The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, Baltimore, MD: one of the best collections in the US.

The BL2 seems to polarise opinion amongst rail fans.

Although thought by many to be something of an "ugly duckling", and I'm sure they were no fun for yard or maintenance crews, I find their snub nose, chunky profile and swept sides quite attractive.

Seven BL2s have survived in total.

You can see Janesville & Southeastern BL2 #52 (formerly Bangoor & Aroostook #552), as well as Bangoor & Aroostook #56 on the National Railroad Museum page of this website.

The tender was of a cast steel water bottom design, with a capacity of 30 tons of coal and 21,000 gallons of water.

All the K-4 tenders were fitted with two Buckeye Steel Casting Co., six wheel tender truck sets.

Twelve K-4s have survived.

You can see CO #2727 on the St Louis Museum of Transportation page of this website, CO #2736 on the National Railroad Museum page and CO #2732, CO #2755, CO #2756 and CO #2760 each have their own page.

The brake system air pumps mounted on the front of the smoke box, also known as "flying air pumps", necessitated a relatively narrow smoke box door. These, along with the pilot mounted headlight and low-slung General Steel Castings pilot give #1309 a characteristically Chesapeake & Ohio look.

Other features characteristic of the C&O Railroad's steam motive power are #1309's relatively roomy cab and its over-sized box-type sand domes.

The view above also clearly illustrates why this type of front end number plate was often referred to as "frogs eyes".

The H-6 had a short service life. The last was retired in 1957, only eight years after being built.

Two H-6s have been preserved. As well as #1309 on this page, you can see #1308 in Huntington, WV, on the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society page of this website.

The original tenders supplied with the ten H-6 locomotives had a water capacity of 12,000 gallons and 16 tons of coal.

The tender now attached to #1309 appears to have been swapped out from another locomotive: it has a capacity of 12,000 gallons of water and 15 tons of coal.

This is one of twenty-nine EMD SW900 switchers delivered to the Baltimore & Ohio in 1955. Originally numbered #633, it was renumbered #9408 in 1956. Retired in 1991 and donated to the museum the following year, it was restored to its original livery and number in 1994 but, when these photos were taken in 2010, the paint work was showing the effect of weathering.

The SW900 was built after earlier EMD models such as the SW9, SW8 and SW1 had completed production. At this time, EMD also began using the model number to refer to its horsepower rating instead of simply using it to list its sequential order in the series.

SW900s have an 8 cylinder EMD 567C prime mover that generates 900 hp. They weigh 230,000 lbs and deliver 36,000 lbs continuous tractive effort at 11 mph. Their hp rating was not as high as their predecessor, the SW9, which may explain why they did not sell as well.

Two hundred and seventy-four SW900s were built from 1954 to 1965, mainly for US railroads, and ninety-seven by GMD in Montreal for Canadian railroads into 1969. By comparison, over eight hundred 1,200 hp SW9s were built over the same period.

Two hundred and thirty-eight of these 70 ton switchers were built by GE between 1947 and 1955, mainly for US railroads. They were powered by a 6 cylinder Cooper-Bessemer FWL-6T prime mover delivering a maximum of 660 hp. #50 was delivered to the Baltimore & Annapolis in January 1950. It remained in freight service until June 1968, and was donated to the museum in 1986.

The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad started operations in 1887 as a steam railroad, connecting Annapolis and Baltimore via the B&O's Curtis Bay branch from Clifford. The line was electrified in 1908. In 1921, it was purchased by the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway and then, following WB&A's bankruptcy in 1935, it re-emerged once again as the Baltimore & Annapolis, providing both freight and passenger services until 1950, when it became solely a freight carrier.

The freight service stopped in 1968 when the operator's trestle rail bridge over the Severn River was declared unsafe. By the early 1970s, all that remained was a six mile stub to Glen Burnie. Soon after, the last remaining section of the railroad was closed and sold to the State of Maryland to provide the southern leg of its light rail system.

BOMX is the B&O Museum marker, but this Fairbanks-Morse H-12-44 started life as Milwaukee Road #2321. It was built in 1955, so does not have the rear roof visor installed on H-12-44s prior to September 1952 as well as on the earlier H-10-44 models. #2321 was renumbered #706 in 1959 and retired in March 1981. It was then sold to Central Wisconsin as #1200, who sold it to Miller Compressing Co. It was eventually bought by the museum and renumbered #9733.

