New Orange Four Junction No. 3

Musings on the Origins of No. 3

The locomotive that became New Orange Four Junction Railroad No. 3, and later Rahway Valley Railroad No. 3, is typically identified in historical roster compilations only as “ex-PRR,” with no further information regarding its earlier identity. On the Pennsylvania Railroad, locomotives with the 4-4-0 “American” wheel arrangement were assigned to Class D and its various subclasses. Although many subclasses consisted of locomotives built to a common specification, others—most notably Class D3—served as catch-all classifications for miscellaneous 4-4-0s, many of which had been inherited from predecessor or acquired railroads.

Photographic evidence suggests that No. 3 was nearly identical in appearance to Philadelphia & Baltimore Central Railroad Nos. 4 and 11. The Philadelphia & Baltimore Central was a majority-owned subsidiary of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, which in turn came under Pennsylvania Railroad control in 1881. As a result, these locomotives ultimately became part of the PRR system.

P&BC Nos. 4 and 11 were built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1879 and 1880, respectively, under construction numbers 4785 and 5091. Baldwin classified them as Class 8-24-C locomotives, denoting eight wheels in total, 24-inch cylinders, and two coupled driving axles. Both were constructed to Baldwin Drawing No. 6.

Between 1873 and 1921, Baldwin built 222 locomotives of Class 8-24-C for various railroads. Of these, only 50 were constructed to Drawing No. 6, all between 1878 and 1891. More significantly, P&BC Nos. 4 and 11 appear to have been the only two locomotives built to that drawing for a railroad that later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Most of the remaining examples were constructed for railroads in the southern United States.

A related locomotive was built to Baldwin Drawing No. 7 for the West Chester & Philadelphia Railroad as its No. 5. It was the only Class 8-24-C locomotive constructed to that drawing. The West Chester & Philadelphia, as well as the P&BC, became part of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore in 1880 and was therefore later incorporated into the PRR system. Its No. 5 differed somewhat from the P&BC locomotives, most notably in having slightly larger driving wheels. Nos. 4 and 11 were renumbered to Nos. 204 and 211 of the PW&B in October 1880.

The Pennsylvania Railroad also controlled the West Jersey Railroad in southern New Jersey. In 1896, the West Jersey was consolidated with several other lines to form the West Jersey & Seashore Railroad. Former P&BC Nos. 4 and 11 were transferred to the West Jersey in December 1883, where they became Nos. 26 and 27, respectively, and retained those numbers after the 1896 consolidation.

The West Jersey & Seashore competed vigorously with the Reading-controlled Atlantic City Railroad for the lucrative traffic carrying vacationers to New Jersey’s coastal resorts. In 1933, the Pennsylvania and Reading railroads consolidated their South Jersey operations as the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in an effort to reduce costs and eliminate duplicative facilities and trackage.

Per records made available by Allen Stanley of the Rail Data Exchange, WJ&S No. 27 was scrapped in January 1905 (Edson); however, the same roster states that WJ&S No. 26 was discarded by May 1901. This was about the same time that the New Orange Four Junction Railroad acquired No. 3.

The identification remains highly conjectural. Nevertheless, the close photographic resemblance between Rahway Valley No. 3 and the former P&BC locomotives, combined with Baldwin records indicating that only two locomotives of this precise specification entered the PRR system, raises the possibility that WJ&S No. 26 later became Rahway Valley Railroad No. 3.