Took me a while to get the images scanned of the last group of C&S steam locomotives leased to the Q through the years: the class E-4A 2-8-2, Nos. 800-804. Built by Baldwin in 1911, these were essentially copies of the Q O-1s, but with smaller 57-inch drivers for the grades of the line south of Denver, primarily the C&S-AT&SF Joint Line between Denver and Pueblo. But whereas the Q did little to modernize the O-1s through the years (having moved on to the much more modern design O-1-As), the C&S rebuilt its five Mikados during the 1920s, outfitting them with new cylinders and Walschaerts valve gear, Schmidt superheaters, Elesco feedwater heaters, slope sheet coal pushers and power reverse gears. Their original Duplex stokers were replaced with Locomotive Stokers Co. BK models in the early 1930s. They still had small tenders (modernized from their original roll-top appearance) with a capacity of 13 tons of coal and 7,500 gallons of water, compared to the 13 tons/9,200 gallons of O-1s by 1930 and the 19 tons/10,000 gallons of an O-1-A. But their tractive effort at 200 pounds steam pressure was a commendable 62,800 pounds, compared to the 58,090 pounds of an O-1 or O-1-A with 64-inch drivers.
But after the 800s were effectively replaced on the mainline by 2-10-2s in the Teens and Twenties, the E-4As were often in storage, even after all the money spent on modernizing and improving them. When the Q's USRA 2-10-2s of class M-3 were sent west in 1927 -- first to the McCook Division for a brief time and then to the C&S in early 1928 -- the C&S was more than willing to send its 800s to the Q to offset the rental it was paying for the Q M-3s. As early as February 1928, C&S 800 was assigned to the Ottumwa Division, and by December of that year it has been succeeded by the 804, with the 800-803 all assigned to the Beardstown Division, where presumably they were used in heavy switching service in the Southern Illinois coalfields. By mid-1929 all five 800s were on the Beardstown Division, but the next year they went back to Colorado, the C&S having found a use for them. In 1933, in the depth of the Great Depression, they returned east, however, and would remain on the Q until 1948 before coming home again for a final decade on the C&S. The Q used them on a number of divisions during the Thirties and Forties, including Chicago, Galesburg, Beardstown, Ottumwa and St. Joseph. During most of this period the LaCrosse Division was listed separately on assignment sheets, appearing as part of the Chicago Division, but it was on Lacrosse Division territory that the C&S engines were used, as switchers at Minneapolis-St. Paul. On the St. Joe Division they say the same service in Kansas City-North Kansas City. And on the Ottumwa/Galesburg Division they handled heavy switching at Pacific Junction, Creston and Ottumwa and worked local freights between those points.
C&S 800 and CB&Q O-3 Mikado 5326 lead an eastbound freight through Red Oak, Iowa, on Jan. 27, 1940, in this view by Bernard Corbin. It's not likely that the tonnage required the use of a doubleheader; the 800 was probably heading to Creston for a monthly inspection. By this date the Q had already substantially increased the coal and water capacity of the 800's tender.
Two months later, on March 24, 1940, the 800 (left) and sister 801 were both at work in the yard at Pacific Junction, Iowa. The nearly white face on 800's smokebox front is indicative of a recent graphite application at Creston, and the cuckoo clock backup light on 801's tender is a Burlington addition. Just arriving in the left distance is Q motor car 9571 and a waycar; a close-up view of the duo appears in Corbin's
The Burlington in Transition.
By the time of this Nov. 6, 1946, photo, the 800 was switching at North Kansas City and a smaller Sunbeam headlight and spoked pilot truck wheel had replaced the ones in the earlier views. The locomotive is still equipped with a single chime whistle, and even more unusual, still has its Baldwin builder's plate in place on the smokebox.
I'm going to cover these 800s one locomotive at a time, so the 801 is next.
Hol