Fairbanks Morse had developed a diesel engine used on much of the US Navy's WWII submarine fleet. With two pistons in each cylinder, it generated nearly twice as much power from the same number of cylinders as other engines. With post-war railroad dieselisation, the company introduced what was then the most powerful engine available in a diesel, but the locomotives were relatively difficult to maintain and only three hundred and thirty-four H-12-44s were built between 1950 and 1961. The Milwaukee Road bought forty-eight between 1950 and 1955, and #706 was among the last retired in 1981.

You can see Beaufort & Moorehead
H-12-44 #1860 on the North Carolina Transportation Museum page of this website, and Southwestern Portland Cement Co., H-12-44 #115 on the Museum of the American Railroad page. Both have the rear hood visor, designed by Raymond Loewy but later dropped as a cost saving exercise.

#32 was purchased by the Canton Railroad, a Class III switching and terminal railroad operating in eastern Baltimore City and Baltimore County serving the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore and local shipping operators. The company was chartered in 1906 to serve industrial, manufacturing and shipping customers in the Baltimore port area. The tracks were laid between 1905 and 1914, with rail operations starting initially in 1907.

#32 was one of two VO-1000 switchers Baldwin built for the Canton Railroad in 1944. They were originally numbered #30 and #31 but were renumbered #331 and #332 when transferred to the Patapsco & Back Rivers Railroad in 1953. Five hundred and forty-eight VO-1000s were built for US railroads between 1939 and 1946, including a number for the US Army and Navy. They were powered by a De La Verne 8-VO diesel engine and developed 1,000 hp.

Several railroads repowered and remodelled their VO-1000s, not always entirely successfully. However, a number of original VO-1000s have survived.

You can see KCCX Kennecott Copper's VO-1000 #801 on the Nevada Northern Railroad Museum page of this website, and Western Railroad Company VO-1000 #1107 on the Museum of the American Railroad page.

#195 is one of fourteen RS-3 1,600 hp switchers built by Alco for the Western Maryland in 1953. One thousand, three hundred and seventy of this type were built for railroads in the US, Canada and Mexico between 1950 and 1956. Powered by an Alco 244 prime mover, they delivered 52,500 lbs tractive effort at 10 mph

As well as switching, #195 hauled freight and passenger services.

You can see NW RS-3 #300 on the Virginia Museum of Transportation page of this website, NN RS-3 #109 on the Northern Nevada Railroad Museum page and RDG RS-3 #467 on the Steamtown Yard page.

#X215 is a 250 ton diesel powered wrecking crane built for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1952 by the Industrial Brownhoist Corporation of Bay City, MI. #X215 was based in Cumberland, MD, for most of its life. When the B&O was folded into CSX Transportation in 1987, it was renumbered CSXT #940505. It was acquired by the museum in 1993 and returned to its original B&O livery and number. It is on static display coupled to BO #X1806 crane tender/block car.

The Industrial Brownhoist Corporation started life as Industrial Works in 1873, primarily repairing equipment and supplying saws, engines and boilers for the many local sawmills and shipbuilders. The firm built its first crane for the Chicago & Western Illinois Railroad in 1883 and went on to become a major producer of cranes. In 1931, it combined with the Brown Hoisting Company of Cleveland, OH, (established in 1880) to form Industrial Brownhoist.

After over one hundred years of continuous production marked by a number of changes of ownership, however, the plant was finally shut down in 1983. There are Industrial Brownhoist cranes on the Nevada Northern Railroad Museum page of this website, the Spencer S. and Hope Fox Eccles Railroad Center page, the Gold Coast Railroad Museum page, the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum Yard page and the Virginia Museum of Transportation page.

#3684 was one of the first 3,000 hp GP40s built for the B&O by EMD, part of a batch of sixteen delivered in 1966, and the only set delivered to the B&O with extended range dynamic braking. By this time, the B&O had been acquired by the C&O, although the B&O retained its identity under the C&O until 1987, when it was folded into the CSX. It took delivery of a total of one hundred and sixty-one GP40s between 1966 and 1971, and the rather striking dark blue and yellow livery was adopted by the C&O for its B&O motive power.

