The K-3, Wha Might Have Been

[NW Mailing List]

Jim Brewer, thanks for the comment that the K3 development is covered in Ed King’s book. I’m only a few pages into my copy, and hadn’t paged through it until I read your comment. 

Ed, do you suppose that the N&W stayed with a 4-8-2 due to familiarity with it, or maybe a belief that stability was needed for what was intended to be a fast(er) freight engine? Or perhaps the novelty (at the time) of a four-wheel rear truck (and the 2-8-4 arrangement)?

Matt Goodman
Columbus, Ohio, US

> On Nov 29, 2023, at 5:38 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Thereisa diagram for the N 4-8-4 which would have been  the worlds first.
> The K-3 was doomed from the time it was decided to make it a 4-8-2 instead of a 2-8-4 
> EKing
> 
> On Wed, Nov 29, 2023 at 3:34 PM NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> wrote:
>> In various N&W books they had toyed with using the basic K-3 and a 4 wheel trailing truck for what would have been the N class 4-8-4. For various obvious reasons it never became more than paper.
>> 
>> Roger Huber
>> Deer Creek Locomotive Works
>> 
>> 
>> On Wednesday, November 29, 2023 at 01:22:32 PM CST, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> It's too bad that N&W's Motive Power Department didn't believe a four-wheel trailing truck was necessary under the fire box.  If memory serves me correctly, Cousin Ed's book on the Class A mentioned that a two-wheel truck supporting a fire box burning high quality Pocahontas steam coal was deemed sufficient.  A four-wheel truck would have made it a 4-8-4, well before Alco delivered the first of that wheel arrangement to the Northern Pacific.  If N&W had built the first 4-8-4, it would be called the "Norfolk" type instead of the "Northern."
>> 
>> What might have been.
>> 
>> Bill King
>> Arlington, Virginia
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