Great Northern class S-2

what is it?

The Great Northern S-2 was a class of 14 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotives built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1930 and operated by the Great Northern Railway until the late 1950s. The locomotives were built to haul passengers on the GN mainline, pulling the Empire Builder and the Oriental Limited and were assigned to the Montana division for service between Williston, North Dakota and Havre, Montana and the Spokane division for service between Spokane, Washington and Wenatchee, Washington, then assigned to the Divide between Havre and Whitefish, Montana, of which mostly runs through the famed Marias Pass, though they were also used on GN tracks outside of their assigned areas. Today, only one S-2 survives, No.

who runs it

base stats

• speed 161 km/htop speed
• power 2.5 MWpower output
• weight 199 tin working order
• built 14made in total

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 96 years ago, in 1930.
• 🏎️Top speed is 1.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• ⏱️At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 15 minutes.
• 🚗2.5 MW is about 29 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
• 🐘Weighs about as much as 33 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 📏31.4 m long: about 7 cars parked nose to tail.
• ⌛Served for 28 years (1930–1958).

steam locomotive: Burns coal, wood or oil to boil water; the steam drives pistons that turn the wheels.

spec sheet

built

1930

in service from

1930

retired

1958

status

retired

number built

14

kind

Steam

traction

steam

origin

🇺🇸 United States

builders

Baldwin Locomotive Works

designer

William Kelly

operators

Great Northern Railway

top speed

161 km/h

power

2.5 MW

gauge

1,435 mm standard gauge

wheel arrangement

4-8-4

length

31.4 m

weight

199 t

From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.