Tender Locomotives 2-6-0 “Mogul”

The wheel arrangement 2-6-0 stands for a locomotive with one leading axle and three driven axles. The following designations exist in the different naming systems:

Mogul

UIC: 1'C

Whyte: 2-6-0

Switzerland: 3/4

France: 130

Turkey: 34

The first 2-6-0 locomotives had a rigid leading axle, like the PRR class D built in 1852. As this arrangement did not have many advantages, not many locomotives of this type were built and some of the existing ones were rebuilt to other wheel arrangements like 4-6-0. Only the development of the Bissel truck a few years later led to the construction of more 2-6-0 locomotives with a flexible leading axle from around 1860.

In the USA, this wheel arrangement quickly became widely used as a standard freight locomotive and was called “Mogul”. Compared to the 4-4-0 it had a greater adhesive weight, but still adequate running characteristics on the typical American tracks. At some point heavier freight trains were hauled by the 2-8-0 “Consolidation” and faster freight trains were taken over by the 4-6-0 “Ten-wheeler”. But the Mogul remained a popular choice for many lighter or slower services. Large-scale production for US railroads ended around 1910 when 11,000 had been built for use in this country.

In Europe, the 2-6-0 became a mixed traffic locomotive due to the generally better tracks. This not only meant that they were also used for express freights and slower passenger trains, but there were also dedicated passenger variants with larger drivers. The Prussian State Railways ordered more than 2,000 2-6-0 locomotives, mostly for freight service. British railway companies usually used 0-6-0 locomotives for regular freight traffic, but a long strike around 1900 also made several companies order 2-6-0 locomotives from the USA for this task. In the fifties, British Railways built mixed traffic standard locomotives of power classes 2, 3 and 4 with this wheel arrangement.