Great Northern Class L-1

The Great Northern Railway L-1s were an early fleet of 2-6-6-2 Mallet Compound locomotives built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for freight services and helpers on grades. 
== Early History and Design Stats ==
After the great success unveiling of America's first articulated steam locomotive, "Old Maude" of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad after 1904, the Great Northern Railway became interested in Mallet Compound Locomotives. In 1905 the GN Ry. used older F class 2-8-0s and G class 4-8-0s for they're heavy freight services on the mountains, sometimes as pushers. But even with these large of engines, the GN was looking for something more powerful for they're Glacier Divisions. In early 1906 the Railway turned to its most trusted builder, the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia for a much larger locomotive that would be twice the power. The GN asked for a locomotive that matched up to the performance of Old Maude, but with a two-wheel lead and trailing trucks on both sides between the two sets of drivers for more flexible operation around the mountain's curves. So wih designing a locomotive based on the GN's Belpaire Firebox with larger pistons and slightly heavier than the B&O locomotive, the 2-6-6-2 was born. The first five locomotives #1800-#1804 were delivered from the Philadelphia plant by September 1906 as they were the first Mallets on the Great Northern Railway. The GN used these five as helpers on the Cascade Mountains pushing heavy freights up the steep grades and were found to be very successful, even with the help of their leading and trailing wheels around the curves and the engine's weight that the railroad ordered twenty more in the spring of 1908 (Numbers #1905-1924, by the arrival of the twenty locomotives (Three rejected) the first five were renumbered to #1900-1905 by January 1908. All twenty-five built had the same specifications, a large Belpaire boiler that had more heating space than the B&O engine, low pressure cylinders of 33" x 32", and high-pressure cylinders of 21½" x 32" driven by a pressure of 200 Lbs. PSI. delivering an impressive 69,900 Lbs. of tractive effort at the time. All engines were hand-fired with coal in their small eight-wheel tenders as some were fit with curved pipes on top of their stacks for tunnel use. However, three engines, the first #1905-1907 were instead delivered to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Ry. as the seventeen 1908 locomotives were used in prime heavy freight service in that region.
== Rare Early Postcard Information ==
In 2023, a Railfan picked up a vintage postcard (Date possibly late 1900s of early 1910s) on Ebay as it had rare Steam Locomotive information of the engine #1907's performance written in pencil. It indicates that "This engine is 75 feet 6 in. in length, wt. 135 tons. Will haul 125 loaded cars, 14 miles per hour. Length of cars 40 feet, wgh 37,000 lbs. load 80,000 lbs. Train of 9,625 tons. Height 14 feet, has 4 cylinders, 6 drive wheels on each side. Burns 17 tons coal per 100 miles." It was also revealed that the L-1s were also called "Mountain Engines" as they were used on the Steep grades of the Cascades.
== Later Years and Fate ==
Used extensively for their services as intended, they were placed aside as the GN had new fleets of Articulateds in the early 1910s with the M-1 Class 2-6-8-0s and the N-1 class 2-8-8-0s arriving by 1912 which were more powerful than the L-1s as they became used more for secondary freight services and pushers. Doing well through World War I, they were well-used as three locomotives, despite the class of 22 locomotives present on the roster during the early 1920s, they were less than 20 years old but fell obsolete to the M-1 and N-1 Class Locomotives and other faster steam engines such as the O class 2-8-2s which were already the main backbone of the engine roster. With the GN interested in the Mikado's and larger Articulated engines, there was no more use for them, but instead of scrapping the class the Railway decided to rebuild all the remaining L-1s into a new class of O-6 type 2-8-2 Steam Locomotives using the boilers. Rebuilds began in Late 1925 with the last conversions of the O-6s completed by July 1926 as engines #3350-#3371 (21 locomotives). All of the other 2-6-6-2s were converted and the GN used the O-6s until the late steam era with the first Scrapping's in 1947 with the last unit cut up in 1963. None were preserved.
== Stock List ==
Numbers 	Build Date 	Notes 	Retired and Scrapped
#1800 (Renumbered #1900 in 12/1907) 	7/1906, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 8/1925, Rebuilt 9-12/1925 as GN O-6 #3357, 	March 1949.
