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File:Moore, Keppel and Company - 4 steam locomotive (Class B Climax engine) 2 (27704468806).jpg

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This is a rare Climax steam engine (class B, P x2T), which is one of three types of geared locomotives (Climax, Shay, and Heisler). The unit was built in 1913 by the Climax Manufacturing Company. It was retired from service in the 1950s and is on display the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in the town of Strasburg.

From museum signage: "Pennsylvania lumberman Charles Scott approached the Climax Manufacturing Company of Corry, Pennsylvania with plans for a new steam locomotive. Previously the company had manufactured farm implements and oil-drilling rigs. The new contraption, built in 1888, worked even better than expected and quickly drew orders from other logging operations nearby.

Billed as the "poor man's locomotive", the Climax was designed to be powerful, agile, cheap, and even disposable. The earliest design of locomotive, "Class A", was among the most flexible and nimble locomotives ever built, able to operate on grades up to 19% and around curves as tight as a 50 foot radius on nearly any type of rail or gauge imaginable. Able to go where no locomotive had gone before, the Class A only lacked one thing - size.

The Class B, introduced in 1891, could be built in sizes from 17 to 62 tons. Nearly as flexible and economical as its smaller brethren, the Class B became the engine of choice for many larger operations. The ultimate development of the Climax came with the Class C, a three-truck version weighing up to 100 tons.

By 1928, with the market for logging locomotives dwindling, the company closed its doors. Unfortunately, company records have not survived. It is estimated that between 1,000 and 1,100 locomotives were built in Corry during the company's forty year history.

Number 4, a 40-ton Class B model, was built in 1913 for Moore, Keppel and Company of Ellamore, West Virginia. Both founders of the company had grown up near the Climx plant in Corry, Pennsylvania and were clearly fond of their products. Number 4 joined five other Climaxes and one Heisler, another Pennsylvania product, on the Moore-Keppel roster.

The W.H. Mason Lumber Company of Elkins, West Virginia purchased the engine in 1948 and used it at their mill until 1956. Upon retirement, the engine was sold to the Edaville Railroad in South Palmer, Massachusetts. Of more than 1,000 Climax locomotives built, only about 17 are known to exist today, four of which were originally built for Moore, Keppel and Company. In 1992, after a thirty-year search, the locomotive was purchased by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and moved to Strasburg. Its addition to the museum's roster completes the trio of major geared locomotives used in Pennsylvania."
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Source Moore, Keppel and Company # 4 steam locomotive (Class B Climax engine) 2
Author James St. John

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/27704468806 (archive). It was reviewed on 7 March 2020 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

7 March 2020

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current04:58, 7 March 2020Thumbnail for version as of 04:58, 7 March 20203,492 × 2,606 (4.65 MB)Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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