Jemez Mountains Railroads, Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico

Locomotives in the Jemez Mountains

The railroads in the Jemez mountains used only a few locomotives, but those were of widely varying designs and origins. Few, if any, were particularly distinctive in terms of design or history, but they did their work well under often difficult conditions. The locomotives typically fell into one of two groups. The first group consisted of obsolete main line locomotives, purchased from used-equipment dealers or from the AT&SF. The latter road did all it could to assist a connecting line such as the SFNW, because it had the potential of being an important source of traffic and revenue. The second group was made up of specialized logging locomotives purchased new directly from the builders. These locomotives were masters of their work, having been designed specifically for conditions encountered in the woods: uncertain roadbeds, uneven track with light rail, steep grades and bad water.

The accompanying Locomotive Rosters (Tables 5 and 6) list every locomotive known to have operated on the railroads in the Jemez mountains. It is very likely that there were additional locomotives belonging to a construction company or leased from the AT&SF. Specific details on such locomotives, however, are lacking. The Tables also list, where known, the locomotive wheel arrangement, builder, date built, builder's serial number, and some key dimensions and weights. This information is expressed in an abbreviated form, which may best be explained by the following example:

102 2-8-0 Schenectady #5620, 1900 51-22x26-168500

102 is the road number, i.e., the number assigned to the locomotive by the operating company. It is usually found painted in several places, and on a cast number plate on the smokebox front of the locomotive.

2—8—0 represents the locomotive wheel arrangement in the Whyte system. The first digit counts the pilot truck wheels, the second digit counts the driving wheels, and the third digit counts the trailing truck wheels (Figure 64). A zero is used to indicate no wheels at a location, and "T" indicates a tank locomotive carrying fuel and water on the locomotive itself rather than in a separate tender. Gear drive locomotives are indicated by "3T Heisler" or "2T Climax," showing the number of drive trucks and the specific design.

Figure 64. Locomotive Number 101, a 2-6-2 type, of the Santa Fe Northwestern Railway switching log cars at Bernalillo, on September 13. 1937. (Photo by Preston George from the collection of John B. Moore, Jr.)

Schenectady #5620. 1900 is the builder, builder's serial number, and date built (either year or month/year). The serial number is usually found on a cast plate attached to the side of the smokebox, and often it is stamped into other parts of the locomotive. The builders of concern here include the following:

American Locomotive Company. Richmond (Virginia) Works
Baldwin Locomotive Works. Philadelphia. Pa.
Climax Manufacturing Company. Corry. Pa.
Davenport Besler Corporation. Davenport. Iowa
Heisler Locomotive Works. Erie. Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
H. K. Porter Company. Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania.

51-22x26-168500 gives some of the key locomotive dimensions:

51 is the driving wheel diameter in inches;
22x26 is the diameter and stroke of the cylinders in inches.
168500 is the total engine weight in pounds.

The term "light weight." when used, is the weight of the locomotive without its normal load of fuel and water. The weights of the gear drive locomotives, given in the form "70 tons," are the nominal weights of typical locomotives of the same class. Actual locomotives varied widely from this figure, depending on the mechanical details specified by the purchaser.

Table 5. Locomotives of the Santa Fe Northwestern Railway

Histories:

Figure 65. Locomotives 101 and 103 at the scene of the derailment of Number 103's tender, circa 1927. Number 101 is seen here in its original form (2-6-2T) with side tanks for water and no tender. (Photo by A. L. "Red" Gleason; Gene Harty family collection)

Figure 66. Santa Fe Northwestern Railway locomotive Number 107 behind the Bernalillo engine house. At this time (May 25. 1933) the locomotive burned coal fuel and retained its AT&SF coal tender. (Photo by Gerald M. Best)

Figure 67. A 3T Heisler, locomotive Number 105, of the Santa Fe Northwestern Railway at Bernalillo, circa 1933. Log car Number 244 shows its open-frame construction and folding-stake log bunks. (Photo by Charlie Pratt)

Table 6. Locomotives of the San Juan Coal & Coke Company

Histories: