User:Hachijo8/M100

The Manila Railway 100 class of 1906 were five 4-4-2 Atlantic-type steam locomotives built by the North British Locomotive Company. They were the flagship locomotives of the Manila Railway during the late 1900s and throughout the 1910s, being the first tender-hauling locomotives in Philippine service. They hauled the Baguio Special, an express service between Manila and Baguio via Damortis station in Rosario, La Union.

Background
The Manila Railway, ancestor of the Philippine National Railways operated solely tank locomotives through much of its early history. These locomotives burned wood fuel instead of using coal. Horace L. Higgins, a British engineer who was the head of the Manila Railway, ordered the modernization of its entire fleet. This would include the acquisition of bigger locomotives of the 40-45 t range and purchase of heavier track.

Neilson and Company and Dübs and Company, builders of the preceding Dagupan class, merged with another Glasgow-based manufacturer to form the North British Locomotive Company during this period. The Manila Railway then approached the newly-formed manufacturer to build what would become the 100 class.

Design
Having entered in 1906, the 100 class was the first tender-hauling steam locomotive in the Philippines.

The design of the locomotives were built to Higgins' expectations in mind, especially to its weight. Weighing 41 t with the locomotive alone, it weighed heavier by 28 percent than its predecessors which normally weighed at 32 t. The locomotive overall weighed 73 t with its four-axle tender.

Its most notable feature is the use of a cab for both the locomotive and the tender. This cab design would later influence the 2-8-0 Consolidation-type 120 class of 1912 and the first batch of the 4-6-0 Ten-wheeler-type Manila Railroad 45 class of 1919. Both of these succeeding designs were tender locomotives.

Service
The 100 class was seen as the flagship locomotive of the Manila Railway during their introduction in the late 1900s. They were promoted on various advertisements for the Baguio Special, a mixed train-bus service between Manila and Baguio via Damortis station in Rosario, La Union. This was then the flagship service of the company on the North Main Line and carried tourists between the two cities in nine hours and an average speed of 30 km/h. It also appeared on the header of the Manila Railway's bond documents.

Retirement
The arrival of larger American-built locomotives under the new Manila Railroad administration ensured the demise of the 100 class from the flagship services it used to run.

As later stated by The Locomotive Magazine, the locomotives had their brief heydays as the premiere express train locomotives, a fate shared by other locomotives of the same wheel type. In the 1920s, the Baguio Special and the newly-inaugurated Bicol Express between Manila and Quezon province has been led by the newly-acquired Manila Railroad 45 class. Since 1922, the 100 and 120 classes were transferred to freight trains carrying sugarcane.

It remains unknown when the 100 class were retired and scrapped. The arrival of American Vulcan Iron Works-built 4-8-2 Mountain-type Manila Railroad 100 class in 1948 suggests that the original 4-4-2 Manila Railway 100 class has been out of service with the Manila Railroad. As with all tender locomotives of the two companies, no locomotives were preserved.