USATC S160 Class

Updated on Nov 24, 2023

Edit

Comment

Power type Steam Build date 1942–1946 Configuration 2-8-0		Designer Maj. J. W. Marsh Total produced 2120
Builder American Locomotive Company (755), Baldwin Locomotive Works (712), Lima Locomotive Works (653)

The United States Army Transportation Corps S160 Class is a class of 2-8-0 Consolidation steam locomotive designed for use in Europe during World War II for heavy freight work. A total of 2,120 were built and they worked on railroads across the world, including Africa, Asia, all of Europe and South America.

Design

During the 1930s, the United States Army Transportation Corps approved update of a Baldwin Locomotive Works World War I design in contingency for war transportation, to create the S159 Class. During the period of World War II when America was neutral, the government of Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the Lend-Lease supply to the United Kingdom of the S200 Class, designed specifically to fit into the restricted British loading gauge.

With America's entry to World War II, the USATC needed a developed design from which to create a volume of locomotive power for the wrecked railways of Europe, which they could use to deploy military hardware and civilian goods. Hence the design created by Maj. J. W. Marsh from the Railway Branch of the Corps of Engineers learnt from both previous locomotives, designed on austerity principles and built using methods which created efficient and fast construction speed over long life, such as axlebox grease lubricators and rolled plates preferred to castings.

With cast frames and cast wheels, the front two driving axles were sprung independently from the rear two driving axles to allow for running on poor quality track. The larger tender layout was derived from the similar design for the WD Austerity 2-8-0, with the coal bunker inset above the water tank to improve visibility when running backwards.

British deployment

800 locomotives were constructed in 1942/3 in thirteen batches, split between ALCO, Baldwin and Lima Locomotive Works. Shipped to South Wales and dispatched from the GWR locomotive depot at Newport, Ebbw Junction, the first 43 locomotives were transferred to the LNER works at Doncaster for completion, and later running in over the East Coast Main Line. This started a pattern whereby each of the four British railway companies eventually deployed a total of 400 S160's under the guise of "running in," but factually replacing damaged stock and increasing the capacity of the British railway system to allow for shipping of military pre-invasion equipment and troops. The eventual deployment of S160's were:

174 to the Great Western Railway

168 to the London and North Eastern Railway

50 to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway

6 to the Southern Railway

The second batch of 400 S160's were prepared for storage by USATC personnel at the Great Western's Ebbw Junction locomotive depot in the immediate run-up to D-Day. After the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the locomotives deployed across Britain again began to be collected and be refurbished at Ebbw Junction in preparation for shipment to Europe.

Operational failures

The S160's were designed for quick and efficient building, not long term operations, thus compromises in design led to some difficulties in operations. The axle box grease lubricators were not very efficient, particularly when maintenance procedures lapsed or were delayed for operational war reasons, and so axle boxes often ran hot. Braking was poor for European standards, with a Westinghouse steam brake used for the locomotive, which was woefully insufficient due to the long distance from the driver's valve to the brake cylinder.

A major fault of the S160 was use of a single water gauge of a Klinger design unfamiliar to the U.K. crews. If the valves were not fully open the crews could be mislead into thinking that the water level was adequate, even though it was becoming dangerously low. When a low water condition allowed the crown sheet to overheat, the stay bolts holding the crown sheet would fail with little warning, resulting in a boiler explosion. In a space of ten months, three UK S160s suffered a collapse of the firebox crown, with the first leading to the death of a GWR fireman on No. 2403 in November 1943. Although there are claims that the stay bolts or firebox design were less than for domestic locomotive boilers, the locomotives were equipped with a "(b)oiler built to comply in all aspects with the A.S.M.E. Boiler Code, except that the shell shall have a factor safety of 4."

Deployment

Judging accurately the actual deployment of 2120 locomotives is difficult, but the following numbers are referenced:

Europe

The British locomotives, together with those shipped direct from America were also similarly deployed first with troops reclaiming Europe, and then subsumed throughout European national railways as replacements for their destroyed stock after the war:

Austria, ÖBB Class 956 – 30 examples, all scrapped

Czechoslovakia, ČSD Class 456.1 – 80 examples, last of them (456.173) withdrawn in 1972 and scrapped the following year

France, SNCF Class 140U – 121 examples, all passed on to other countries by 1947;

Germany – 40 examples briefly used in 1947 in American and British zones, based in Bremen. All sold to Hungary in August 1947;

Greece, SEK Class Θγ (THg) – 27 examples received in 1947 (Θγ 521 to 537 and Θγ 551 to 560), plus 25 examples bought from Italian FS railways in 1959 (Θγ 571 to 595);

Hungary, MÁV Class 411 – 510 examples, bought at $100,000 each, of which 484 were put into use and allocated service numbers from 411.001 onwards, and 26 cannibalized for spares

Italy, FS Class 736 – 244 examples, plus four salvaged from a sunken ship, all but eight with oil firing. 25 sold to Greece in 1959, the rest were withdrawn in early 1960s

Poland, PKP – received 75 S160s from UNRRA and numbered them Tr201-1 – 75; and a further 500 from USATC as Tr203-1 – 500. In PKP service, boiler pressure was reduced to 13 bar (1,300 kPa; 190 psi) and maximum speed was set at 65 km/h (40 mph). Modifications included fitting Trofimov piston valves, electric headlights and cab side doors. One engine was converted to a Tank locomotive in 1957, and designated TKr55

