Wartime power: A Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway 2-8-8-2 locomotive at Duluth Ore Docks in December 1917.
(Altona, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
2-8-8-2 MIKADO MALLET STEAM LOCOMOTIVE
A 2-8-8-2, in the Whyte notation for describing steam locomotive wheel arrangements, is an articulated locomotive with a two-wheel leading truck, two sets of eight driving wheels, and a two-wheel trailing truck. The equivalent UIC classification is, refined to Mallet locomotives, (1'D)D1'. These locomotives usually employ the Mallet principles of articulation—with the rear engine rigidly attached to the boiler and the front engine free to rotate—and compounding. The 2-8-8-2 was a design largely limited to American locomotive builders. The last 2-8-8-2 was retired in 1962 from the N&W's roster, two years past the ending of steam though steam was still used on steel mill lines and other railroads until 1983.
Other equivalent classifications are:
- UIC classification: 1DD1 (also known as German classification and Italian classification)
- French classification: 140+041
- Turkish classification: 45+45
- Swiss classification: 4/5+4/5
A similar wheel arrangement exists for Garratt locomotives, but is referred to as 2-8-0+0-8-2 since both engine units swivel.
Diagram of the 2-8-8-2 Wheel Arrangement. Front of locomotive on left.
(Gwernol, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
The first 2-8-8-2 was built in 1909 by Baldwin, who sold two to the Southern Pacific Railroad (classified MC-1), and then three each to the Union Pacific Railroad and UP-owned Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. Baldwin conceived the type as an expansion of the 2-6-6-2 permitting a greater tractive effort.
The next order for the type was from the Southern Pacific; these differed in being cab forward locomotives, so that the crew could have better visibility and breathing in the SP's long tunnels and snow sheds. They were very successful, and SP continued to order cab-forward locomotives, building an eventual fleet of 256 of numerous classes; later cab-forwards were 4-6-6-2s (originally 2-6-6-2s) and 4-8-8-2s.
A mallet compound locomotive of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway (Frisco). The engine was the largest of its type at the time, September 15, 1913. (Fred Harvey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Postcard depiction of PRR 3396, an Alco HH1 locomotive of the Pennsylvania Railroad. This was the only HH1 owned by the railroad, built in 1911 and scrapped in 1928. (PRR, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The 2-8-8-2 proved itself to be a capable hauler on mountain grades, enabling the replacement of several smaller locomotives and hauling longer trains than before. Most of them were not fast; they hauled at drag freight speeds, up to 25 mph (40 km/h). However, the Norfolk & Western Y6 class were designed to run up to 55 mph (89 km/h). The locomotives were adopted by a broad spectrum of mountain railroads, including the Norfolk & Western, Southern, Virginian, Great Northern, Clinchfield, Denver & Rio Grande Western, Reading, Western Maryland, Missouri Pacific, Frisco, and the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway. On many railroads, the locomotives of the type were the most powerful on the roster. When built, the 2-8-8-2s of the Western Pacific Railroad were among the most powerful steam locomotives in the world and formed the basis for the later 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone" type engines used by the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range.
SP No. 4000 was Baldwin-built. This is the MC-1 before it was converted to cab forward in the early 1920s. (Edward Mitchell, San Francisco, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Hand colored postcard photo of a Santa Fe mallet compound locomotive which was said to be the largest in the world at the time, ca. 1910. (Fred Harvey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
The last compound Mallet locomotives to operate on major railroads in the United States were the 2-8-8-2 Y6b class of the Norfolk and Western Railway. After their final modifications in the 1950s, they were said to be capable of 170,000 lbs tractive effort in simple-expansion mode, although some have questioned this claim (the original design tractive effort was 152,206 lbs SIMPLE and 126,838 lbs COMPOUND). The last were retired in May 1960.
Norfolk and Western 2050 on static display at the Illinois Railway Museum in 2015.
(H. Michael Miley, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
As of 2008, there are two surviving 2-8-8-2 locomotives, both former Norfolk & Western. N&W 2050 is from the railroad's Y3a class; Alco's Richmond works built it in 1923 and it is displayed at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. N&W 2156, the strongest pulling extant steam locomotive in the world, is from the railroad's Y6a class; N&W's own Roanoke Shops built it in 1942 and it is owned by the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. The 2156 was displayed at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia from 2015 to 2020, after which it returned to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis.
United States Railroad Administration standard 2-8-8-2.
(1922 Locomotive Cyclopedia of American Practice, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)