This locomotive is a classic Baldwin 2-6-6-2. True to the real life version of this locomotive, it is designed to handle tight corners and steep grades. It is 8-wide, 1:48 scale, and is designed to handle all standard Lego track curvature.
As the industrialized timber industry pushed westward at the beginning of the 20th century, they found within the Pacific Northwest old growth forests containing trees that had been growing for 40 or more generations. The massive size and weight of these ancient giants created an immediate problem for both man and machine. In 1926, the Baldwin Locomotive Works engineered the 2-6-6-2’s specifically for this challenge. Both powerful and agile, this Mallet locomotive used all the steam energy it possessed from both its high- and low-pressure cylinders to haul western redcedars, douglas-firs and western hemlocks, which often weighed up to 2,000 tons, up and down steep, hastily built logging railroad grades.
#11 spent her entire career within the forests of the Pacific Northwest. She was transferred around to many companies, eventually working for the U.S. Plywood Corp. until retirement in 1960. For this build, I focused on the 1939/present day version of the locomotive.