#1801 (Renumbered #1901 in 1/1908.) 	7/1906, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 5/1925, Rebuilt 5-11/1925 as GN O-6 #3354. 	Retired December 1957, Scrapped 1963.
#1802 (Renumbered #1902 in 1/1908.) 	8/1906, BLW	Dismantled at Delta Shops, 10/1925, Rebuilt 11/1925-4/1926 as GN O-6 #3359. 	December 1954.
#1803 (Renumbered #1903 in 12/1907.)	8/1906, BLW	Dismantled at Delta Shops, 8-9/1925, Rebuilt 10/1925-1/1926 as GN O-6 #3358. 	December 1954.
#1804 (Renumbered #1904 in 1/1908.) 	8/1906, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 12/1925, Rebuilt 1-6/1926 as GN O-6 #3362. 	April 1956.
#1905 	3/1908, BLW	Delivered to CB&Q as their #4000, T-1. 	Unknown.
#1906 	3/1908, BLW	Delivered to CB&Q as their #4001, T-1. 	June 1927.
#1907 	3/1908, BLW	Delivered to CB&Q as their #4002, T-1, eventually Rebuilt as CB&Q F-2 Class 0-8-0.	December 1948.
#1908 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Delta Shops, 6/1925, Rebuilt 6-11/1925 as GN O-6 #3356. 	October 1955.
#1909 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 6-7/1926, Rebuilt 7-11/1926 as GN O-6 #3370. 	Retired March 1958, Scrapped 1963.
#1910 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, early 1925, Rebuilt 1-8/1925 as GN O-6 #3350. 	December 1954.
#1911 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 7/1925, Rebuilt 8-11/1925 as GN O-6 #3355. 	December 1954.
#1912 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 1/1926, Rebuilt 2-7/1926 as GN O-6 #3364. 	Retired March 1958, Scrapped 1963.
#1913 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, early 1925, Rebuilt 3-9/1925 as GN O-6 #3351. 	August 1955.
#1914 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Delta Shops, 4-5/1926, Rebuilt 5-9/1926 as O-6 #3368. 	April 1953.
#1915 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 4-5/1926, Rebuilt 5-10/1926 as O-6 #3367. 	December 1954.
#1916 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 11/1925, Rebuilt 12/1925-5/1926 as O-6 #3361. 	Retired March 1958, Scrapped 1963.
#1917 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 2/1926, Rebuilt 3-8/1926 as O-6 #3365. 	Boiler exploded at Shelby, MT roundhouse, scrapped March 1947.
#1918 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 10/1925, Rebuilt 11/1925-2/1926 as O-6 #3360. 	April 1953.
#1919 	3/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Delta Shops, early 1925, Rebuilt 1-8/1925 as O-6 #3352. 	December 1954.
#1920 	4/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Delta Shops 3/1925, Rebuilt 3-9/1925 as O-6 #3353. 	December 1954.
#1921 	4/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Hillyard Shops, 8-9/1926, Rebuilt 9-12/1926 as O-6 #3371. 	April 1947.
#1922 (Renumbered as #1905 6/1908.) 	4/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Delta Shops, 5-6/1926, Rebuilt 6-10/1926 as O-6 #3369. 	October 1955.
#1923 (Renumbered as #1906 6/1908.) 	4/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Delta Shops, 11/1925-1/1926, Rebuilt 1-5/1926 as O-6 #3363. 	December 1954.
#1924 (Renumbered as #1907 6/1908.) 	4/1908, BLW	Dismantled at Delta Shops, 2-3/1926, Rebuilt 3-7/1926 as O-6 #3366. 	April 1955.
Category:2-6-6-2 locomotives
Category:Baldwin locomotives
Category:Built in 1906
Category:Built in 1908
Category:Mallet locomotives
Category:Great Northern (US) locomotives
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Standard gauge locomotives
Category:Standard gauge locomotives of the United States
Category:4 foot 8 1⁄2 inch gauge
Category:Articulated locomotives
Category:Freight locomotives
Category:Pusher engines
Category:Compound locomotives
Category:Six-coupled locomotives
Category:Scrapped steam locomotives
Category:Scrapped locomotives
Category:2-6-6-2 steam locomotives
Category:Locomotive Designs that were used by Multiple Railways