Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Mogul.White, John H. Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830–1880. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 62–65.
Overview In the United States and Europe, the 2-6-0 wheel arrangement was principally used on tender locomotives. This type of locomotive was widely built in the United States from the early 1860s to the 1920s.
Although examples were built as early as 1852–53 by two Philadelphia manufacturers, Baldwin Locomotive Works and Norris Locomotive Works, these first examples had their leading axles mounted directly and rigidly on the frame of the locomotive rather than on a separate truck or bogie. On these early 2-6-0 locomotives, the leading axle was merely used to distribute the weight of the locomotive over a larger number of wheels. It was therefore essentially an 0-8-0 with an unpowered leading axle and the leading wheels did not serve the same purpose as, for example, the leading trucks of the 4-4-0 American or 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler types which, at the time, had been in use for at least a decade.
The first American 2-6-0 with a rigidly mounted leading axle was the Pawnee, built for heavy freight service on the Philadelphia & Reading Rail Road. In total, about thirty locomotives of this type were built for various American railroads. While they were generally successful in slow, heavy freight service, the railroads that used these first 2-6-0 locomotives didn't see any great advantages in them over the 0-6-0 or 0-8-0 designs of the time. The railroads noted their increased pulling power, but also found that their rather rigid suspension made them more prone to derailments than the 4-4-0 locomotives of the day. Many railroad mechanics attributed these derailments to having too little weight on the leading truck.
The first true 2-6-0s were built in the early 1860s, the first few being built in 1860 for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The new design required the use of a single-axle swiveling truck. Such a truck was first patented in the United Kingdom by Levi Bissell in May 1857.
In 1864, William S. Hudson, then the superintendent of Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works, patented an equalized leading truck that was able to move independently of the driving axles. This equalized suspension worked much better over the uneven tracks of the day. The first locomotive built with such a leading truck was likely completed in 1865 for the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company as their number 39.
The locomotive class name likely derives from a locomotive named Mogul, built by Taunton Locomotive Manufacturing Company in 1866 for the Central Railroad of New Jersey. However, it has also been suggested that it derived from the British 2-6-0 engine of that name, the prototype of its class, built by Neilson and Company for the Great Eastern Railway in 1879.
Usage Australia Beyer, Peacock & Company provided large numbers of standard design narrow gauge Mogul locomotives to several Australian Railways. Users of the Mogul type include the South Australian Railways with its Y class, the Tasmanian Government Railways with its C class, the Western Australian Government Railways with its G class (in a configuration as well) and numerous private users. The SAR also purchased 8 examples of the type built by Baldwin which became the X class. The New South Wales Government Railways had a number of mogul types starting from the 1880s, forming the Z21, Z22, Z24, Z25 and Z27 classes.
Belgian Congo Twenty locomotives were built by Les Ateliers de Tubize locomotive works in Belgium for the CF du Congo Superieur aux Grands Lacs Africains (CFL) between 1913 and 1924. The first eight, numbered 27 to 34, were built in 1913, followed by six more in 1921, numbered 35 to 40. Six more of a slightly larger version followed in 1924, numbered 41 to 46. They had cylinders and diameter driving wheels, with the smaller versions having a working order mass of and the larger versions . Most of the CFL was regauged to gauge in 1955, as were all of the serving Moguls. Most of them still survived in 1973.Continental Railway Journal No.19, published by the Continental Railway Circle in the UKRailways of the Congo, compiled and published by Reg Carter, UK, revised edition, June 2000
Canada A large number of 2-6-0 locomotives were used in Canada, where they were considered more usable in restricted spaces, being shorter than the more common Ten-Wheelers. Canadian National (CN) had several.Canadian National Railways Steam Locomotive Roster One of them, the CN No. 89, an E-10-a class locomotive built by Canadian Locomotive Company in 1910, has been owned and operated since 1973 by the Strasburg Rail Road in Pennsylvania in the US, in conjunction with the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Another one, No. 81, has since its retirement been on public display outdoors in " Palmerston Lions Heritage Park " just south of Main Street in Palmerston, Ontario, Canada. A third one, No. 91, is preserved at the Middletown and Hummelstown Railroad, where it is out of service and undergoing an FRA inspection. A fourth one, No. 96, is preserved and on display at the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio.
A well-preserved version, the White Pass and Yukon Route No. 51, can be found at the MacBride Museum of Yukon History in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Finland
Finland's 2-6-0 locomotives were the Classes Sk1, Sk2, Sk3, Sk4, Sk5 and Sk6.
Finnish Steam Locomotive Class Sk1s were built from 1885 by Swiss Locomotive & Machine Works. They carried numbers 117 to 131, 134 to 149, 152 to 172 and 183 to 190. These locomotives were nicknamed Little Brown.
Class Sk2 locomotives were numbered 196 to 213, 314 to 321 and 360 to 372. They were built by Tampella. No. 315 is preserved at Tampere in Tampella.
Finnish Steam Locomotive Class Sk3s were built from 1903 by Tammerfors Linne & Jern Manufakt. A.B. They were numbered 173 to 177, 191 to 195, 214 to 221, 334 to 359, 373 to 406 and 427 to 436. These locomotives were nicknamed Grandmothers.
