Y4a to Y5 and subsequent retrofit for Y3's

[NW Mailing List]

Hee is m;y understanding of the   Y-4a Y5s ituation.
The railroad built 20 Y engines in 1930, 31 and 32.
These engines were not needed to handle the business of the railroad
because of the Great Depression.  The first six engines were built with 280
pounds of boiler pressure and were classed Y4a,  After they were on the
road it was decided to steam the boilers at an even 300 pounds for which
the boilers  had been designed.  These first six engines were reclassed Y5
and subsequent engines were built as Y5
I don't know of any information that these engines were built with anything
but bar frames.  All were built with plain bearings.  The 2092
was destroyed in 1937 inN&W's worst freight wreck up to that time.
After the last Y6 engines were built it was decided to upgrade the Y5s and
equip them with cast frames and roller bearings, a rather expensive
upgrading but it gave the railroad 19 more locomotives of Y6 quality.  They
were renumbered 2101 to 2119 but they were not rebuilt consecutely nor was
the rennbering done consecutively .
So after all this was done and the Y6bs came along the railroad had 100
locomotives that were superbly matched to the needs of the railroad.
N&W's 2101-2200 were, hands down, the greatest ,mountain service steam
locomotive ever built  and it accomplished its feats with a boiler the size
of that of a big 4-8-4.  Compounding made that possible and N*W's
continuous efforts to speed the compound up bore fruit.  A Y6 bringing
10300 ton coal trains up New River at speeds between 30 and 32 MPH required
the application of about 5500 draawbar horsepower  and any other locomotive
that could accomplish that output was a humongous simple articulated with
an appetite to match.
I ask anyone with data that contrdicts any of the above to let me in on it
-  I'm more interested in accuracy than anything else
- Ed King

On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 1:13 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> Ed, thank you for your response to my question. For some reason, I did not
> get the email through the mailing list, and only received it when Matt
> Goodman mentioned it and then forwarded it.
>
> There is a question I have remaining after your response.  You indirectly
> addressed it and sort of touched on the crux of the questions with your
> answer. I thought that the Y5's came in 2 batches.  You mention there were
> 20 exhaust bridges swapped to Y3's but that doesn't explain why only the
> first group was rebuilt and renumbered.
>
> 2090-2099 - 1st group delivered  as Y4a with assembled frames
> 2100-2109 - 2nd group *was built with the cast frames and delivered as Y5
> (am I incorrect here?)*
> **2090-2099 were rebuilt as 2110-2119 and re-classed as Y5, minus 2092
> wrecked*
>
> Mike Rector
>
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 8:30 PM Mike <mrector333 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Are there any articles in N&W magazines or annual reports about the
>> retrofit of the first Y4a/Y5 batch from bolt-assembled frames to solid cast
>> frames?
>>
>> What was the extent of this conversion; did the converted Y5's receive a
>> whole new front engine with drivers/rods/valve gear/etc.., or did they only
>> receive new frames with all the parts getting re-used?
>>
>> Finally, did the Y3's get immediately converted, as a Y5 was outshopped?
>> I can't imagine leaving those big frames (or whole front engine) lying
>> around the shop for very long.
>>
>> Mike Rector
>>
> ________________________________________
> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
> To change your subscription go to
> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
> Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
> http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20240216/1df455e8/attachment.htm>