| Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad 2-8-2 Class O-3 5333 in the dead line at Lincoln, Nebraska on an unknown day in December 1957, photograph by Dick Rumbolz, Chuck Zeiler collection. Number 5333 was built in June 1917 ( c/n 45764 ) and retired in December 1957. The class O-3 was a modified design of the earlier class O-2 engines. Sixty engines of the O-3 class were built by Baldwin from 1915 to 1919. They were assigned road numbers 5300 - 5359. Although the first 15 O-3 engines, built in 1915, were equipped with alligator-type crossheads, the subsequent O-3 Mikados were all fittted with Laird-type crossheads, reducing reciprocating weight. Accessories on the class O-3 locomotives, when first built, included a combustion chamber, a brick arch in the firebox, a Schmidt-type superheater, and a Street automatic stoker. In later years, the O-3 engines were modified with shorter cabs, the single stage air compressors were replaced with cross-compound types, and feedwater-heating systems of either the Worthington or Elesco types were applied to many. Some of the O-3's were fitted with exhaust steam injectors, and a few others had Coffin feedwater heaters mounted on the front of their smokeboxes. It appears that this particular locomotive did acquire a Boxpok main driver. I wish I could speak about the tender design. |