The ACL is a very special railroad to me, as my Grandfather used to work on the railroad from the 40's to the late 80's, and his main engine he worked with was 4-6-0 1031 (Now preserved in Spencer, formerly in his town of Florence). After he died, a question came up in my mind. Did he ever see any of those huge 4-8-4's on the ACL? And can someone find some pictures of those massive engines, as pictures of them are very rare.

They are some of my favorite engines as well. We grew up in a town on the ACL mainline about halfway between Richmond and Jacksonville and my dad remembered seeing them often.

Check out my "secondary" webpage on the R-1's here: http://www.trainweb.org/aclr1/

I knew I'd seen stuff somewhere...... from the Kalmbach magazine index search:





Atlantic Coast Line 4-8-4

by Meyer, Bruce R.

from Model Railroader August 1960 p. 34




Atlantic Coast Line passenger No. 1805, Class R-1, 1938

from 100 Years of Steam Locomotives Collector's Edition p. 255

4-8-4 ACL drawing prototype steam



Atlantic Coast Line 4-8-4

from Railroad Model Craftsman October 1947 p. 28

Here are some photos of the Class R-1 engines:

Photo of #1800 from the Chester Holley Photo Collection posted to Flickr by Mike Robbins (alcomike43). The photographer, date, and location are unknown: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alcomike/6528754239/

2 photos of the #1808, posted to RR Picture Archives:

Photo taken in Rocky Mount posted by Vic Lewis. The photographer and date are unknown: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1527529

Photo posted by David Barrentine. The photographer, date, and location are unknown (date listed is an approximation): http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2385056

Finally, there is currently a photo of #1800 for sale on eBay, listed by member "mag-king". Taken at Waycross on July 25th, 1948 by Jim Bowie, from the Collection of John A. Rehor: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Railroad-Photograph-Atlantic-Coast-Line-1800-Locomotive-RR-4-8-4-Trains-/201326297023

What gorgeous engines!

The ACL is not a railroad I had ever known much about, but then last month I found myself riding Amtrak's 'Palmetto' between New York and Florence, SC (visiting relatives in the Myrtle Beach area) and the ACL and the landscapes it passed through really captured my imagination.

It must have been an amazing sight to see those 4-8-4s rolling through the piney woods of the Carolinas.

-Philip Marshall

Hugh -

Enjoyed reading about the ACL R-1's on your webpage. Although none of the 4-8-4's were preserved, I wonder if any of the mentioned Atlantic Coast Line heralds that were embossed aluminum plates, might have been saved? We have a metal Rock Island herald displayed at our museum which, I think, might well have come off of one of the tenders of a Rock Island 5100. There's a blank spot above the RI herald where one of those ACL aluminum heralds would sure look good! But perhaps, none were saved. Anyone know if any survived?

Les

I'm glad you enjoyed my page.

There was an article in the SAL/ACL Historical Society magazine on the R-1's a few years back (I purchased the back issue) and IIRC that exact question was posed, but they didn't know if any of the heralds survived at the time. There were 24 of the heralds; it sure seems like at least SOME of them would have been saved.

Hugh

It's a shame that one of those R-1 class 4-8-4's wasn't saved for posterity. Off the top of my head, I think that the only surviving ACL steamers was the forementioned 1031 and one other Ten-Wheeler, an 0-6-0 and a 2-8-0. There were a number of ACL 2-10-2's sold second hand to the Chicago & Illinois Midland, and they were really beautiful engines too. I often thought that one of them should have been preserved since the C&IM was mainly a 2-10-2 railroad with its heavy coal trains, but one of their Mikes was saved instead.

Les

Beautiful engines indeed, and quite large, too.

Interesingly, these locomotives are typical of Baldwin steam power. There are a lot of "styling" details typical of Eddystone, and shared with 4-8-4s on the RF&P, SL-SF, the later D&RGW 4-8-4s (1800 series), the D&RGW copies built for MP, and L&N's M-1 ("Big Emma") 2-8-4s.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2656218

http://www.northamericanrails.com/yahoo ... _large.jpg

http://mikemorant.smugmug.com/Trains-Ra ... 953-XL.jpg

http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/fileSendAc ... 02-8-4.png

Note that one of the last steam locomotives built by Lima (at about the same time as the last NKP 2-8-4s) was a design from Baldwin.

http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/ ... 7-1970.jpg

The details include:

Smokebox front design

Air compressor shield design

Sand dome design

General appearance of the valve gear (very light and lacy)

Trailing truck design (not the same as used by Lima or Alco)

I won't swear to it, but I think there's a possibility the photo of 1808 at "Rocky Mount" may actually be at Eddystone. The locomotive looks very new and clean, and there is the negative number hand-written on the picture, something Baldwin did with regularity.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1527529

Darn, how many of us miss some locomotives of great appearance that left no survivors in preservation?

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 926&nseq=2

Steamguy73, I think it's so cool that your grandfather worked on the ACL. Considering that the R-1s were retired from 1951-1952, I'd say there's probably a good chance that he might seen an R-1, or two, before they were retired.

There are several pictures of ACL R-1s here. http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/se ... ort/ad/asc

Also, if you're interested, Rebel Rails has several items that deal with ACL 4-8-4s. http://www.rebelrails2.com/store/index. ... _list&c=10

You forgot the BIG one: USRA light 4-6-2 #1504 in Jacksonville, currently undergoing a cosmetic restoration.

One other interesting factoid about the R-1's, that sharp two-tone paint scheme was black and metallic gray, which must have been a very early use of this kind of paint. I have a paint specification for these engines somewhere in my vast stores of useless steam trivia; I really need to dig it out.

Hugh -

Of course! ANOTHER great looking Atlantic Coast Line steamer! Goes to show you that I shouldn't try to remember things off the top of my head!

Les

and apparently the 1504 is a zero mileage engine, fully rebuilt before being displayed and
also the most complete USRA Pacific in existance.
[url]files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5493.pdf[/url]

That photo just made my year. Thank you, steamguy73, whoever you are, for starting this conversation. Now back to staring at the photograph.