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The 4-8-4 was the ultimate wheel configuation for the modern passengerand fast freight steam locomotive. The eight driver arrangement wasusable on almost every main line in North America and with drivers up to80 inches in diameter allowed any reasonable speed that the railroad couldhandle. The four wheel trailing truck supported a larger firebox for maximumsteam levels allowing for extra boiler capacity. The four wheel leading(or pony) truck completed the best combination for riding and tracking.

With the surge in passenger business in the 1920's most railroads werebeing forced to operate extra trains or run their scheduled trains insections simply because the locomotves in use could only haul about 12cars. It was out of this need that the "super powered" locomotives weredeveloped and of them the 4-8-4 was the most numerous and widely used.

The first 4-8-4 was built by the American Locomotive Company, in January,1927, for the Northern Pacific. This locomotive was basically the 4-8-2modified to accomodate a large grate area and a very deep firebox which wasrequired to burn the very low grade of bituminous coal that the NorthernPacicific produced from its own mines. This new wheel arrangement was dubbed"Nothern Pacific", which was quickly shortened to "Northern".

There were 36 North American Railroads that owned and operated a total of1,126 "Northern" type locomotives.

Some railroads, particularly the southern ones, rejected the "Northern"name and used names with a more regional connection. The C&O calledthem "Greenbriers"; the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western used the name"Poconos"; the Lehigh Valley came up with "Wyoming"; the Nashville,Chattanooga & St.Louis named them "Dixies"; the New York Central chose"Niagaras"; the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac named each of its 27,4-8-4s after southern generals, governors and statesmen; the SouthernPacific used the name "Golden State"; the Western Maryland dubbed them"Potomacs" and in Canada, the CNR named them "Confederations" while theNacionale de Mexico called them "Niagras".

The Timken Demonstrator

In 1930, the Timken Company took delivery of its own 4-8-4 Northernlocomotive from the American Locomotive Company. Timken wanted todemonstrate the advantages of roller bearings on steam locomotives andthus became one of the very few private owners of a main linelocomotive.

This locomotive carried road number 1111 and the Timken name and becameknown as "four aces" on the many railroads that tested it. In the twoyears it traveled the country it ran up an impressive record in bothpassenger and freight operation.

Designed for fast freight and passenger service, this locomotive wastested in drag freight operation and consistently did well withouthelpers. On one occasion it started a 132 car freight train of 9,864tons.

Timken had "four aces" built so that the boiler pressure could bevaried between 235 and 250 psi and its weight could be shifted betweenthe drivers and trucks thus allowing the demonstrator to have a tractiveeffort of 59,900 lbs at 235 psi and 63,700 lbs at 250 psi. The locomotiveweighed 417,500 lbs, had 73" drivers and 27 x 30 cylinders.

While being tested on the Northern Pacific, number 1111 suffered crownsheet damage. Timken was essentially finished with it and did not wanta damaged locomotive and NP did not want to repair a locomotive it didnot own. In order to resolve this stand-off, NP bought the locomotive,repaired it, numbered it 2626 and used it until 1955.

• Northern Pacific's "Four Aces"
• Four Aces Photographs

Information for this introduction to Northernsprovided byRichard Duley.

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