Under the Whyte notation, a 2-8-4 is a steam locomotive that has two unpowered leading wheels, followed by eight coupled and powered driving wheels, and four trailing wheels. This locomotive type is most often referred to as a Berkshire, though the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway used the name Kanawha for their 2-8-4s. In Europe, this wheel arrangement was mostly seen in mainline passenger express locomotives and, in certain countries, in tank locomotives.
Overview
In the United States of America, the 2-8-4 wheel arrangement was a further development of the enormously successful 2-8-2 Mikado. It resulted from the requirement for a freight locomotive with even greater steam heating capacity. To produce more steam, a solution was to increase the size of the locomotive's firebox, though the 2-8-2 wheel arrangement, with its single axle trailing truck, limited the permissible increased axle loading from a larger firebox. The most practical solution was to add a second trailing axle to spread the increased weight of a larger firebox.
The first American 2-8-4s were built for the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1925 by Lima Locomotive Works. The railroad's route across the Berkshire mountains was a substantial test for the new locomotives and, as a result, the name Berkshire was adopted for the locomotive type.
In Europe, 2-8-4 tender locomotives were designed mainly for passenger express trains, but they also hauled long-distance express freights to increase utilisation. European 2-8-4 tank locomotives were a logical transition from the 2-8-2T locomotive types, allowing larger fireboxes and larger coal bunkers. They were mainly used for busy suburban services in heavily populated suburban areas of big cities, but infrequently also for sparsely populated rural areas or long-distance lines.
Usage
Australia
thumb|[[WAGR K class 2-8-4T with pipe train, ca. 1902]]
The Western Australian K-class was a class of 2-8-4T steam locomotives of the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR). Between 1893 and 1898, the WAGR took delivery of 24 of these locomotives from Neilson and Company. They entered service on the Eastern Railway between Midland Junction and Northam. In 1900, during the Second Boer War, the Imperial Military Railways experienced a shortage of locomotives and six more new K class locomotives destined for the WAGR were diverted to South Africa, where they were known as the Western Australians.
The South Australian Railways also operated 2-8-4s. Fleet construction commenced in 1930 and by the end of 1943, seventeen locomotives were in service on the gauge system. The design of these locomotives was based on American practices. After they were withdrawn from service by 1958, they were all scrapped and did not survive into preservation.
These locomotives proved to be suitable for Romanian conditions, being of ample dimensions, moderate axle load, straightforward two-cylinder engines of bore with a stroke, and diameter coupled wheels. The total weight in working order was 123.5 tons, of which 72.1 tons was adhesive weight.
Nearly all of them were still in service in the late 1960s. The Class 142 locomotives hauled the principal CFR express trains on mainlines and, like their Austrian cousins, were able to render good performance. At least three have been preserved for museums, locomotives no. 142.008, 142.044 and 142.072.
South Africa
thumb|[[CSAR Class C 2-8-4T|CSAR Class C]]
In 1900, during the Second Boer War, the Imperial Military Railways experienced a shortage of locomotives and six WAGR K class| tank locomotives, destined for the Western Australian Government Railways, were diverted to South Africa where they were known as the Western Australians. In 1902, they came onto the roster of the Central South African Railways and were designated CSAR Class C. By 1912, when the renumbering onto the South African Railways (SAR) roster was implemented, these locomotives were considered obsolete and were not included in the SAR classification and renumbering list, but recommended for scrapping even though they were still less than twelve years old.
thumb|left|[[South African Class 24 2-8-4|SAR Class 24, 1983]]
The locomotive was designed by Dr. M.M. Loubser, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the SAR from 1939 to 1949. It had a one-piece steel main frame that was cast integrally with the cylinders, including the cylinder hind covers, smokebox support frame, stays and various brackets, all of which would normally be separate items riveted or bolted onto the frame. Advantages of this arrangement were reduced maintenance and less time spent in shops. It was the first South African steam locomotive to be built using this technique. They were built with Watson Standard no. 1 boilers and they used Type MY Torpedo tenders that ran on three-axle Buckeye bogies.
