USRA Heavy Pacific

The USRA Heavy Pacific was a USRA standard class of steam locomotive designed under the control of the United States Railroad Administration, the nationalized railroad system in the United States during World War I. This was the standard heavy passenger locomotive of the USRA types, and was 4-6-2 wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or 2′C1′ in UIC classification.

A total of 20 locomotives were built under USRA control, with the production split between the Baldwin Locomotive Works and the American Locomotive Company's Richmond plant. All 20 went to the Erie Railroad, who also ordered 11 copies from Baldwin, which were delivered between 1923 and 1926. Lima Locomotive Works also built six locomotives based on the USRA heavy 4-6-2 for the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad, who classified then as their K3 class. Other post-USRA derivatives include the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad P7s and the Southern Railway Ps-4 classes, the former having larger 80 inch drivers, higher tractive effort, and increased boiler pressure, and the latter with smaller 73 inch drivers, larger cabs, feedwater heaters, and later batches given larger tenders.[1] Several copies are preserved, such as Atlanta and West Point no. 290 built by Lima in 1926, which ran excursions from 1989 to 1992 and is now under cosmetic restoration at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth Georgia, the B&O P7 5300 at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, and Southern Railway Ps-4 1401 in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C..