New York Central Niagara


The New York Central Railroad's Niagara was a 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive named after the Niagara River and Falls. It had a wheel arrangement of 4-8-4 in the Whyte notation and is considered as one of the most efficient 4-8-4 locomotives ever built.
The first New York Central Railroad Northern was ordered in 1931: #800, an experimental locomotive that had its boiler divided into three sections of different pressure. This was another failed experiment in high pressure steam locomotives.
By the 1940s loads being hauled on the New York Central main line from New York to Chicago were as much as the famous J-class NYC Hudson 4-6-4's could handle. The Chief of Motive Power for the railroad, Paul W. Kiefer, decided to order some 4-8-4's which could sustain on the run between the two cities, day after day without respite.
The American Locomotive Company proposed these locomotives, and although the design owes something to the Union Pacific 4-8-4's, of which Union Pacific 844 is the best-known, the design was actually quite new. Some steam experts have claimed the Niagara to be the ultimate locomotive, as it had the speed of an FEF and the power of Northerns with smaller driver wheels.

Locomotive details

The first Niagara was Class S-1a #6000 in 1945; the S-1b were delivered in 1945-46. The NYC's last steam locomotive was Class S-2 #5500; it had poppet valves. The Niagaras did not have steam domes, as did most steam locomotives, which resulted in a smooth contour along the top of the boiler. A perforated pipe collected steam instead. This was necessary because of the lower loading gauge of the New York Central.
These locomotives had a small water capacity in the tender, because the New York Central was one of the few in North America which used track pans. This allowed a larger coal capacity—46 tons—so the New York to Chicago run could be done with one stop for coal.
On test these locomotives reached in the cylinders, and ran 26,000 miles per month.
All bearings were either roller bearings or needle rollers.

Maintenance

The six days per week running schedule of these locomotives meant that all of the maintenance work normally done over the course of that week would have to be done on one day. This meant a specialized system was developed, where men in "hot suits" entered the firebox while the locomotive was still in steam and cleared all of the tubes, repaired the brick arch, etc. As the temperature inside the firebox itself would have been well over 212 degrees Fahrenheit, and the working area these maintenance workers would have been standing on was the still-hot firebars of the grate, all references describe these workers as 'heroic'.
This type of intensive maintenance was studied by steam locomotive designers such as Andre Chapelon, Livio Dante Porta, and David Wardale. These designers based their modern steam locomotives on the experience gained in these Niagara-class locomotives: reliability; and a close attention to details leading to a reduction in maintenance costs.

The 1946 steam-versus-diesel trials

Six of these locomotives were chosen by their designer, Paul W. Kiefer, for the famous 1946 Steam Versus Diesel road trials, where the Niagaras were put up against some diesels. The locomotives were run along the from New York to Chicago, via Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo and Elkhart, and return. The results were close:
The results were much closer than the diesel salesmen were comfortable with, but these steam locomotives were hampered by several factors: a series of coal miners' strikes; aggressive dieselization sales efforts; and a failure of the highly-expensive firebox-wrapper metallurgy to withstand the conditions of actual operation.

Disposition

None of the NYC Niagara units survive in preservation today.
As the firebox wrappers failed, the locomotives were withdrawn, and eventually all of them were scrapped. According to the following, the retirement dates are below:
http://madisonrails.railfan.net/lewman31_niagaras_retired.html
May 1951 - 5500 retired. Niagaras 6000-6025 still on roster.
August 1955: 19 Niagaras retired, leaving 6000, 6007, 6015, 6019, 6020, 6023, 6024.
November 1955: 6007 retired.
March 1956: 6000, 6019, 6020, 6023, 6024 retired, leaving only 6015.
June 30, 1956: Last run of 6015 in passenger service, Train No. 416, Indianapolis to Cincinnati on account of a diesel failure. Departed Indianapolis 34 minutes late, arrived Cincinnati 6 minutes late.
July 2, 1956, Returned to Indianapolis in freight service, train CC-3. Final run.
The dates of scrapping are unknown at this stage, but this was believed to have occurred at Granite City.

Replicas