USRA 0-8-0

The **USRA 0-8-0** is a steam locomotive from the game Railroad Tycoon II. It becomes available in the year 1930, and is a fairly powerful locomotive with medium running costs, that is useful for freight duties if electrification has not occurred yet for the player. There are more powerful locomotives available when this locomotive becomes available, but the USRA 0-8-0 is slightly cheaper, more robust, and is suitable for medium-length heavy freight routes. It is recommended that this locomotive be almost always hauling 5-6 cars of cargo in order effectively utilize it's good hauling ability.

## Strategy

The USRA 0-8-0 is slower than other heavy freight locomotives of this era such as the Mikado and Class 13H, but is markedly cheaper than those two locomotives. Therefore, it should be used on routes that are more marginal in terms of cost, but still requires the power that the USRA 0-8-0 provides. It's important to note that the use of this locomotive is largely useless if you decide to electrify a freight service, as locomotives such as the Class 1045 are much better specified than the USRA 0-8-0, and is cheaper. This locomotive unfortunately doesn't have the best acceleration, but it's reliability is at least okay. These factors combined with slow speed make it a poor choice when it comes to usefulness on a busy railway. In general, as long as you don't electrify, the USRA 0-8-0 maintains it's purpose as a low-cost medium distance freight locomotive. Otherwise, it's useful until the advent of diesels in the late 1940's.

## History

The **USRA 0-8-0** was a USRA standard class of steam locomotive designed under the control of the United States Railroad Administration, the nationalized railroad system in the United States during World War I. This was the standard light switcher of the USRA types, and was of 0-8-0 wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or "D" in UIC classification. Several railroads bought the USRA 0-8-0 including the Burlington and the New York Central.

Several railroads purchased the USRA 0-8-0s, and even after World War 1 when USRA production ended, many railroads like the Illinois Central and the Chesapeake & Ohio bought 0-8-0s that were based on the USRA design, but were built with some modifications to make them better suited to their needs. The 0-8-0 was also one of the last steam locomotives to be built in the United States. A Norfolk & Western class S1a 0-8-0 was the last steam locomotive to be constructed in the United States in 1953.

0-8-0s were also among the last steam locomotives to run in revenue service in the United States. The Northwestern Steel & Wire company in Sterling, IL bought a batch of former Grand Trunk Western 0-8-0s which were meant to be cut up for scrap in the late 1950s. But rather than scapping them, the steel mill put the engines to work, and despite their deplorable cosmetic shape, the locomotives lasted in operation until the winter of 1979/1980. Steam operations were closed once and for all in the Spring of 1980 when 0-8-0 8373 made one last one-way move from the steel mill to it's new display location behind the Dillion House Museum in Sterling, where it remains on static display today.

While none of the USRA 0-8-0s have survived, a good number of locomotives which were similar to them have, and one of them is currently being restored to operation in Florida.

**Trivia:**

The locomotive's in game model is based on TYCO's "Chattanooga" 0-8-0, which was in production during the 1970s and 1980s. This model is not accurate for a USRA 0-8-0, but rather utilized the body for then TYCO (later Life-Like, Model Power, and IHC) 2-8-2 Mikado, and lacked some of the side rods as well as the pilot truck and trailing truck. TYCO's main focus was to build inexpensive model trains and model train sets for begineers as well as children, so the attention to accurate detailing was sacrificed at the gain of offering an inexpensive locomotive that children could play with.