The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Rochester and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.
The American Locomotive Company was an American manufacturer that operated from 1901 to 1969, initially specializing in the production of locomotives but later diversifying and fabricating at various times diesel generators, automobiles, steel, tanks, munitions, oil-production equipment, as well as heat exchangers for nuclear power plants.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-8-2 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly known as the Mountain type, though the New York Central Railroad used the name Mohawk for their 4-8-2s.
The New York Central Railroad (NYC) called the 4-8-2 type of steam locomotive the Mohawk type. It was known as the Mountain type on other roads, but the New York Central did not see the name as fitting on its famous Water Level Route. Instead, it picked the name of one of those rivers its rails followed, the Mohawk River, to name its newest type of locomotive. Despite the more common name, the 4-8-2 was actually suited in many ways more to flatland running than slow mountain slogging, with its 4-wheel leading truck for stability at speed. However, the L1s and L2s were unstable at higher speeds due to the lack of effective cross-balancing, making the 4-wheel leading truck simply a better distributor of the locomotives weight; the L1s and L2s were consequently limited to 60 mph (97 km/h), though this issue was resolved for the L3s and L4s using data gathered from two experimental L-2s.
The New York Central Hudson was a popular 4-6-4 "Hudson" type steam locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO), Baldwin Locomotive Works and the Lima Locomotive Works in three series from 1927 to 1938 for the New York Central Railroad. Named after the Hudson River, the 4-6-4 wheel arrangement came to be known as the "Hudson" type in the United States, as these locomotives were the first examples built and used in North America. Built for high-speed passenger train work, the Hudson locomotives were famously known for hauling the New York Central's crack passenger trains, such as the 20th Century Limited and the Empire State Express. With the onset of diesel locomotives by the mid-20th Century, all Hudson locomotives were retired and subsequently scrapped by 1957, with none preserved today except for a converted tender from J-1d 5313, which is preserved at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and also in Texas through subsidiaries Colorado and Southern Railway, Fort Worth and Denver Railway, and Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver. Because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans "Everywhere West", "Way of the Zephyrs", and "The Way West".
The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad is a class II railroad that operates in northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio.
The M1 was a class of steam locomotive of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). It was a class of heavy mixed-traffic locomotives of the 4-8-2 "Mountain" arrangement, which uses four pairs of driving wheels with a four-wheel guiding truck in front for stability at speed and a two-wheel trailing truck to support the large firebox needed for sustained power. Although built for both passenger and freight work, they spent most of their service lives hauling heavy high-speed freight trains. Many PRR men counted the M1 class locomotives as the best steam locomotives the railroad ever owned.
The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to November 21, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. It was purchased and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1980. Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.
The ALCO PA was a family of A1A-A1A diesel locomotives built to haul passenger trains. The locomotives were built in Schenectady, New York, in the United States, by a partnership of the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and General Electric (GE) between June, 1946 and December, 1953. Designed by General Electric's Ray Patten, they were of a cab unit design; both cab-equipped lead A unit PA and cabless booster B unit PB models were built. While externally the PB models were slightly shorter than the PA model, they shared many of the same characteristics, both aesthetically and mechanically. However, they were not as reliable as EMD E-units.
Dieselisation is the process of equipping vehicles with a diesel engine or diesel engines.
The New York Central Railroad's Niagara was a class of 27 4-8-4 steam locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company for the New York Central Railroad. Like many railroads that adopted different names for their 4-8-4s rather than “Northerns”, the New York Central named them “Niagaras”, after the Niagara River and Falls. It is considered as one of the most efficient 4-8-4 locomotives ever built.
The National New York Central Railroad Museum is a railroad museum located in Elkhart, Indiana dedicated to the preservation of the New York Central Railroad (NYC).
Pennsylvania Railroad 6755 is a 4-8-2 "Mountain" type steam locomotive built in 1930 for the Pennsylvania Railroad by the railroad's own Altoona Works as a member of the M1b locomotive class for mainline freight service. Retired from commercial service in 1957, the locomotive was preserved by the Pennsylvania Railroad and was placed on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. The 6755 is the only M1 class locomotive to have survived into preservation.
Illinois Central No. 790 is a preserved 2-8-0 “Consolidation” steam locomotive, built by ALCO’s Cooke Works in 1903. In 1959, No. 790 was saved from scrap and purchased by Lou Keller, and he used it to pull excursion trains in Iowa. In 1965, the locomotive was sold to a New York businessman, who, in turn, sold it the following year to F. Nelson Blount, the founder of Steamtown, U.S.A.. As of 2024, No. 790 is on static display at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
New York Central 2933 is 4-8-2 "Mohawk" (Mountain) type steam locomotive built in 1929 by the American Locomotive Company for the New York Central Railroad. The wheel arrangement is known as the Mountain type on other railroads, but the New York Central dubbed them "Mohawks" after the Mohawk River, which the railroad followed. It pulled freight trains until being retired in 1955. Today, the locomotive is on display at the National Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, Missouri. It is the second-largest New York Central steam locomotive still in existence and is one of two surviving New York Central "Mohawks"; the other, No. 3001, is on display at the National New York Central Railroad Museum in Elkhart, Indiana.
Atlantic Coast Line 1504 is a 4-6-2 steam locomotive built in March 1919 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Richmond, Virginia, for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) as a member of the P-5-A class under the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) standard. No. 1504 was assigned to pull ACL's premier main line passenger trains during the 1920s to early 40s and even main line freight trains in the late 1940s until it was retired from revenue service at the end of 1952.
Grand Trunk Western No. 6323 is a preserved class "U-3-b" 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive built by Alco in 1942. It served the Grand Trunk Western Railroad by pulling various heavy freight and passenger trains across the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Indiana. It became famous in later years for being the very last active steam locomotive to run on the GTW's trackage while still on the railroad's active list in 1961. After sitting in storage for several years in Detroit, No. 6323 was sold in 1981 to the Illinois Railway Museum, and since then, it has remained on static display in Union, Illinois.
The Southern Railway Ss was a class of 2-10-2 "Santa Fe" type steam locomotives built in 1917 and 1918 for the Southern Railway (SOU). They were assigned to haul and bank heavy freight trains over the Saluda Grade and Old Fort Loops in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
Savannah and Atlanta 750, formerly Florida East Coast 80, is a 4-6-2 “Light Pacific” steam locomotive built in January 1910 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Schenectady, New York, originally for the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) as No. 80. Throughout the 1930s, FEC had sold of several of their locomotives, with No. 80 being sold in 1935 to the Savannah and Atlanta Railway, where it was renumbered to 750. The locomotive pulled commuter passenger trains and occasional mixed freight trains for the S&A, until the railroad dieselized in the early 1950s. In 1962, the locomotive was donated to the Atlanta Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, who began using the locomotive to pull occasional excursion trains. No. 750 was subsequently leased to the Southern Railway for use to pull trains for their new steam excursion program, and the lease ended in 1984. From 1985 to 1989, the locomotive pulled excursion trains for the New Georgia Railroad around Atlanta, until it was retired, due to firebox issues. As of 2022, No. 750 remains on static display inside the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia.
