The Florida East Coast Railway was primarily a passenger carrier. Its freight business was mostly northbound vegetables and fruit carried on its road from Key West to Jacksonville, FL. The Florida land boom in the 1920s dramaticly increased the FEC's passenger business and it reacted by improving the railroad, buying more motive power and more cars. Between 1924 and 1926 it bought 125 new locomotives most of which were "Mountain" type locomotives. The first time FEC bought "Mountains" was in 1923, with fifteen from the American Locomotive Company. These locomotives were assigned road numbers 301 through 315 and had 25 x 28 cylinders, 68" drivers, a 200 psi boiler pressure, a tractive effort of 43,100 lbs and a total weight of 278,000 pounds. A second batch of 52 (road numbers 401 through 452) came from ALCO in 1924 through 1926. This group of locomotives had 26 x 28 cylinders, 73" drivers, a 200 psi boiler pressure, a tractive effort of 44,100 lbs and a weight as shown in the chart below. A last group of 23 came from ALCO in 1926. These "Mountains" were assigned road numbers 801 through 823 and had 28 x 30 cylinders, 69" drivers, a boiler pressure of 210 psi, a tractive effort of 60,800 lbs and weighed 356,000 pounds. A hurricane in 1926 and the stock market crash killed the land boom. FEC's revenue fell drastically and it had to declare bankruptcy in 1931. The FEC ultimately sold 50 of the 90 "Mountains" in its fleet. In 1936 it sold two (road numbers 417 and 420) to the Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast, five (road numbers 401, 409, 411, 413 and 416) to the St. Louis Southwestern, ten (road numbers 403 through 408, 410, 412, 414 and 415) to the Western Pacific and three (road numbers 402, 418 and 419) to the Western Railway of Alabama. In 1941, 1945 and 1948 it sold thirty of its 4-8-2s to the National Railways of Mexico. The 1941 sale included road numbers 304, 305, 307 through 309, and 311 through 315. In 1945, numbers 429, 433, 434 and 441 through 452 went to Mexico. The last group sold to NdeM included 421, 422, and 425 through 427.