It was the only Berkshire type to see service on the SAR. Most of them went to South West Africa, where 55 of them would remain in operation until strengthening of the track and the introduction of diesel traction made them available to be employed elsewhere. They were withdrawn in the mid-1980s. Several have been preserved in running order for service on excursion trains, operated by private steam enthusiast groups in Cape Town and in Gauteng.
Soviet Union
From the mid-1930s until their replacement by diesel locomotives, the 2-8-4 (1’D2’-h2) wheel arrangement was relatively common in the former Soviet Union. When built, these locomotives were designated Class IS, for Josif Stalin. The Class IS locomotive was a passenger derivative of the Class FD 1’E1’-h2 (2-10-2) freight locomotive and had many parts in common with the Class FD.
The Soviet 2-8-4 was the most numerous single Berkshire class built in the world.
Kolomna Locomotive Works built the first four locomotives. In 1935, production was transferred to the enlarged and modernised former Luhansk Works which was renamed Voroshilovgrad Locomotive Works. A total of 649 locomotives of the two variants, Class IS20 and Class IS21 (later Class FDp), were built between 1932 and 1942. After Germany attacked the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the Russians evacuated all semi-completed class IS21 locomotives from Voroshilovgrad. The Ulan-Ude Locomotive Works completed the last eleven in 1941 and 1942.
Despite their moderate size compared to American and Canadian-built 2-8-4s, the Soviet 2-8-4 was a good example of a Berkshire type designed for heavy express and passenger train service. It had a grate, boiler pressure, boiler heating surface of which was superheated, and only 20 to 21 tons maximum axle load. Their diameter coupled wheels and cylinders of bore and stroke, with a total weight of 133 tonnes of which 80.7 tonnes were adhesive weight, enabled the locomotives to easily reach the maximum permitted speed of with 700 to 800 tons behind the tender. The usual maximum speed was about , with an occasional need of .
thumb|right|[[Russian locomotive class IS|Soviet Class IS with streamline casing at the Voroshilovgrad factory]]
They were used as express passenger locomotives on mainlines which had type Ia rails of . They were later reclassified as Class FDp (FD passenger). One locomotive, no. IS20-16, was streamlined and achieved a speed of during test runs in 1937. Another, no. IS20-241, was displayed at the Paris World Exhibition in 1937, where it demonstrated the Soviet Union's locomotive production.
The first four were initially allocated to the October Railway and ran between Moscow and Leningrad, hauling heavy night passenger trains. Later, when the line was upgraded with heavier rails, they were transferred to the Moscow-Kursk-Kharkov-Sinelnikovo line. When more class IS locomotives began to roll out from the Voroshilovgrad production lines, they were used on the upgraded Moscow-Smolensk-Minsk, Moscow to Valuiki and Mitchurinsk to Rostov-on-Don mainlines.
Only one such locomotive was preserved, no. IS21-578, plinthed outside the main railway station in Kyiv in Ukraine.
United States
thumb|234x234px|The [[Nickel Plate 765 is one of two remaining operating Berkshire steam locomotives]]
Locomotives of a 2-8-4 wheel arrangement were used mainly for hauling fast, heavy freight trains on large Class I railroads, most notably the Nickel Plate Road and the Chesapeake & Ohio. While some were ordered to replace older freight locomotives like 2-8-2 Mikados or 2-10-2s where more power and speed was required, later examples were constructed for new fast freight trains, with schedules too fast for older designs.
Six years after the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway experimented with the first 2-10-4, the first 2-8-4 was built by Lima Locomotive Works for the Boston and Albany Railroad (B&A) in 1925. The railroad's route over the Berkshires in western Massachusetts was one of the only significant grades on the New York Central system, and was thus the ideal field test environment for the new design. Lima had previously designed a "super 2-8-2" for the NYC, but increasing train length and speed demanded increased steam capacity, so an additional axle was added to the trailing truck and the first 2-8-4 in the U.S., Lima A-1 class number 1, was born. This approach to locomotive design was termed "Super-Power" by Lima, a moniker that was subsequently applied to locomotives of similar designs made by other companies (e.g. ALCO and Baldwin).
thumb|left|The trailing truck of the Lima A-1.
