Southern Railway Class Ts

The Ts class 4-8-2 Mountains were a fleet of 30 locomotives that worked on the Southern Railway from 1917 until 1954.
== History ==
As heavy steel-bodied passenger cars began to replace the aging lighter wooden bodied passenger cars prior to America's entry into World War 1, the 1200 and 1300 series lighter 4-6-2s were unable to keep with their timetables on trains between Washington and Atlanta. The Southern Railway needed some new passenger engines to cope with the workload and the timetables. 
In 1917, Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania built 30 new 4-8-2 Mountain type steam locomotives (with 23 going to the Southern, 5 going to the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific, and 2 going to the Alabama Great Southern).
The new locomotives had 69-inch driving wheels, 27" x 28" inch cylinders, a 200 psi boiler, a tractive effort of 50,290 lbs., and weighed in at 157.4 tons (242.9 tons with tender). Their tenders could hold up to 12 tons of coal and 9,000 gallons of water. The locomotives were fitted with Southern valve gear, this was later replaced by the more traditional Walscherts valve gear.
Due to sharp turns on lines east of Ashville, North Carolina, the locomotives were equipped with "floating" front drivings to cope with the tightness of the curves. This was also found on the Ss class 2-10-2 Santa Fes. The Ts class locomotives (alongside their Ts-1 class siblings) operated on the Washington - Atlanta main line for a number of years, working in both directions out of Spencer, North Carolina. They were also used extensively between Bristol and Memphis via Chattanooga.
When the Ps-4 class Pacifics arrived in the 1920s, all of the 4-8-2s were relegated to the Atlanta - Birmingham, and Macon - Chattanooga passenger runs. However, the engines assigned to the Asheville division still kept their titles as heavy passenger engines. #1480 also handled trains on the "Aiken - Augusta Special" between Spencer and Columbia.
The first of the class to be retired was in 1948 beginning with #6696 and between 1949 and 1953, they were dropping like flies. By the end of 1953, only #6695 remained on the roster. It was later retired in August 1954 and was sold to the Luria Brothers for scrap. None of the class survived.
== Gallery ==
Category:4-8-2 locomotives
Category:4-8-2 steam locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:Built in 1917
Category:Baldwin locomotives
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:American locomotives
Category:Southern Railway (US) locomotives
Category:Eight-coupled locomotives
Category:Scrapped locomotives
Category:Locomotives
Category:Standard gauge locomotives