Bessemer & Lake Erie Steam Roster (Post 1900)

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Last revised: September 18, 2026

By: Adam Burns

The Bessemer & Lake Erie was a conveyor: iron ore south from Conneaut, Ohio, coal north to the lake. Ore is heavy and it moves in trainload lots. The 144-mile line from the harbor to North Bessemer crosses five summits. A 12-mile climb off Lake Erie starts at about 1 percent. That is not a mountain railroad. It is enough, with jennies, to want the heaviest two-cylinder engines in the country. George H. Drury, in Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, is a good start for steam rosters.

By 1900 the road already connected Conneaut with Carnegie’s mills. United States Steel took both in 1901. B&LE chose the 2-10-2, then the 2-10-4, over the Mallet, and made the track heavy enough to carry them: 100-pound rail by 1900, 130-pound in 1917, 152-pound in 1939, 155-pound—the heaviest rolled—in 1948. Forty-seven Texas types, copies of Burlington’s 2-10-4s, did the ore. Dieselization was complete in early 1953. Last steam was 2-8-0 156, tied up at Butler on May 14, 1953. Two engines survive: H1g 643 at Age of Steam, and C3B 154 at the Henry Ford Museum.

Bessemer & Lake Erie 4-6-2 #904 has southbound train #1 backing into the depot at Greenville, Pennsylvania, during the early 1950s. The train, which carried an RPO/express and a standard coach, will soon make the return trip northbound to North Bessemer. Fred Houser photo. Class P1A, Schenectady, 1913—one of four light Pacifics.

On this page:
At a glance ·
Consolidations, Santa Fes, Texans ·
Americans and Pacifics ·
Switchers ·
May 14, 1953 ·
All-time roster (built since 1900)

At a glance

Class table follows Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives (revised edition), pages 82–83. Last-run date follows Classic Trains, Winter 2017. Information compiled September 18, 2026.

C3As that were the heaviest in the world, then Santa Fes, then Burlington Texans

Drury’s freight chapter opens on the Consolidations. The Bessemer had a large fleet of 2-8-0s with 54-inch drivers. The classes differed mainly in weight and cylinders: C1s about 173,000 to 182,000 pounds, 22 × 28; C2s 202,000 to 213,000, 22 × 30; C3s 251,000 to 261,000, 24 × 32; C4s 268,000, 26 × 30. When C3A 150 and 151 came out of Pittsburgh in 1900 they were the heaviest, most powerful locomotives in the world. C3B 154, Baldwin 1909, is the one that survived. C2B–C2D 325–362, thirty-eight Pittsburgh engines of 1911–13, were the last big Consolidation order and the last of the type on the roster, into 1954.

By the mid-teens the 2-6-6-2 and the 2-10-2 had matured into roughly equal pulling power. The Mallet spread the work across two engines, easier on the rail, more to maintain, and a rough rider. B&LE took the simple 2-10-2 and later the 2-10-4 and built the track to match. In 1916 Baldwin delivered twenty D1A Santa Fes, 501–520: 60-inch drivers, 30 × 32 cylinders, 404,000 pounds. They looked like Erie 2-10-2s, even to the Vanderbilt tenders, but Erie’s had 63-inch drivers and 31 × 32 cylinders. In 1919 the USRA allotted five heavy 2-10-2s, D2A 521–525. Fifty-seven-inch drivers, about 25,000 pounds lighter than the home-design Santa Fes, about 12,000 pounds less tractive effort. The USRA engines were scrapped first, in 1947, before Bessemer’s own D1As.

Baldwin built its first 2-10-4s in 1927 for Burlington coal. Sixty-four-inch drivers, 31 × 32, about 524,000 pounds engine weight, 353,000 on the drivers. The Bessemer bought one copy in 1929 and nine more in 1930. By 1944 it had 47, class H1A through H1G, 601–647, all but ten of them Baldwin. They were put to the same use as Burlington’s: heavy mineral trains. Pennypacker called them the tough Texans. The type encyclopedia is the 2-10-4 page. The surviving engine, 643, is its own.

By 1951 many of the 2-10-4s were out of work. B&LE sold eighteen to the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range: 621–631, 635, 637–638, 641, and 645–647. The rest were retired in 1952–54. Fires on the H1s were out by the end of 1952.

Four light Pacifics

The Bessemer was never a passenger railroad. At its maximum the timetable was two or three locals the length of the main plus connecting branch trains. Ten-Wheelers and Americans handled that until 1913, when Schenectady delivered four light Pacifics, P1A 901–904. Number 904 at Greenville, backing train 1 in with an RPO and a coach, is that class near the end. Steam-generator SD7s took the varnish in 1952. The last passenger train came off in 1955.

Four-coupled passenger power in the table is three E5 classes: Cooke 15 of 1900; Pittsburgh 16–19 of 1905 and 1908, of which 16 and 19 went to the Union Railroad; and Pittsburgh 10–11 of 1909. They were off by 1944.

Six-wheel, then a dozen heavy 0-8-0s

Seven 0-6-0s of 1909 and 1911 lasted into dieselization. The four S3A engines of 1909, 234–237, weighed 184,400 pounds. The three S2Ds of 1911, 227–229, were nearly 60,000 pounds lighter. Two Brooks S2Bs, 232–233, 1900, were gone by 1936.

The last new steam type on the railroad was the eight-wheel switcher. Alco built twelve heavy 0-8-0s, S4A–S4E 251–262, between 1936 and 1943: 57-inch drivers, 25 × 30 cylinders, about 280,000 pounds. A USRA 0-8-0 was 51-inch drivers, 25 × 28, 214,000 pounds. The B&LE engines switched and took way freights. They came off in 1953–54 with the last Consolidations.

2-8-0 156, Butler, May 14, 1953

B&LE bought a Westinghouse diesel switcher in 1936. A few Baldwin switchers arrived in 1949, then a wave of Electro-Motive F7s in 1950 and 1951. Road trains were dieselized by the end of 1952. Drury puts dieselization complete in early 1953. Classic Trains names the last steam: Consolidation 156, class C3B/C3D, tied up at Butler on May 14, 1953. 154 had already been set aside. 643 was stored at Greenville. The diesels that replaced this fleet—F7s, SD7s, later every non-turbocharged six-axle EMD in the catalog—are the diesel roster.

All-time roster (built since 1900)

Drury’s grid is classes built from 1900 on. Quantities are his. Retirement years are the span he prints. Builder “Pittsburgh,” “Brooks,” “Cooke,” and “Schenectady” are Alco works. H1 notes list the eighteen 2-10-4s sold to DM&IR in 1951.

Related reading on American-Rails.com

Sources

• Drury, George H. Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pp. 82–83. Post-1900 class table; C3A 150–151 heaviest in 1900; D1A vs Erie and USRA D2A; 47 Texas types after Burlington; 18 to DM&IR; dieselization early 1953; published rosters in Railroad magazine, May 1938 / July 1938 / October 1951
• Pennypacker, Bert. “Tough Texans of the Bessemer.” Classic Trains, Winter 2000. 2-10-4 fleet
• Classic Trains, Winter 2017. Last steam 2-8-0 156, May 14, 1953, Butler; road trains dieselized by the end of 1952; 18 Texas types among the last active steam in America on the Missabe into 1959
• American-Rails.com, Bessemer & Lake Erie. Last passenger 1955; 643 and 154 as the survivors
• American-Rails.com, B&LE 2-10-4 #643. Baldwin 1944; Age of Steam, Sugarcreek
• American-Rails.com, B&LE diesel roster. Westinghouse 1936; F7s 1950–53; SD7s