My Technical Data

When I was constructed, steam locomotives were not only a common sight, many non railroaders had a basic working knowledge of the railroad steam locomotive. Today this is not the case, as steam locomotives are a rare sight. Fewer and fewer individuals are familiar with the now historic technology of a steam locomotive. This is why there are several pages dedicated to my parts and their functions. I am not the most modern or antiquated locomotive to operate. Today, I have features that were typical of Southern Pacific Practice. Other railroads such as the Santa Fe or the Texas & Pacific which operated in El Paso had their own standard practice. Some of these practices would change with time

For those who know little about Steam locomotives I encourage you to Start here. My Basic Parts . This will start with the basics.

The next step is the Descriptive Record of 3420 which is a historic look at my features.  This is how the Southern Pacific documented the features of each locomotive. This gives you a closer view of some of my parts. There will be more over time.

Finally railroads made their money by hauling freight and charging their customers for services provided. Therefore it is important to know how much a locomotive can pull over a section of the railroad.  Here are my hauling capacities for the Southern Pacific lines North and West of El Paso.   Tonnage Ratings. The Southern Pacific east of El Paso was considered a separate company and I did not typically operate east of Piedras Street while in service with the Southern Pacific.

The railroad cars on a railroad would have two weights of interest when initially determining a train’s approximate weight.  The two weights are a car’s empty weight and the car’s maximum loaded weight.  Unless you know the weight of a partially loaded car, it is safer to assume that the car is fully loaded so a locomotive’s hauling capacity is not overloaded and the locomotive is unable to move a entire train in one movement to its destination.  Conversely, if there is a train with a locomotive assigned to the train where the train does not use the design capabilities of the assigned locomotive results in economic and engineering inefficiencies that waste the potential profits of the railroad.  The ability of a railroad to understand the traffic the railroad will have over several years, the challenges of the territory that they operate, and the ability to properly operate the railroad over time takes an understanding of issues of mechanical design of rolling stock, the physical layout and condition of the railroad, the seasonal business changes over the year, and the annual operational challenges the railroad(s) face.  The technical description of any railroad rolling stock tells you a lot about the ability of that piece of rolling stock to contribute to the financial health of the company.