Rahway Valley No. 7

Type: 2-4-4T

Builder: Burnham, Williams, & Co., Philadelphia, PA (Baldwin Locomotive Works)

Built: June 1908

Construction No.: 32817

Previous Owner(s): Purchased new from builder

Acquired From: Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, PA

Acquired Date: late-1908

Purchase Price: $11,400

Disposition: Sold in 1917 to General Equipment Co., Paterson, NJ. Sold to United States Army for use at its Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, NY. Supposedly shipped to Spain and ended its career on a South American logging railroad.

Notes: Built new for the Rahway Valley Railroad. Ordered from Baldwin on March 17, 1908. Delivered, under its own power, on June 20, 1908. Utilized exclusively for passenger and main track work until 1913. A long wheelbase prevented it from negotiating tight curves on sidings without derailing. Had poor brakes and could only haul three loaded freight cars from Springfield to Summit.

The RV had three locomotives in 1908 - Nos. 4, 5, and 6 - a Mogul, a saddle tank switcher, and a Forney. All three were aged and constantly receiving grief from inspectors for being in poor repairs. The RV was obliged to lease locomotives from neighboring railroads on numerous occasions - from the CNJ, the LV, and the Wharton & Northern. Clearly, another locomotive was needed.

Louis Keller and the Elmira interests, which had backed the railroad since the beginning, resolved to order a new locomotive straight from the factory. The Baldwin Locomotive Works examined the RV and prescribed what they thought would meet the railroad’s needs. On March 17, 1908, the RV placed an order for its seventh locomotive. With a price tag of $11,400 (or $315,750 in 2017 dollars), No. 7 would prove to be the railroad’s first and only new steam locomotive. Baldwin built the RV a 2-4-4 stating that it would be adept to the RV’s steep grades, light track and bridges, and tight curves. A fuel and water bunker, as opposed to a separate tender, enabled the locomotive to operate in either direction without turning.

Baldwin had promised the locomotive’s delivery for May 20, 1908. However, a delay in the arrival of certain components for the locomotive’s braking system, from an outfit in St. Louis, prolonged its arrival. The CNJ squawked at the postponement, it had leased the RV its No. 523 and soon found itself short of motive power.

No. 7, in its olive green paint and aluminum trim, departed Baldwin’s Philadelphia plant under its own steam at 11 AM on June 20, 1908 under the control of W. J. Sweigard. The locomotive arrived later that day.

The RV was pleased to have the locomotive arrive, it quickly becoming a symbol of pride for the railroad and its crews. No. 7 was soon employed primarily in passenger service. However, the railroad was soon confronted with a number of problems. The throttle valve would not close fully, excessive amounts of water accumulated in the cylinders, and a new blowdown cock had to be ordered from Baldwin to replace the imperfect one it was delivered with. The RV was forced to hire one of Baldwin’s engineers, Mr. Phipps, at $5.00 per day to come to Kenilworth to correct these problems.

The railroad’s Secretary and General Manager, Horatio F. Dankel, died on June 12, 1913. His successor, James Spencer Caldwell, had just No. 7 to conduct the railroad’s business with at the outset of his term. No. 4 had been scrapped, No. 5 was retired, and No. 6 was sold off. The RV had employed the diminutive No. 5 in both freight and switching service over its tracks. However, with its discontinuance, No. 7 was pressed into the service of drilling freight cars in and out of sidings.

The locomotive produced nothing but frustration for the RV in this capacity. No. 7’s very long wheelbase prohibited it from traversing the tight curvatures of the RV’s industrial sidings. The tender truck was on the same frame as the drivers and pony truck, creating a fairly rigid wheelbase of over thirty-three feet in length. No. 7 frequently derailed, spread the rails, and wrecked rails. The greatest difficulty was encountered when the locomotive was reversing into sidings. The constant trouble it caused made the locomotive entirely impractical to use. No such problems had been encountered in the five years it had been employed in passenger service on the mainline. Caldwell wrote the Baldwin Locomotive Works to see what they could do in the matter. Caldwell wrote, in part,

“This [locomotive] has never worked satisfactorily on account of the ease with which it is derailed when working on rails going into our sidings.”

Baldwin sent George E. Henderson to examine the locomotive and determine the cause of the problem. Henderson surmised that No. 7 could be improved for switching service by the removal of the four wheel truck under the tender and the substitution of a two wheeled truck with a foot plate. The coal and water bunker could be removed and replaced with a trailing tender. The cost of these changes, which included cutting off part of the slab frame, were to be $2,500. Caldwell consulted with C. E. Chambers, the CNJ’s Superintendent of Motive Power, to see if the modifications were worthwhile. Chambers responded:

“My personal advice is not to make a change on this engine. In the first place, the engine was built for shuttle service between Aldene and Summit, and built without a trailing tender, so that it would be better for such service. Naturally, if you wish to use an engine with a long wheelbase like this, it is not just the thing for switching work on short curves. . . . We might be able to get a little more lateral swing to the truck under the coal and water compartment, but in doing so we would make the engine ride more unsteadily on the curves. My experience has been that making changes on an engine of the type of your No. 7 along the lines indicated by the Baldwin Co. has not been very satisfactory.”

Caldwell promptly wrote to Baldwin to decline their offer to modify the locomotive, stating “I will recommend to our company the sale of this locomotive and buying of a new one of the proper design to do our work.” However, a year later, the locomotive was still on the property in freight service. The locomotive was professed a “rank failure” by those who operated it. Exacerbating matters, No. 7 had mechanical imperfections and required constant repair. The locomotive reputedly had poor brakes. This made it necessary, when switching with the locomotive at Summit, to roll down the grade towards Springfield, unable to stop, as far as the Commonwealth quarry. There, the fireman would jump off the engine with a shovel and toss gravel or sand on the tracks to supply a gripping surface. In 1914, No. 7 cost the RV $1,260 in repairs, including the cost of engine hire and freight to the CNJ’s Elizabethport shops. Caldwell wrote to the Board of Directors in 1915, “Engine No. 7 is not the right kind to do the work which we have to do and will not carry the freight necessary from the foot of the grade at Springfield to Summit. The maximum tonnage which it will haul is 200 tons including the weight of cars while we should have an engine that would handle at least 400 tons.” The Board of Directors declined to act, at the time, which incensed Caldwell.

Finally, in February 1916, Louis Keller circumvented the railroad’s financial difficulties by personally purchasing and leasing the RV its eighth locomotive. No. 8 was a 2-8-0 “Consolidation”-type and well suited to the work required of it.

Meanwhile, No. 7 was proving evermore burdensome as it was becoming increasingly costly to keep it in service. In May 1917, the water tank was leaking so badly that it was almost impossible to keep the locomotive in service. The locomotive was liable to run out of water if it was delayed on the railroad for any period of time. Caldwell arranged to have the CNJ correct this problem and also requested their shop crews examine the front end, as the locomotive was sparking very badly. Caldwell finally had his wish fulfilled as, before the end of the year, the RV sold the locomotive to the General Equipment Co. No. 7 eventually came into the possession of the United States government.

It saw service during the war at the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, New York before, reportedly, being shipped off to Spain and ending its career on a logging railroad in South America.