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Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 2755 is a preserved class "K-4" 2-8-4 "Kanawha" "(Berkshire type steam locomotive built in 1947 by the Lima Locomotive Works for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) It is the 56th of ninety built by ALCO (which built seventy) and Lima (which built the remaining twenty, including 2755) between 1943 and 1947.
A Berkshire type was the first of the Lima Super Power locomotives in 1925 and these followed in that tradition, with all the latest equipment -- Schmidt superheater, Elesco feedwater heater, booster on the trailing truck, roller bearings, and so forth. They carried Baker valve gear, whereas the C&O preferred to the simpler and much more widely used Walschaerts valve gear.
It spent its nine-year working life hauling coal on the various mine branches out of Logan, West Virginia, usually to the Ohio River at Russell, Kentucky. Its last known run was from Handley, West Virginia, to Russell on January 18, 1956.
After refurbishing at the Huntington, West Virginia, shops in the fall of 1960, it was delivered to its present location in Chief Logan State Park in March 1961. It was seriously vandalized in the late 1970s or early 1980s, with the glass broken and gauges stolen or destroyed. It has been repaired and fenced for protection. The Island Creek Model Railroad Club acts as curators.
The locomotive was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 28, 2006 as Chesapeake and Ohio 2755 Steam Locomotive. [1] [2]
Lima Locomotive Works (LLW) was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company's name is derived from the location of its main manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio. The shops were located between the Erie Railroad main line, the Baltimore & Ohio's Cincinnati-Toledo main line and the Nickel Plate Road main line and shops.
Under the Whyte notation, a 2-8-4 is a steam locomotive that has two unpowered leading wheels, followed by eight coupled and powered driving wheels, and four trailing wheels. This locomotive type is most often referred to as a Berkshire, though the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway used the name Kanawha for their 2-8-4s. In Europe, this wheel arrangement was mostly seen in mainline passenger express locomotives and, in certain countries, in tank locomotives.
The 2-6-6-6 is an articulated locomotive type with two leading wheels, two sets of six driving wheels and six trailing wheels. Only two classes of the 2-6-6-6 type were built. One was the "Allegheny" class, built by the Lima Locomotive Works. The name comes from the locomotive's first service with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway beginning in 1941, where it was used to haul loaded coal trains over the Allegheny Mountains. The other was the "Blue Ridge" class for the Virginian Railway. These were some of the most powerful reciprocating steam locomotives ever built, at 7,500 hp, and one of the heaviest at 386 tons for the locomotive itself plus 215 tons for the loaded tender.
Pere Marquette 1225 is a N-1 class 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type steam locomotive built in October 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works for the Pere Marquette Railway (PM) in Lima, Ohio. No. 1225 is one of two surviving PM 2-8-4 locomotives, the other being 1223, which was on display at the Tri-Cities Historical Society near the ex-Grand Trunk Western (GTW) coaling tower in Grand Haven, Michigan, and both have the distinction of being the only surviving Pere Marquette steam locomotive left in preservation. No. 1225 was well known to be the basis for the locomotive used in the 2004 film The Polar Express, earning itself the nickname "the real Polar Express".
Chesapeake and Ohio 614 is a class "J-3-A" 4-8-4 "Greenbrier" (Northern) type steam locomotive built in June 1948 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) as a member of the J-3-A class. As one of the last commercially built steam locomotives in the United States, the locomotive was built with the primary purpose of hauling long, heavy, high speed express passenger trains for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway such as the George Washington and the Fast Flying Virginian.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway's class L-2 comprised eight coal-fired 4-6-4 "Hudson" type steam locomotives numbered 300–307 and built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1941. They had roller bearings on all axles, and the first-built, No. 300, also had roller bearings on its side and main rods. No. 300 bore "Elephant ear" smoke deflectors from 1948.
Nickel Plate Road 765 is a S-2 class 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type steam locomotive built by the Lima Locomotive Works for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road". In 1963, No. 765, renumbered as 767, was donated to the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it sat on display at the Lawton Park, while the real No. 767 was scrapped at Chicago in 1964.
The Pere Marquette 1223 is a N-1 class 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type steam locomotive built in November 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works for the Pere Marquette Railway, it is on permanent display in Grand Haven, Michigan. It is one of two surviving Pere Marquette 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type locomotives, along with sibling engine No. 1225, the inspiration for the locomotive in the book and movie versions of The Polar Express, which is in operating condition.
Western Maryland Railway No. 202 is a preserved 4-6-2 "pacific" steam locomotive built in 1912 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Western Maryland Railway. The locomotive was used for pulling various passenger trains of the WM over the course of 40 years. In 1938, the locomotive was refitted with Walschaert valve gear, replacing its original Baker valve gear. In 1947, it was converted to burn oil and stayed east of Cumberland after the conversion. No. 202 pulled its last revenue freight assignment in 1952, and it was subsequently retired and donated to the city of Hagerstown, to be displayed in City Park, Hagerstown, Maryland. It is one of only two surviving Western Maryland steam locomotives and the only surviving mainline WM steam locomotive.
Nickel Plate Road 779 is a S-3 class 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type steam locomotive built by the Lima Locomotive Works for the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, completed on May 13, 1949, for use on fast freight trains. It was the last new steam locomotive to be delivered to the Nickel Plate Road, and alongside L&N 1991, another 2-8-4 for the Louisville and Nashville, is the last of 36 steam engines completed by Lima-Hamilton from 1947 to 1949, and the final 2-8-4 locomotive on standard gauge completed in the world. L-H's first diesel, A-3080 demonstrator #1000 was completed the same day as #779. NKP also received the first production A-3080, NKP #305, one of 4 delivered by Lima-Hamilton in 1949.
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway No. 1308 is an preserved articulated 2-6-6-2 "Mallet" type steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1949. It was the next to the last Class 1 mainline locomotive built by Baldwin, closing out more than 100 years of production, a total of more than 70,000 locomotives. Its other surviving sister locomotive, No. 1309, has been restored to operation at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad in Cumberland, Maryland.
Meadow River Lumber Company No. 1 is a Shay locomotive at Steamtown National Historic Site, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This 2-truck Shay was built by Lima Locomotive Works in May 1910. This type of locomotive was used primarily by lumber and mining companies. Some were used by other industries and on short lines. This is one of 77 Shay locomotives preserved in the United States.
The Hocking Valley Scenic Railway is a non-profit, 501c3, volunteer-operated tourist railroad attraction that operates out of Nelsonville, Athens County, Ohio. It is also located near the popular Hocking Hills State Park in nearby Hocking County. It uses former trackage of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, which was in turn originally Hocking Valley Railway trackage. The current operation was founded in 1972.
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway 2716 is a preserved class "K-4" 2-8-4 "Kanawha" (Berkshire) type steam locomotive built in 1943 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). While most railroads referred to these 2-8-4 type locomotives as Berkshires, the C&O referred to them as Kanawhas after the Kanawha River, which flows through West Virginia. Used as a dual service locomotive, No. 2716 and its classmates served the C&O in a variety of duties until being retired from revenue service in 1956.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway's K-4 class were a group of ninety 2-8-4 steam locomotives purchased during and shortly after World War II. Unlike many other railroads in the United States, the C&O chose to nickname this class "Kanawha", after the river in West Virginia, rather than "Berkshire", after the region in New England.
The Chesapeake and Ohio class H-8 was a class of 60 simple articulated 2-6-6-6 steam locomotives built by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio between 1941 and 1948, operating until the mid 1950s. The locomotives were among the most powerful steam locomotives ever built and hauled fast, heavy freight trains for the railroad. Only two units were preserved; Nos. 1601 and 1604.
The Louisville and Nashville M-1 was a class of forty-two 2-8-4 steam locomotives built during and after World War II as dual-service locomotives. They were nicknamed "Big Emmas" by crews and were built in three batches between 1942 and 1949.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Greenbrier was a class of twelve 4-8-4 steam locomotives built by the Lima Locomotive Works between 1935 and 1948 and operated by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). The C&O did not name their 4-8-4s "Northerns", and instead chosen the name "Greenbrier" after the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, a major destination on the C&O mainline.
Chesapeake and Ohio No. 490 is the sole survivor of the L-1 class 4-6-4 "Hudson" type steam locomotives. It was built by ALCO's Richmond works in 1926 as an F-19 class 4-6-2 "Pacific" type to be used to pull the Chesapeake and Ohio's secondary passenger trains. It was eventually rebuilt in 1946 to become a streamlined 4-6-4 for the C&O's Chessie streamliner.
The Chesapeake and Ohio T-1 was a class of forty 2-10-4 steam locomotives built by the Lima Locomotive Works in 1930 and operated until the early 1950s.