New Haven Trap Rock Company No. 43 locomotive on display at Steamtown National Historic Site

See the Train Collection web page for more locomotives at Steamtown National Historic Site.

Note: Numbers used in this article, such as 0-4-0, are known as Whyte Notation. This is a system to classify steam locomotives that was created by Frederick Whyte in 1900. These numbers describe the arrangements of wheels. Most locomotives only have three numbers, with the first being the number of non-powered wheels used to support the front of the engine, the second being the number of powered wheels, and the third being the number of non-powered rear wheels. For locomotives with four or more numbers in their Whyte Notation, the first and last numbers are always the front and rear non-powered wheels, while all others are groups of powered wheels.

The New Haven Trap Rock Company No. 43 is a 0-4-0ST saddle tank locomotive that was built in 1919 by Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for C. W. Blakeslee and Sons for use in its New Haven Trap Rock Company quarry in North Branford, Connecticut. No. 43 was used to shuttle gondola cars between the steam shovels that filled the cars with rock and the rock crusher. It also ran loads of crushed stone six miles to the company dock at Juniper Point on Long Island Sound where the rock was loaded into barges.

No. 43 was in service until 1959. It was the last steam locomotive in use by the New Haven Trap Rock Company, as all others had been replaced by diesel-electric engines in 1956. Steamtown USA founder Nelson Blount purchased it in 1962.

Note: The ST in the Whyte Notation indicates a saddle tank locomotive. Instead of carting its water and fuel (coal) in a separate tender car, tank engines had water tanks and coal bins built onto the locomotive itself. A saddle tank locomotive has a water tank that sits on top of the boiler like a saddle. Coal is stored at the rear of the cab in a bin called a bunker. Tank engines were typically small and used around the railyard since they did not carry enough water and fuel to travel long distances. Without a tender, they were easier to operate in smaller spaces.

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