Peter's Model Railroading | The PRR Chartiers Branch | Equipment
I1

Purpose

The PRR I1 class has the 2-10-0 wheel arrangement (commonly referred to as a "Decapod" or "Hippo"). These locomotives were used to pull long and heavy freight trains. On the Chartiers branch these were occasionally seen pulling a heavy freight, mostly long coal drags. While these are very large engines, photographic evidence of a train double-headed by two I1 locomotives running on the Chartiers branch appeared in the PRRT&HS The Keystone (Vol. 48, No. 1).

Construction

The PRR's Altoona Machine Shops built these locomotives starting in 1916 , and later Baldwin Locomotive Works also built them. A total of 598 were built through to 1923.

Specifications

These locomotives had 62-inch driver wheels and 33-inch pilot wheels. The #3 driver wheels were "blind", i.e. un-flanged. The locomotive was 49'3" long and the tender added another 30'7". The total coupled length was 81'9" (this is ~15-3/8" in S-scale / 1:64).

Performance

These locomotives could produce 90,000 pound-feet of tractive effort. These were very powerful locomotives, but they were slow and engineers thought they were hard-riding. They could work their way up to a maximum of 50mph.

Photos

References