Soviet Union, Class Ш^A (Sh^A) – 200 machines ordered from Baldwin (Ш^A 1 to 90) and ALCO (Ш^A 91 to 200), designated S162s and S166s. Ш^A 52 to 55, 69 and 70 were lost en route to Vladivostok and Ш^A 13 remained in the USA. In 1957, 50 of them were for 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) track and used by the southern Sakhalin Railway

Spain, Class 553 – in 1958 the Alaska Railroad sold six S160's to the Ferrocarril de Langreo

Turkey, TCDD 45171 Class – 50 units, numbered 45171 to 45220

United Kingdom – none in use with any of the mainline railways after World War II, as almost all were exported post D-Day. However one was kept back by the British Army, Alco built works number 71512, and used at the Longmoor Military Railway as their WD 93257 "Carl R Gray Jr". Some have now been re-imported for use by preserved railways

Yugoslavia, JZ – Class 37 - 80 examples

Africa

At the same time as S160s were being deployed into Britain, when General Patton led American troops in Operation Torch into the North African Campaign, their Transport Corps brought with them S160s. These locomotives moved across the north of the continent as Patton's troops waged war, and when the troops moved to Italy the majority of their S160s moved with them. These locomotives, supplemented with those directly imported from America, were eventually to create a group of 243 locomotives, subsumed by the Italian State Railway's to become the FS Class 736 class.

Algeria, Class 140-U – number unknown

Morocco, Class 140-B – number unknown

Tunisia, Class 140-250 – number unknown

Americas

Mexico, Class GR-28 – 10 examples purchased by FCM directly from Baldwin in 1946 and allocated service numbers 211 to 220, with different pilots and couplers (some sources give 11 examples) – these were the last examples of the S160 to be built

Peru, Class 80 – 2 examples, with different couplers, probably directly from ALCO in 1943

United States – an unknown number with USATC and then various military transportation units. Five surplus to requirements of the Alaska Railroad later shipped to Spain

Asia

After World War II, the reconstruction of the world required transportation. The S160s were deployed to Asia under the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, to China and South Korea.

China, Class KD6 – number unknown. Many were modernized with larger cabs, higher stacks, some fitted with large smoke lifters with horizontal riffles. They were later transferred to industrial operators, mainly coal mines. The last example thought to be KD6 487 withdrawn probably in 1997

India, class AWC – 60 locomotives were sent to India in kit form for local assembly as 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge engines. Originally allocated USATC numbers 3433–3492 (Baldwin 70390–70449, 1944) they had their running numbers increased by 3000 by the Indian authorities to avoid numbers in use by the local railway companies. They were split between the East Indian Railway and the South Indian Railway; at the all-India renumbering scheme the former EIR locomotives became 22601–22614, and SIR locomotives became 22615–22660. Forty-five were still in service in June 1977.

South Korea

100 S160s were shipped to South Korea in 1947, where the Korean National Railroad designated them Sori2 (소리2) class, numbering them 소리2-1 through 소리2-100. They were not popular with Korean locomotive crews, as they were right hand drive on a left-running railway. In KNR service they were used primarily in yard duty and occasional short local trains.

North Korea

North Korea's S160s came from the Soviet Union and China, starting almost immediately following the end of the Second World War., and the Korean State Railway eventually numbered them in the 8000 series. Ironically, the S160's were used by both North and South Korean forces during this conflict.

Class Designation

Although "S160" has been popularly adopted as the class identification for this design of War Department Consolidation, it can not be verified as an official designation despite considerable research. The S160 designation is not found in 1942 and 1943 Baldwin drawing indexes, the Lima drawing index for the class, nor in meeting minutes in which representatives of the War Department and the three builders made several design decisions prior to production. It is also not found in any of approximately 900 engineering drawings which are still in existence. The Baldwin designation for the design, 2-8-0-19S, is found in their drawing indexs, on some drawings, and is stamped onto major locomotive components on examples built by Baldwin.

Variants

There were several major variants of the S160 class, excluding inlife design development:

S161 - designed for deployment in Jamaica on British military railways used by the United States. Later subsumed by the Jamaica Railway Corporation

S162 and S166 - both designed for Russian five foot broad gauge track

Sixty 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge examples were constructed for use in India in 1944 as part of an order for 180 locomotives which also include one locomotive configured to Alaska Railroad specifications.

There were several variations in equipment from the "standard" design for the War Department Consolidations, depending on the user. Typically, European-style buffers and couplers and kerosene lighting were fitted. Examples for India, the U.S.S.R., at least six purchased new for the Alaska Railroad, and possibly approximately 10 which remained on U.S. Army bases were fitted with turbo-generators and electric lighting. The six purchased new for the Alaska Railroad were also fitted by Baldwin with U.S. style automatic couplers, bells, power reverse, and U.S. style pilots. Some later production had screw type reverse gear. The War Department also required that the locomotives could be configured to burn either coal or oil.

Preservation

Mainly due to their numbers, rather than the design or build quality, at least 26 examples of the S160 have survived into preservation, making them one of the most numerous survivors of all Mainline Steam Locomotives:

References

USATC S160 Class Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents