| Louisville & Nashville M-1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Louisville and Nashville No. 1966's tender on display outside the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 first two batches were built by Baldwin Locomotive Works during World War II. The first batch of ten (Nos. 1950–1959) was constructed in 1942. Upon arrival to the L&N, these were initially employed on high-speed freight service. The second batch also consisted of ten members (Nos. 1960–1969). These were built in 1944 and were pressed into passenger service. The third batch consisted of twenty-two locomotives built by Lima in 1949 (Nos. 1970–1991). These were the second to last class of Berkshires to be built and ordered by Lima, the last being the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad S-3 Class. The S-3 Class was also the last class of locomotives ordered from Lima for domestic rails. The last member, No. 779, is still around today. The Big Emmas proved to be the most expensive Berkshires built due to the fact that they were fitted with every refinement known to the steam locomotive builder's craft. [2] These included roller bearings, cast-steel frames and cylinders, large fireboxes, and a large boiler capacity. Upon arrival to the L&N, the M-1s lacked trailing truck booster units. However, C-2-L units were soon fitted.
The "Big Emmas" bore a strong resemblance to the Van Sweringen Berkshires, which were Berkshires designed for the Nickel Plate Road, Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway, Pere Marquette Railway, and Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, all being based on the Erie Railroad’s 2-8-4s, which also influenced the C&O’s T-1 class 2-10-4s. Both designs used 69-inch driving wheels, the same tube diameter, and the same number and size of the flues. They also had the same cylinder bore as the Nickel Plate Road Berkshires and the Wheeling & Lake Erie K-1s, the latter of which were effectively copies of the Nickel Plate Road S Class. The Nickel Plate Road S-2s and Chesapeake & Ohio K-4s, which called their 2-8-4s "Kanawhas", were also equipped with roller bearings like with the Big Emmas. However, the Van Sweringen designs all had Baker valve gear, an engine wheelbase of 42 feet, a boiler pressure of 245 psi, a firebox with 90.3 square feet of grate area, and a cylinder stroke of 34-inches. The Pere Marquette and Chesapeake & Ohio Kanawhas also had a bore of 26-inches, and the Berkshires on the Nickel Plate Road, Pere Marquette, and Chesapeake & Ohio all had 73 tubes. The Wheeling & Lake Erie K-1 Class, meanwhile had 67 tubes. The Big Emmas, meanwhile, had Walschaerts valve gear, a 42-foot 4-inch engine wheelbase, a boiler pressure of 265-psi, a firebox grate area of 90.2 square feet, 25-by-32-inch cylinders, and 62 tubes inside the boiler.
In service, the M-1s were used on all sorts of duties. [1] These included the Southland and Flamingo passenger trains between Cincinnati, Ohio and Corbin, Kentucky, fast freight trains, and coal trains around Eastern Kentucky, where they regularly hauled trains in excess of 8,000 tons. [1] At 42 miles per hour, the Big Emmas were rated at 4,503 horsepower. [3]
Unfortunately, by the time the last batch of Big Emmas were delivered, the L&N started to invest more in diesel power. The first batch was retired by December 1950, and the final two batches were retired by November 1956, when steam officially ended on the railroad. By 1957, all of the Big Emmas had been cut up, although most of their tenders were reused for maintenance of way service on the L&N. [4] [5] Some of them were eventually converted to canteens to supply extra water for steam locomotives that were used in main line excursion service such as Southern Railway 4501, Norfolk and Western 611 and 1218; Nickel Plate Road 765 and 587; Chesapeake and Ohio 2716 and 614; and Milwaukee Road 261. [6] The two tenders from Nos. 1966 and 1984 are on static display at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia and the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, Kentucky, respectively.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 2-10-4 locomotive has two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a Bissel truck, ten coupled driving wheels on five axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles, usually in a bogie. These were referred to as the Texas type in most of the United States, the Colorado type on the Burlington Route, and the Selkirk type in Canada.
The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago. The company was named after Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie.
The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, abbreviated NYC&St.L, was a railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. Commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road", the railroad served parts of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Its primary connections occurred in Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Toledo.
Lima Locomotive Works 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.
In 1948, 14 railroads in North America owned more than 1,000 steam locomotives each. See also: Historical sizes of railroads
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, a 2-6-6-2 is a locomotive with one pair of unpowered leading wheels, followed by two sets of three pairs of powered driving wheels and one pair of trailing wheels. The wheel arrangement was principally used on Mallet-type articulated locomotives, although some tank locomotive examples were also built. A Garratt locomotive or Golwé locomotive with the same wheel arrangement is designated 2-6-0+0-6-2 since both engine units are pivoting.
Nickel Plate Road 765 is a class "S-2" 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type steam locomotive built 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.
Cleveland has been and continues to be deeply rooted in railroad history.
John Joseph Bernet was president of the Nickel Plate Road, Erie Railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and Pere Marquette Railroad in the United States. He was known for bringing railroad companies back from bankruptcy to solvency, earning him the nickname "Doctor of Sick Railroads".
The Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway was a Class I railroad mostly within the U.S. state of Ohio. It was leased to the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad in 1949, and merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1988. A new regional railroad reused the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway name in 1990 when it acquired most of the former W&LE from the N&W.
Nickel Plate Road 587 is a 2-8-2 type USRA Light Mikado steam locomotive built in September 1918 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Lake Erie and Western Railroad as its No. 5541. In 1923, the LE&W was merged into the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road", and allocated 587 as its new number in 1924. In 2003, the locomotive was being restored by the Indiana Transportation Museum in Noblesville, Indiana. However since then the Indiana Transportation Museum has been dissolved and the locomotive has been sold into private ownership. It awaits an unknown date and funding for restoration.
Nickel Plate Road 759 is a class "S-2" 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type steam locomotive built in 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio as a member of the S-2 class for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road". Built as a fast freight locomotive, No. 759 served the Nickel Plate until being retired in 1959 and placed into storage. In 1965, No. 759 was purchased by F. Nelson Blount for display in his Steamtown, U.S.A. collection in North Walpole, New Hampshire. The locomotive was restored to operating condition in 1967 by New York commodity broker Ross Rowland for use in hauling his Golden Spike Centennial Limited, a special commemorative train that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1969. Afterwards, No. 759 pulled numerous excursions for Ross Rowland and Steamtown until being retired once more and placed back on display in 1977. As of 2023, the locomotive remains on static display at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and sibling engine No. 765 continues to operate in mainline excursion service.
The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society (FWRHS) is a non-profit group in New Haven, Indiana that is dedicated to the restoration and operation of the ex-Nickel Plate Railroad's steam locomotive no. 765 and other vintage railroad equipment. Since restoration, the 765 was added to the National Register of Historic Places as no. 96001010 on September 12, 1996 and has operated excursion trains across the Eastern United States. In 2012, the FWRHS's steam locomotive no. 765 was added to the Norfolk Southern's 21st Century Steam program.
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway 2716 is a 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 Chesapeake and Ohio Greenbrier was a class of 12 4-8-4 "Greenbrier" type steam locomotives built by the Lima Locomotive Works between 1935 and 1948 and operated by the C&O. Like a handful of railroads, the C&O didn't name their 4-8-4s "Northerns", and instead went with the name "Greenbrier" after the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, a major resort 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. After the Chessie was cancelled, No. 490 remained in secondary passenger service, until it was retired in 1953. It spent several years in storage in Huntington, West Virginia, until 1968, when it was donated to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. It remains on static display at the museum, as of 2023.
The Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation (KSHCO) is a nonprofit organization based on the border between Irvine and Ravenna, Kentucky. The organization mainly focuses on the restoration of Chesapeake and Ohio K-4 2-8-4 steam locomotive No. 2716 along with other vintage railroad equipment. The organization has plans of turning the surrounding area into its own tourist attraction called the Kentucky Rail Heritage Center through a partnership with the R.J. Corman Railroad Group and CSX Transportation.