Indonesia
The State Railway Company of the Dutch East Indies (Staatsspoorwegen, SS) in Indonesia operated 83 units of tank locomotives of the C12 series, built by Sächsische Maschinenfabrik of Chemnitz, Germany in 1896. They were wood-burning locomotives which consumed two cubic metres of wood and of water for 4½ hours of steam production.
Of these locomotives, 43 survived the invasion by Japan during the Second World War and were still being operated following independence from the Netherlands. They were based in Cepu in Indonesia and were used on the Cepu-Blora-Purwodadi-Semarang-Bojonegoro-Jatirogo route, now closed.
By the early 1980s, the survivors of the class were in poor condition. One example, C1218 no. 457, was revived in 2002 after twenty-five years, in Ambarawa motive power depot. By mid-2006 it was operational, and since 2009 it was moved to Surakarta, Central Java to haul a chartered steam train across the main street of the heart of Surakarta, named Jaladara.
Ireland
Several locomotive classes found usage on Ireland's railways, mainly with freight trains. The first of these would be the Great Southern and Western Railway Class 355, which were originally built by the North British Locomotive Company as an 0-6-0 type in 1903, but later rebuilt into 2-6-0s after problems occurred; they were soon supplemented with the similar Class 368. Some of these locomotives were converted to oil firing and one even for peat-burning.Locomotives of the GSR, Jeremy Clements, 2008,
Later classes of 2-6-0 include the Dublin and South Eastern Railway nos. 15 and 16 (with no. 15 being preserved), and the Great Southern Railways Classes 372 and 393, the latter of which were based on the British SECR N Class.
Italy The Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane came to operate more than 500 locomotives of the Class 625 for mixed traffic and the Class 640 for light passenger trains. These locomotives, nicknamed Little Ladies (Signorine), were very successful and several were preserved after the end of regular steam services, with some still operational for heritage trains.
New Zealand The Class J of the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) was its pioneering tender freight locomotive, introduced in 1877 for use in the re-gauged Canterbury region of the South Island. Built by the Avonside Engine Company and other locomotive works in England, they were shipped to New Zealand in kit form. They eventually served all over New Zealand's fledgling rail network on both islands. In time, they were replaced on mainline running as larger power arrived. Many survived into the 1920s as yard shunters and some were converted to tank locomotives.The NZR Steam Locomotive, Sean Miller, 2011,
South Africa Cape gauge In 1876 and 1877, the Cape Government Railways (CGR) placed eighteen Mogul locomotives in freight service on the Cape Western system, built by Beyer, Peacock & Company and the Avonside Engine Company. They were designated 1st Class when a classification system was adopted. By 1912, three of them survived to be considered obsolete by the South African Railways (SAR), designated Class 01 and renumbered by having the numeral 0 prefixed to their existing numbers. All were withdrawn from service by 1916.C.G.R. Numbering Revised, Article by Dave Littley, SA Rail May–June 1993, pp. 94–95.
Also in 1876, the CGR placed a pair of Stephenson's Patent back-to-back Mogul type side-tank locomotives in service on the Cape Midland system, built by Kitson & Company. They were later separated and rebuilt to saddle-tank locomotives for use as shunting engines. When a classification system was introduced, they were designated 1st Class.
In 1876 and 1877, the CGR placed eight Mogul tender locomotives in service on the Cape Midland system, also built by Kitson & Company. They were all eventually rebuilt to saddle-tank locomotives for use as shunting engines. When a classification system was adopted, they were also designated 1st Class.
In 1877, Whythes & Jackson Limited, contracted by the Natal government for the construction of the line from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, took delivery of two 2-6-0 tank locomotives from Kitson & Company for use during construction. The locomotives were not numbered, but were appropriately named Durban and Pietermaritzburg after the two towns which were to be connected by the new railway. Upon completion of the construction contract at the end of 1880, the locomotives were taken over by the Natal Government Railways (NGR) and in 1893 they were sold to the Selati Railway.
In 1877 and 1878, seven Mogul tank locomotives were also delivered to the NGR by BP, built to the same design as the two contractor's locomotives. Later classified as NGR Class K, they were the first locomotives to be ordered for use on the then newly laid Cape gauge Natal mainline into the interior. One was sold to the East Rand Proprietary Mines and two came into SAR stock in 1912, but remained unclassified as "NGR 2-6-0T Beyer Peacock Sidetank". Although they were considered obsolete, they remained in service as late as 1931.Classification of S.A.R. Engines with Renumbering Lists, issued by the Chief Mechanical Engineer's Office, Pretoria, January 1912, pp. 11–13, 16, 18, 47 (Reprinted in April 1987 by SATS Museum, R.3125-6/9/11-1000)
In 1879 and 1880, the CGR placed ten Moguls, built by Beyer, Peacock and Company, in freight service on the Cape Western system. While similar to the locomotives of 1876, their cylinders were mounted at a downward inclination towards the driving wheelset. They were also designated 1st Class when a classification system was adopted on the CGR.