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The United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) S118 Class is a class of 2-8-2 steam locomotive. Built to either 3 ft (914 mm), 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge or 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge, they were used in at least 24 different countries across the World.

Based on Australia's new C17 class locomotives, their specifications were forwarded to the United States where the United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) drew up plans for a 2-8-2 with specifications similar to a C17 class. 741 were built in the period late 1942–1945 with a further 52 appearing between 1945 and 1948. They were built by Baldwin (253+33), ALCO (338), Porter (25+5), Davenport (67+6) and Vulcan (58+8) in the United States. The first thirty were numbered 3000–3029, with subsequently locomotives numbered 130–249, and 257–889. Locomotives 640–660 and 789–810 were cancelled.

The S118 class were the most widespread of all the locomotives of the Second World War. The first twenty locomotives (3000–3019) were sent to Nigeria. Eleven, (190–200), were converted to 3 ft (914 mm) gauge by putting 3 in (76.2 mm) wide spacers (rings) between the wheels and the truck side frames on same length axles, and delivered to the White Pass and Yukon Route in Alaska. Twenty (216–235) were delivered to Queensland where they formed the Queensland Railways AC16 Class. Others were sent to North Africa, Gold Coast, Iraq, India, and Burma.

After the war, surplus locomotives were sold to Malaya, the Philippines (as Manila Railroad 850 class), Siam, Cambodia, Cameroun, Tanganyika, and the United Fruit Company operations in Costa Rica and Honduras.

Copies[]

Baldwin built 33 copies for the Indian Railways, Porter built two for the Chemins de Fer des Grands Lacs in the Belgian Congo, Vulcan built a batch of eight for the Piraeus, Athens and Peloponnese Railways (SPAP) in Greece (class Δ). Davenport built six with a higher boiler pressure for the Chemin de Fer Franco-Ethiopien de Djibouti á Addis-Ababa.

Survivors[]

Several S118 locomotives still exist:

No. Builder Post WW2 Owner Current Owner Location Status Notes
190 Baldwin 69425 White Pass and Yukon Route Tweetsie Railroad Blowing Rock, North Carolina, United States Operational Named "The Yukon Queen".
192 Baldwin 69427 White Pass and Yukon Route Dollywood Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, United States Operational Named "Klondike Katie".
195 Baldwin 69430 White Pass and Yukon Route City of Skagway Skagway, Alaska, United States Displayed
196 Baldwin 69431 White Pass and Yukon Route WP&YR Skagway, Alaska, United States Buried Used as riprap on the Skagway River
218 Baldwin 69453 Queensland Railways Zig Zag Railway Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia Operational Named "The Yank"
221 Baldwin 69456 Queensland Railways Queensland Rail Ipswich, Queensland, Australia Operational Mainline Certified
1798 Baldwin 74011 Northeast Frontier Railway New Jalpaiguri, India Operational Post war copy
Δ-104 Vulcan 4703 Piraeus, Athens and Peloponnese Railways OSE Kalamata, Greece Displayed Post-war copy, later SEK No. 7104
Δ-108 Vulcan 4707 Piraeus, Athens and Peloponnese Railways OSE Corinth, Greece Stored Post-war copy, later SEK No. 7108

Gallery[]

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