Southern Pacific #2852 is a C-10 Class Consolidation
(2-8-0) type locomotive, one of nineteen built by in the SP’s Sacramento Shops in 1919. It worked in California, the last few years near Newark until retired in 1958. It was donated to the City of Orland in 1959 and went on display in the Glenn County Fairgrounds where it has remained ever since. It is an example of one of four Harriman “Common Standard” locomotive designs developed for the Associated Railroads (the others were the 4-4-2, 4-6-2 and 0-6-0).
“Common Standard” was an SP initiative that standardised many design features and therefore delivered lower costs on everything from locomotives, dining cars and passenger coaches to cabooses and signal lanterns. After the Union Pacific took control of the SP in 1901, the approach was known as the “Associated Lines Common Standard”. In 1904, the operating and mechanical departments of the two railroads were amalgamated, the UP adopted the Common Standard and the combined system shared groups of locomotives, cars and other equipment.
You can see other “Common Standard” Consolidations on this website on the UP C-2 #6051, UP C-2 #237 and UP C-2 #616 pages.
The first “Common Standard” 2-8-0s were built by Alco for the SP. Others were later built by Baldwin.
As well as the UP, they were rostered on subsidiaries the Oregon Short Line, Los Angeles & Salt Lake and Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Co.
Weighing 208,000 lbs, 187,000 lbs on its 57” drivers, #2852 has Stephenson internal valve gear and 22” x 30” cylinders.
With a 49.5 sq ft grate, 177 sq ft firebox and total heating surface of 3,403 sq ft, it operated at 200 psi delivering 43,305 lbs tractive effort.
E. H. Harriman was Chairman of the UP’s Executive Committee from 1898 until he died in 1909. From an initial interest in the Lake Ontario Southern, which he renamed the Sodus Bay & Southern, reorganised and sold to the Pennsy, he became a major railroad tycoon: when he died, he was also President of the SP and controlled the Saint Joseph & Grand Island, Illinois Central, Central of Georgia, Pacific Mail Steamship Co., and Wells Fargo Express.
As a result, “Common Standards” featured on many US railroads during the early 20th Century.
