Right front 3/4 view

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Right front 3/4 view

Steam Locomotive

The ultimate in 4-8-2s on the NYC was the L-4 class. With their 72-inch drivers and roller-bearing driving journals, they were right at home on a passenger train, although they, too, were restricted to a conservative 70 MPH. (All other L classes had 69inch drivers, and besides the L-4s, only the 25 engines of class L-3a, no.'s 3000-3024, ran entirely on roller bearings.) The fifty L-4s also had the distinction of being the first NYC 4-8-28 to be built by Lima since 1918, when a large number of L-ls were received from that manufacturer. Only two of the L-4s had the roller-bearing rod assemblies with which the 'Commodore Vanderbilt' (no. 5344) and some of the J-3s had earlier been equipped (later, of course, all the S-1s had this feature). This pair of L-4s was the 3144 and 3148, and the latter is shown here at Shelby Street, shortly after she was withdrawn from service.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

5/1956

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4-8-2

426

L-4b

#3148

Lima

Shelby St., Indianapolis, IN