One thousand, one hundred and eighty-seven GP40s were built for US railroads, sixteen for Canadian and eighteen for Mexican railroads. They were designed for freight service, but variants were produced for passenger service. The GP40 was discontinued in 1972 and replaced by the GP40-2. This had improved electrical systems, as well as some minor exterior changes, and became a real work horse. Although only eight hundred and sixty-one were built, some still operate on the CSX, UP, NS and many shortline railroads.

#236 is one of twenty-six F7 A units delivered to the Western Maryland from 1950 to 1952. The railroad also bought fourteen B units.

Designed for fast freight, EMD built two thousand, three hundred and sixty-six F7 A units and one thousand, four hundred and eighty-three B units. They were the best-selling cab unit of all time, and many stayed in service for decades. They were not very popular with yard crews, however, as they were difficult to mount and dismount when switching, and it was difficult for engineers to see hand signals without leaning way outside the cab window.

SW1 #11 was the second of two 600 hp switchers built for the Pere Marquette by EMD in 1942. The first, SW1 #10, was delivered in 1939.

Six hundred and sixty-one SW1s were produced by EMD for US railroads between 1939 and 1953, as well as for railroads in Canada, Mexico and South America. The first SW1 is preserved at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, CA, and you can see CG SW1 #1 on the Savannah Roundhouse Museum page of this website.

#6405 is one of thirty-three GP7s built for the B&O by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in 1953. Two thousand, seven hundred and twenty-nine were built from 1949 to 1954: two thousand, six hundred and fifteen for US railroads, one hundred and twelve for Canadian and two for Mexican railroads.

They were the first EMD road locomotives to use a hood unit design instead of a car-body design. Powered by an EMD 567B 16 cylinder prime mover generating 1,500 hp, they were offered both with and without control cabs. Units without control cabs were called GP7Bs, but only five were produced for the AT&SF over a relatively short production run in March and April 1953.

The GP7 proved very popular, and EMD was barely able to meet demand, even after opening a second assembly plant in Cleveland, OH. Good visibility, a near full-length catwalk and easy engine access made the series a favourite for both operating and maintenance crews. In fact, the GP7 was astoundingly successful, and they are often credited with completing main line dieselisation in the US. Extremely versatile, they hauled freight and passenger services, as well as operating as switchers, and they soon had a nickname that became synonymous with the GP series: from the initials "GP", they were known as Geeps (pronounced "Jeeps").

The units have a handsome, business-like look, and many rebuilt or restored units still operate on regionals and shortlines, as well as on tourist excursions in railroad museums. For example, a few GP7s can be hired to engineer for an hour at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, TN. You can see CO GP7 #5828 on the Virginia Museum of Transportation page of this website, ACL GP7 #1804 on the Gold Coast Railroad Museum and modified NW GP7u #2185 on the Crewe Railroad Museum page.

#377 is a Ten-Wheeler (4-6-0) originally built for the Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie Railroad in 1902 as #108. Renumbered in the 1930s after the C&O took over the line, it transferred to Clifton Forge, VA, where it hauled passenger and freight trains between Eagle Rock and New Castle on the Craig Valley Branch until 1952.

Retired from service, it was to be scrapped, but the city of Logan, WV, asked if it could be "aged" for the anniversary celebration of the first C&O locomotive to arrive at the city in 1904. The C&O then combined it with an ex-Hocking Valley wooden combine for display. It was occasionally steamed up before being permanently relocated to the museum in 1971.

CO #490 was built by Alco in 1926 as an F19 class Pacific type locomotive (4-6-2), but was one of five rebuilt as L1 class Hudson types (4-6-4) at C&O's Huntington workshops in 1946, where four (#490-#493) were fitted with the yellow streamlining. This earned the rebuilt locomotives the nickname "Yellowbellies".

#490 is the sole survivor of the four streamlined locomotives and is the only surviving streamlined Hudson type. It was donated to the museum in 1971 from the C&O Historical Collection.

Following WWII, the C&O was determined to revive falling passenger numbers and the four locomotives were designed to handle connecting services to the Chessie, a proposed new luxury service between Washington DC and Cincinnati, OH. The C&O ordered new streamlined passenger cars, and the L1's tenders were cased in fluted stainless steel and tapered at the top so that they would blend exactly with the new Budd passenger cars.

