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The Southern Railway F-8 class 4-6-0s were a fleet of 10 huge drivered 4-6-0 ten-wheelers that worked on the Southern Railway for nearly 40 years.
History[]
In the early 1900's, the Southern Railway was looking for some new motive to handle their secondary passenger trains. So in December 1907, Baldwin Locomotive Works built 10 high drivered 4-6-0s for the Southern. These locomotives were numbered 919 to 928. They had 68 inch driving wheels, 160 psi boilers, 19" x 24" inch cylinders, a tractive effort of 17,328 lbs., Walscherts Valve Gear, and weighed in at 65 tons each (125.6 tons with tender). Their tenders could hold up to 6,000 gallons of water. These ten-wheelers were lighter than the F-7 class 4-6-0s, using a shorter stroke, and fitted from the start with Walschaert radial valve gear, this class also hauled mixed freight and passenger traffic.
But when Pacifics like the Ps-4s came along, these locomotives were demoted to secondary passenger, local passenger, and freight trains. The first locomotives, #921 and #928 were retired from service in 1933 and by 1939 only class member 925 was the only F-8 left on the roster. This locomotive avoided the scrappers torch through World War 2 and would later retire in December 1946 and was cut up for scrap. Sadly, none of the F-8s were preserved.