Timken 1111, also called the Timken Four Aces, was a

4-8-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and four trailing wheels on two axles. The type w ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

built in 1930 by

American Locomotive Company The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

(Alco) as a demonstration unit for new

roller bearing In mechanical engineering, a rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing, is a bearing which carries a load by placing rolling elements (such as balls or rollers) between two concentric, grooved rings called races. The relative m ...

s produced by the

Timken Roller Bearing Company The Timken Roller Bearing Company was one of the first to introduce roller bearings for railroad cars. Railroad cars owned and operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway were some of the first to use roller bearings rather than "oil wa ...

. It was the first locomotive built with all sealed roller bearings rather than

plain bearing A plain bearing, or more commonly sliding contact bearing and slide bearing (in railroading sometimes called a solid bearing, journal bearing, or friction bearing), is the simplest type of bearing, comprising just a bearing surface and no rolli ...

s or a combination of the two. It was later operated by the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by 38th United States Congress, Congress in 1864 and given ...

as their 2626. Timken attempted to cooperate with Northern Pacific Railroad at the end of the engine's career to preserve it and while the Northern Pacific was willing to cooperate in preserving the engine, the attempt ultimately failed and the engine was scrapped in 1958.

Design and construction

Timken chose a 4-8-4 on which to demonstrate the company's

s so the locomotive could be used in all types of railroad work, especially on heavy freight and fast

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

s. 52 manufacturers agreed to supply parts for the locomotive "on account" until the locomotive operated over 100,000

mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...

s (161,000 km). The suppliers' names were placed on a plaque attached to the tender for the duration of the demonstration period. Assembly took place at Alco's

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

plant, the former

Schenectady Locomotive Works The Schenectady Locomotive Works built railroad locomotives from its founding in 1848 through its merger into American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in 1901. After the 1901 merger, ALCO made the Schenectady plant its headquarters in Schenectady, New ...

In-service demonstration

The locomotive's first demonstration runs were hauling freight on the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

. It was subsequently used on 13 other major railroads, including the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond ...

New Haven Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

and

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

(PRR), where it did both heavy freight and fast passenger service. The PRR used the locomotive on a passenger train where it hauled twelve

passenger car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

s through the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

so well that the train did not require the use of helpers and arrived at its destination three minutes early. At some of the

stations Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

on the locomotive's demonstration runs,

publicity stunt In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilize ...

s were held where the locomotive was pulled by as few as three men (and in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, by three women). The stunts showed that the roller bearings produced so little

friction Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction: *Dry friction is a force that opposes the relative lateral motion of t ...

that the locomotive could easily be moved by hand. By August 1931, the locomotive had run over 90,000 miles (145,000 km) when it was delivered to the

, the 15th railroad to demonstrate it. With a

dynamometer car A dynamometer car is a railroad maintenance of way car used for measuring various aspects of a locomotive's performance. Measurements include tractive effort (pulling force), power, top speed, etc. History The first dynamometer car was probably ...

in tow, the Northern Pacific was able to drive the locomotive at sustained speeds as high as 88 mph (142 km/h) while pulling the ''

North Coast Limited The ''North Coast Limited'' was a List of named passenger trains, named passenger train operated by the Northern Pacific Railway between Chicago and Seattle via Bismarck, North Dakota. It started on April 29, 1900, and continued as a Burlington ...

'' passenger train past

Willow Creek, Montana Willow Creek is a census-designated place (CDP) in Gallatin County, Montana, United States. The population was 210 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Bozeman, MT Micropolitan Statistical Area. History The settlement here began in 1864 and ...

. However, while in service for the Northern Pacific, 1111 suffered severe crown sheet damage. Timken demanded Northern Pacific repair it, but they refused to repair a locomotive they did not own. The resulting agreement led to the sale of 1111 to Northern Pacific.

Regular use and disposition

The Northern Pacific purchased the 1111 from Timken on February 8, 1933, after it crossed the mark. The railroad renumbered it 2626, classifying it internally as locomotive class A-1 (it was the class's sole member), used it in passenger service between

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and

Yakima, Washington Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, and the state's 11th-largest city by population. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The uninco ...

, then shifted its service to passenger trains between Seattle and

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...

. They operated it for 23 years before retiring it from active service. Its last run was on August 4, 1957 when it pulled a passenger train from Seattle to Cle Elum and back. Efforts were made to preserve the locomotive. The Timken Company even tried to purchase it and return to the company's

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...

headquarters under its own power, but it was scrapped before Timken and Northern Pacific could complete their negotiations.

References

{{Reflist *
1930 Timken Roller Bearing Company Engine
'. Retrieved October 17, 2005. * Nixon, Ron; ''Northern Pacific Locomotives

'. Retrieved October 17, 2005. * The Timken Company,
The History of Timken Rail Bearings
'. Retrieved October 17, 2005.

External links

Ron Nixon's Northern Pacific Photos
Northern Pacific 2626, a 4-8-4 Northern Class A-1, is ready for an exhibition train at Missoula, Montana.
SteamLocomotive.com - Northern Pacific Northerns
Further discussion of 4-8-4 use on the Northern Pacific. ALCO locomotives 4-8-4 locomotives 2626 Individual locomotives of the United States Schenectady, New York Steam locomotives of the United States Scrapped locomotives Unique locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States