The A-1 featured driving wheels, a working boiler pressure of , and produced over of tractive effort from cylinders. While not suited to fast freight, the A-1 proved a dramatic improvement over the existing locomotives on the line, hauling a heavier train over the mountain more than an hour faster than a nearly-new 2–8–2. Impressed by the new design, the B&A quickly ordered 45 identical locomotives from Lima, choosing to name the type after the mountains they were designed against. Though the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway called their 2-8-4s by the name Kanawha, the name Berkshire became synonymous with the 2-8-4 wheel arrangement, and was used by almost every railroad that rostered them.
Lima soon received orders from other railroads, and by 1930 they had built over 200 examples for five different railroads.
ALCO and Baldwin were soon producing examples as well, with almost 300 2-8-4s built by 1930.
thumb|left|Lima builder's photo of an Erie 2-8-4 locomotive at their plant, ca. 1927
The next development of the Berkshire type came in 1927, when the Erie Railroad ordered 25 engines from ALCO. In contrast to the A-1, these had drivers and cylinders, allowing for much higher speeds and transforming the Erie's freight business, which had previously followed the "drag freight" model of low speeds and high tonnage. A total of 105 similar locomotives from all 3 major builders would eventually form the backbone of the Erie's freight fleet, the largest fleet of 2-8-4s in the US, and would serve until the railroad dieselized in the 1950s.
The Berkshire's final development came in 1934, when the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road or NKP) received its first 2-8-4s, built to a new design from the Advisory Mechanical Committee (AMC) of the Van Sweringen empire. Under the Van Sweringen umbrella were the Nickel Plate Road, Erie Railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and Pere Marquette Railway. The AMC's design, based on the C&O's T-1 2-10-4s themselves based on the Erie's 2-8-4s generated of tractive effort with drivers and became the basis for many subsequent Berkshire designs. The NKP eventually received 80 of the type; 32 copies were built for the Wheeling & Lake Erie, and the Richmond, Fredricksburg, and Potomac received 10 engines built to the same design during World War 2. The Pere Marquette's fleet of 39 Berkshires was built to a slightly different design, with marginally larger cylinders and increased weight, which formed the basis for C&O's fleet of 90 "Kanawhas" as well as 5 engines built for the Virginian Railway.
Ultimately rostering 112 locomotives (through its own purchases, and the acquisition of nearly identical locomotives with its purchase of the Wheeling & Lake Erie), the Nickel Plate Road became indelibly associated with the Berkshire type. One of this class, Nickel Plate Road no. 765, was restored to operation and regularly operates excursion trains from its home in New Haven, Indiana. 5 other NKP Berkshires are preserved around the US, including 779 at Lincoln Park in Lima, Ohio.
Another 2–8–4, Pere Marquette 1225, has also been restored to operating condition, and runs regular excursions with the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, Michigan. As of April 2024, C&O 2716 was undergoing restoration by the Kentucky Railway Museum. C&O 2755, along with 10 other C&O Kanawha types and Pere Marquette 1223, are preserved on static display around the US. No other 2-8-4s survive, including Lima's groundbreaking A-1.
