A possible reason why Berkshires were common on Eastern roads but not on Western roads is that clearances tended to be tighter on the Eastern roads. For example, locomotives on the New York Central had to be less than 15'3" in height. (This is why the NYC / P&LE Class A-2a Berkshires had unusually short smoke stacks.) On railroads that had less strict clearance requirements, it may be that something other than the 2-8-4 arrangement made more sense.
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