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New York Central Mohawk
Class of NYC 4-8-2 locomotives / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The New York Central Railroad (NYC) called the 4-8-2 type of steam locomotive the Mohawk type. It was known as the Mountain type on other roads, but the New York Central did not see the name as fitting on its famous Water Level Route. Instead, it picked the name of one of those rivers its rails followed, the Mohawk River, to name its newest type of locomotive.
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The L1s and L2s were unstable at higher speeds due to the lack of effective cross-balancing,[1] making the 4-wheel leading truck simply a better distributor of their weight; the L1s and L2s were consequently limited to 60 mph (97 km/h), though this issue was resolved for the L3s and L4s using data gathered from two experimental L-2s.
The New York Central became the largest 4-8-2 user in North America, with 600 locomotives of this type built for its service; only the Pennsylvania Railroad came close, with 301 M1's of the type.
The Mohawk type was the pre-eminent freight power of the network, displacing the 2-8-2 type from first-line service. While other roads obtained much more massive freight power, such as 2-10-0s and 2-10-4 types and a multitude of articulated designs, the New York Central, with its practically-gradeless high-speed riverside lines, needed speed over pulling power.
The 600 Mohawks delivered were divided into four main classes, plus a few experimental and prototypes that were rebuilt between 1922 and 1939.