Many American Class I railroads rostered sizeable fleets of Berkshires. The table lists data on the American locomotives as they were built.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+American 2-8-4 construction roster
|-
! style="background:silver" | Railroad (quantity)
! style="background:silver" | Class
!Quantity
! style="background:silver" | Road numbers
! style="background:silver" | Builder
! style="background:silver" | Build year
! style="background:silver" | Notes
|-
| Lima Locomotive Works (1) || style="text-align:center;" | A1
|1|| style="text-align:center;" | 1 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1925 || to IC 7050; Scrapped 1956
|-
| rowspan=3 | Boston and Albany Railroad (55) || style="text-align:center;" | A-1a
|25|| style="text-align:center;" | 1400–1424 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1926 ||scrapped 1949-1957
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | A-1b
|20|| style="text-align:center;" | 1425–1444 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1926 ||Scrapped 1949-1957
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | A-1c
|10|| style="text-align:center;" | 1445–1454 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1930 ||Scrapped 1949-1957
|-
| Illinois Central Railroad (50) || style="text-align:center;" | 7000
|50|| style="text-align:center;" | 7000–7049 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1926 || 7038 rebuilt in 1937 to 4-6-4; Scrapped 1949-1956
|-
| rowspan=4 | Erie Railroad (105)
| style="text-align:center;" | S-1
|25|| style="text-align:center;" | 3300–3324 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1927 ||Scrapped 1950-1952
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | S-2
|25|| style="text-align:center;" | 3325–3349 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1927 ||Scrapped 1950-1952
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | S-3
|35|| style="text-align:center;" | 3350–3384 || Baldwin || style="text-align:center;" | 1928 ||Scrapped 1950-1952
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | S-4
|30|| style="text-align:center;" | 3385–3404 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1929 ||Scrapped 1950-1952
|-
| Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (15) || style="text-align:center;" | 4101
|15|| style="text-align:center;" | 4101–4115 || Baldwin || style="text-align:center;" | 1927 ||All scrapped
|-
| Chicago and North Western Railway (12) || style="text-align:center;" | J-4
|12|| style="text-align:center;" | 2801–2812 || Alco-Dunkirk || style="text-align:center;" | 1927 ||All scrapped
|-
| Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway (2) || style="text-align:center;" | As
|2
| style="text-align:center;" | 201–202 || Montreal || style="text-align:center;" | 1928 ||Only 2-8-4s made for a Canadian railway; all scrapped
|-
| rowspan=2 | Boston and Maine Railroad (25)
| rowspan=2 style="text-align:center;" | T-1
|20|| style="text-align:center;" | 4000–4019 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1928 || rowspan=2 |7 to ATSF, 10 to SP in 1945; All scrapped
|-
|5
| style="text-align:center;" | 4020–4024 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1929
|-
| International – Great Northern Railroad (5) || style="text-align:center;" | BK-63
|5|| style="text-align:center;" | 1121–1125 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1928 ||All scrapped
|-
| Missouri Pacific Railroad (25) || style="text-align:center;" | BK-63
|25|| style="text-align:center;" | 1901–1925 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1929 || Rebuilt to 4-8-4s; All scrapped
|-
| rowspan="5" | Nickel Plate Road (80)
| style="text-align:center;" | S
|15|| style="text-align:center;" | 700–714 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1934 ||All scrapped
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | S-1
|15|| style="text-align:center;" | 715–729 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1942 ||All scrapped
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | S-1
|10|| style="text-align:center;" | 730–739 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1943 ||All scrapped
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | S-2
|30|| style="text-align:center;" | 740–769 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1944 ||Five preserved: 755 displayed at Conneaut Railroad Museum in Conneaut, Ohio; 757 displayed at Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum in Bellevue, Ohio; 759 displayed at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania; 763 displayed at Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio; 765 in operation at the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Remainder scrapped
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | S-3
|10|| style="text-align:center;" | 770–779 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1949 ||One Preserved: 779 displayed at Lincoln Park in Lima, Ohio. Remainder scrapped.
|-
| rowspan="2" | Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad (6)
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | 700
|4|| style="text-align:center;" | 700–703 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1935 ||All scrapped
|-
|2
| style="text-align:center;" | 704–705 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1939 ||All scrapped
|-
| rowspan="3" | Pere Marquette Railway (39)
| style="text-align:center;" | N
|15|| style="text-align:center;" | 1201–1215 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1937 || rowspan="3" | Two class N-1 preserved while other remaining class N series were scrapped; 1223 displayed in Chinook Pier in Grand Haven, Michigan, 1225 in operational condition by the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, Michigan and one of the two operating 2-8-4 Berkshires in the United States, along with other Lima built Berk "NKP 765".
