#2798
New York Central Niagara
🇺🇸 United States ·built by American Locomotive Company· from 1945· class of American 4-8-4 locomotives
2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. NIAGARA NYC 6013 JAGRAFX: JAGRAFXWIK· CC BY-SA 4.0
- 2. TRAIN S USA NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM CLASS S-2a NIAGARA 'NORTHERN TYPE' 4-8-4 LOCO No 5500: ausdew· Public domain
what is it?
The New York Central Railroad's Niagara were three classes of 27 4-8-4 steam locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company for the New York Central Railroad. Like many railroads that adopted different names for their 4-8-4s rather than “Northerns”, the New York Central named them “Niagaras”, after the Niagara River and Falls. The first Niagara was ordered in 1931: No.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 81 years ago, in 1945.
- Top speed is 1.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 12 minutes.
- 3.8 MW is about 44 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 36 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 35.1 m long: about 8 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 11 years (1945–1956).
steam locomotive: Burns coal, wood or oil to boil water; the steam drives pistons that turn the wheels.
spec sheet
- built
- 1945–1946
- in service from
- 1945
- retired
- 1956
- status
- retired
- number built
- 27
- kind
- Steam
- traction
- steam
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- American Locomotive Company
- designer
- Paul W. Kiefer
- operators
- New York Central Railroad
- top speed
- 193 km/h
- power
- 3.8 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- 4-8-4
- length
- 35.1 m
- weight
- 214 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q6956051, Wikipedia: New York Central Niagara (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.