The Prosperity Special

History

The twenty locomotives were part of a larger order of fifty from the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The train, nearly half a mile long excluding the pulling and pushing engines, left Eddystone on 22 May 1922. It traveled first on the Pennsylvania Railroad to St. Louis, then via the St. Louis Southwestern Railway to Corsicana, and finally on Southern Pacific rails to Los Angeles, arriving in June 1922. The locomotives were later used in heavy freight service on steep grades in the Far West.

Each rode on five pairs of driving wheels, with a two-wheeled truck at front and rear; the weight on the driving wheels provided great hauling capacity, while the trucks supported the ends and guided the locomotive into curves and switches. Each locomotive was nearly 100 feet long and weighed 621,000 lbs. The tenders had cylindrical water tanks and a smaller front tank for the oil fuel that all Southern Pacific locomotives burned; the oil was sprayed into the furnace by a steam jet, and the fire was controlled by valves within the fireman's reach.

Modern devices included feed water heating, highly superheated steam, and a booster engine on the rear truck for extra hauling power when starting heavy trains or climbing steep grades. A power-operated reversing device reduced manual labor for the engineer. Hauling twenty such heavy locomotives in one train required several pulling and pushing engines on level stretches, and additional help over the Allegheny Mountains west of Altoona; six engines were needed to move the train around the Horseshoe Curve.

Throughout the journey, each locomotive was manned by an experienced engineer in personal charge of his assigned locomotive.