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | N-1
|12|| style="text-align:center;" | 1216–1227 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1941
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | N-2
|12|| style="text-align:center;" | 1228–1239 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1944
|-
| rowspan="5" | Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway (32)
| rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;" | K-1
|10
| style="text-align:center;" | 6401–6410 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1937 || rowspan="5" |All to Nickel Plate Road class S-4 in 1949; All scrapped
|-
|2
| style="text-align:center;" | 6411–6412 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1938
|-
|3
|6413-6415
|Alco
|1939
|-
|7
| style="text-align:center;" | 6416–6422 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1942
|-
|10
| style="text-align:center;" | 6423–6432 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1943
|-
| Norfolk Southern Railway (5)
| style="text-align:center;" | F-1
|5|| style="text-align:center;" | 600–604 || Baldwin || style="text-align:center;" | 1940 || to the NdeM in 1950, numbers 3350-3354; All scrapped
|-
| rowspan=3 | Louisville and Nashville Railroad (42)
| rowspan=3 style="text-align:center;" | M-1
|14|| style="text-align:center;" | 1950–1963 || Baldwin || style="text-align:center;" | 1942 ||All scrapped
|-
|6
| style="text-align:center;" | 1964–1969 || Baldwin || style="text-align:center;" | 1944 ||All scrapped, 1966's tender is at the Southeastern Railway Museum
|-
|22
| style="text-align:center;" | 1970–1991 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1949 ||All scrapped, 1984's tender is at the Kentucky Railway Museum
|-
| Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (10)
| style="text-align:center;" | 571
|10|| style="text-align:center;" | 571–580 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1943 ||All scrapped
|-
| rowspan="5" | Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (90)
| rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;" | K-4
|14|| style="text-align:center;" | 2700–2713 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1943 ||Three Preserved: 2700 displayed at Dennison Railroad Depot Museum in Dennison, Ohio; 2705 displayed at B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland; 2707 displayed at Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois; Remainder scrapped
|-
|26
|2714-2739
|Alco
|1944
|Four Preserved: 2716 last K-4 in operation, under restoration at Kentucky Railway Museum; 2727 displayed at National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri; 2732 displayed at Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia; 2736 displayed at National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin; Remainder scrapped
|-
|10
| style="text-align:center;" | 2740–2749 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1945 ||All Scrapped
|-
|10
| style="text-align:center;" | 2750–2759 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1947 ||Two Preserved: 2755 displayed at Chief Logan State Park in Logan, West Virginia, 2756 displayed at Huntington Park in Newport News in Huntington, West Virginia; Remainder scrapped
|-
|30
| style="text-align:center;" | 2760–2789 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1947 ||Three Preserved: 2760 displayed at Riverfront Park in Lynchburg, Virginia; 2776 displayed at Eyman Park in Washington Court House (Area), Ohio; 2789 last K-4 built displayed at Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, Indiana; Remainder scrapped
|-
| Virginian Railway (5) || style="text-align:center;" | BA
|5|| style="text-align:center;" | 505–509 || Lima || style="text-align:center;" | 1946 ||All scrapped; identical to C&O K-4 class
|-
| Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (7)
| style="text-align:center;" | A-2a
|7|| style="text-align:center;" | 9400–9406 || Alco || style="text-align:center;" | 1948 || Tenders built by Lima; All scrapped
|}
Berkshires in fiction
In the motion picture The Polar Express, the "know-it-all" boy identifies the train's locomotive as "a Baldwin 2-8-4 S-3 class" built in 1931, although the actual prototype for the film's locomotive was the Pere Marquette 1225, an N-1 class Berkshire built by the Lima Locomotive Works in 1941.
In the Transformers television series, motion picture and toy line, the Decepticon triple changer Astrotrain is modeled on a JNR Class D62 2-8-4 locomotive which all of them did not survive the cutters torch and were ultimately scrapped in 1966 and none were saved for posterity.
Locomon in the motion picture Digimon: Runaway Locomon is a 2-8-4 type locomotive.