Pennsylvania Railroad class S2

what is it?

The Pennsylvania Railroad's S2 class was a one-off experimental prototype steam turbine locomotive designed and built in a collaborative effort by Baldwin Locomotive Works and Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, as an attempt to prolong the dominance of the steam locomotive by adapting technology that had been widely accepted in the marine industry. One was built, #6200, delivered in September 1944. The S2 was the sole example of the 6-8-6 wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, with a six-wheel leading truck keeping the locomotive stable at speed, eight powered and coupled driving wheels, and a six-wheel trailing truck supporting the large firebox.

who runs it

Pennsylvania Railroad

base stats

• speed 177 km/htop speed
• power 5.1 MWpower output
• weight 268 tin working order
• built 1made 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 82 years ago, in 1944.
• 🏎️Top speed is 1.4× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• ⏱️At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 14 minutes.
• 🚗5.1 MW is about 61 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
• 🐘Weighs about as much as 45 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 📏37.2 m long: about 8 cars parked nose to tail.
• ⌛Served for 2 years (1944–1946).

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

spec sheet

built

1944

in service from

1944

retired

1946

status

retired

number built

1

kind

Steam turbine

traction

steam

origin

🇺🇸 United States

builders

Baldwin Locomotive Works, Westinghouse Electric Corporation

operators

Pennsylvania Railroad

top speed

177 km/h

power

5.1 MW

gauge

1,435 mm standard gauge

wheel arrangement

6-8-6

length

37.2 m

weight

268 t

nicknames

"The Big Whoosh"

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