Pennsylvania Railroad 2-8-2 number 520
Pennsylvania Railroad MuseumPhoto by Sean Lamb
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2-8-2
The 2-8-2 saw great success in the United States, mostly as a freight locomotive. It largely replaced the 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type as the heavy freight locomotive type in the second decade of the 20th century. Tractive effort was similar to the best 2-8-0s, but a developing requirement for higher speed freight trains drove the shift to the 2-8-2. The type was in turn pushed from the top-flight trains by larger freight locomotive arrangements such as 2-10-2, 2-8-4, 2-10-4 and articulated locomotives, but no successor type became ubiquitous and the "Mike" remained the most common road freight locomotive with most railroads until the end of steam. In excess of 14,000 of this type were built for North American service, which comprised approximately one-fifth of all locomotives in service at the time. The heaviest Mikados were Great Northern's class O-8, which also had the heaviest axle load (81,250 lb.) of any steam locomotive.
Almost all North American railroads rostered the 2-8-2.
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