by a pair of S2s bought for spare parts from other roads, one of which was returned to service as K&T 104. The last steamers, K&T #10 and #12, departed in February 1964. Blue Heron closed in the early ’60s followed by Mine 16 at Oz in 1966 leaving only a couple of truck-dump operations loading on the line. In 1967, a brand new operation at Barthell named “Justus Mine” was opened and flood loaded about 30 Southern “Big Red” 100T hoppers per day. Trains typically consisted of three S2s and about 15 cars, but each S2 was only rated for 3 100T hoppers on the 3.5% grade up to Stearns from Barthell making for a typical loaded train of 3 diesels and 9 hoppers (the K&T never used cabooses). Justus Mine was closed in 1987, but the K&T’s legacy lives on. The Big South Fork Scenic Railway continues to operate tourist trains between Stearns and Blue Heron and perform switching at Stearns. The BSFSR uses S2s, including one of the original K&T units, to haul passengers along the banks of the Cumberland River to the restored tipple and mining museum at Blue Heron. The K&T’s motive power consisted of used Alco S2s which it had overhauled and outfitted for multiple-unit operations on their way to the K&T in 1963. The diesels originally wore D&RGW black and gold, but later switched to the white and burgundy scheme now worn by the BSFSR. A three-locomotive set was standard on the K&T which allowed a good rotation through the maintenance shop. Interestingly, the K&T learned about driving and maintaining Alcos from its neighbor, the Tennessee Railroad, who’s diesel fleet consisted entirely of similar Alco RS1s.

This post card continues the series of cards published by Railcards.com.

This post card is part of a series produced by the same company that printed the picture in my previous blog post: Head-End Rail Prints located in White Rock, British Columbia. Because of this I won’t be showing the back side of the post card. This is a picture of another steam engine used by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The wheel arrangement is a 2-8-2, also known as the Mikado. It got the name Mikado because the Americans made engines of the same wheel arrangement and sold them to the Imperial Japanese Government. The title on the back of the card says, “C.P.R. 2-8-2 #5107 High-ball Freight Power”. The picture was taken in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Many wheel arrangements can be found on the old steam locomotives. The arrangements are the result of the evolution of the efforts to produce more powerful and faster engines. The designers were working under the constraints of maximum heights (going through tunnels) and widths (track size and tunnels). The only direction they could play with was the length of the engines. You will have to wait for my Union and Southern Pacific post cards to see the final results before diesels took over. As the demand for higher speeds became possible because of safer tracks and engineered roadbeds, longer boilers became a reality meet the need for speed. This wheel arrangement was designed to support the larger boiler, to lead the engine through curves and to support the firebox. The source of the following information comes from: http://members.shaw.ca/cprsteam/ Trailing trucks began to make their appearance under passenger engines on Canadian Pacific lines as early as 1905, but the large number of 2-8-0 type engines in freight service postponed development of a large-boilered freight locomotive until 1912. In that year the first 2-8-2 locomotives were produced (class P-1-a) and while they had the same tractive effort as N-2 class 2-8-0s then still being produced, their larger boilers meant faster steam generation and hence, higher speeds. The era of the fast freight train had come, and in spite of evolution toward a "super" locomotive which manifested itself in the 1920s and 1930s, the 2-8-2 remained the basic road freight locomotive to the end of the steam era, certainly on Canadian Pacific lines. In all, 334 2-8-2s served the Company. Canadian Pacific's units proved to be most reliable and versatile engines; the light P-1, was equally at home on passenger trains in hilly terrain. Between 1926 and 1930, the ninety-five P-ls were rebuilt with smaller diameter cylinders and higher boiler pressures; as each locomotive was converted, 100 was added to its road number. Thus, No. 5007 pictured in the post card above eventually became No. 5107. Numbers (1912 series): CP5100-CP5194 (Class P1b, 1912) CP5200-CP5254 (Class P1n, 1910-1913); Number of locos built in this class: 150; Builders: Canadian Pacific Railway, Angus. Montreal Locomotive Works; Type: Mikado Type 2-8-2; Cylinder size: 23x32 inch; Driving Wheel diameter: 63 in.; Total Weight: 457,500-509,000 lbs.