Ottaway Locomotives History & Information: Ottaways by the Numbers

The actual number of Ottaway locomotives built is not known exactly. Records before 1948 are very sketchy. Some locomotives were identified because Ottaway also seemed to employ a Santa Fe Railroad numbering system. There are several, including the one I own that we are unsure of it's actual number and may just end up picking one that fits.

An idea of when a locomotive was manufactured can be obtained by a couple of manufacturing changes. Locomotives up through 1014 had the short, 2 fire grate fire boxes. Locomotives 2015 and later had the longer 3 grate fire boxes. The bolt pattern on the smoke box door changed after locomotive 1018. 1018 and before had 2 lower and 1 upper, 1019 and later are the reverse. Because of these 2 differentiations and the fact that 1019 and 1020 were built in 1947 and are unaccounted for, the locomotive I own is most likely one of these because it has a long fire box and it has the later bolt pattern.

Some of the earlier locomotives have the Serial Number stamped into them. They have been found in various places. Below is where the Serial Number for 1015 was located.

Photo courtesy of C Williams

They have also been found in other places.

Most locomotives have a number plate, or should have, the one on ours is missing but you can see the location of the rivets that would have held it. The plate is usually found on the right side of the smoke box or on the front wall of the cab on the very late locomotives.

Photo courtesy of C Williams

I have collected together information from various sources into an Excel sheet of the known produced locomotives, where they were first sold to, where they are now, or might be now and any other pertinent information that may help to identify them. The Roster May be viewed HERE. Link will open in a new window.

The following images are mostly ones of the Ottaway locomotives operating in their original locations. Photos were made available by various people such as J. Ottaway, H. Chance, C. Williams and others. Some locomotives were ID'd by their Santa Fe numbering equivalent. For example, 1012 equals Santa Fe No. 3702, 1028 equals Santa Fe No. 3718. If you have additions or corrections, please let me know in the comments below.