The C&O also invested in three new steam-turbine locomotives for the service in 1947 and 1948 but, as passenger numbers continued to decline, the plans were abandoned. The steam-turbine locomotives were maintenance nightmares in any case, and were scrapped within three years. The four stylishly shrouded Hudsons then hauled regular passenger trains between Washington DC, Newport News, VA, and Chicago, IL, before being retired in 1953.

L1s have 80.3 sq ft grates, a 281 sq ft firebox and a combined heating surface of 5,452 sq ft, including 1,213 sq ft superheating. With 74" drivers and 27" x 28" cylinders, these coal burners operated at a boiler pressure of 210 psi and delivered 49,200 lbs tractive effort.

The F19s had been supplied with Baker valve gear, but the rebuilt locomotives were fitted with Franklin Poppet valves, which accounts for the absence of the usual valve rods and levers.

The poppet valve gear for steam locomotives was invented by the Italian Arturo Caprotti in 1916 and underwent further development on both sides of the Atlantic. It used camshafts and poppet valves instead of pistons to provide much better control of steam entering and leaving the cylinders. The vertical lever visible just behind the back cylinder head in the photos above transferred movement from the crosshead to camshafts in the gearbox.

Poppet valve locomotives were tried out on a few US railroads, but their internal complexity compared to the external simplicity of the Walschaert or Baker valve gear rendered them unpopular. They were also challenging to maintain, problems were often difficult to locate and, unfortunately, their final refinement came just as diesels were replacing steam power in railroad order books.

The "Heavy Pacific" (4-6-2) was another successful USRA design, from which the Baltimore & Ohio derived its P7 class. When I visited in 2004, #5300 was in the museum's rear yard.

#5300 was the first of twenty P7s built by Baldwin in 1927 and known as the "President" Class. They were the last mass purchased passenger steam locomotives to operate on the B&O. #5300 was named "President Washington" and was unveiled at the Fair of the Iron Horse in 1927. It is the only survivor of this class.

With 80" diameter drivers, the "Presidents" were built for speed and could easily reach 90 mph. There is actually one anecdotal story of a run over the New York Shortline Cutoff between Olney and Parkland Junction, PA, on which the speedometer was "glued to the maximum 95 mph reading".

They initially hauled the Royal Blue trains between Washington DC and Jersey City, but were soon relegated to the western division by the B&O's early dieselisation in the 1930s with the EMD EA/EB units (#51 is shown earlier on this page).

By 2008, #5300 had been moved into the car shop.

The "Presidents" were originally liveried in olive green with gold and red detail although, over the years, their names and livery were sometimes changed.

The original livery is more evident in the photos above although, before being retired in 1956, the colour scheme applied to #5300 was actually Royal Blue with a grey smokebox.

The "Presidents" underwent numerous modifications, including four different firebox designs. #5301-#5304 were streamlined to a design by Otto Kuhler for the prestigious B&O Royal Blue in 1937 and reclassed as P7d. They had new frames and all axles were fitted with roller bearings. Although the streamlining was removed in 1940, it was reinstated in 1946 when the four locomotives were assigned to the Cincinnatian.

Unfortunately, none of the streamlined P7ds have survived.

Above, views along #5300's firebox.

The grate area is 70.8 sq ft and the firebox is 394 sq ft.

Above, a view along the boiler.

The firebox was fitted with 81 sq ft of thermic siphons and 14 sq ft of arch tubes. With a total heating surface of 3,846 sq ft, including 932 sq ft superheating, #5300 operated at boiler pressure of 230 psi and delivered 49,882 lbs tractive effort.

The engine weighs 326,000 lbs and the tender 218,000 lbs, making a total weight of 544,000 lbs. The tender has a capacity of 11,000 gallons of water and 17½ tons of coal.

The view of #5300's backhead above reveals a somewhat parlous state, with the jacketing removed and the brake stand and controls gone, amongst other parts.

The "Presidents" were built for speeds that would have been unattainable without the automatic stoker (the elevator pipe to the distributor in the firebox is in the middle at the bottom of this view). The stoker was supplied by the Lower Company of Baltimore, MD, a short lived supplier of automatic stokers. The founders had worked for Standard Stoker and were sued by that company in 1931 for infringement of design patents.

Although an automatic stoker took care of feeding much of the coal to the firebox, a fireman still had to keep a regular eye on the state of the fire, maintaining an even bed by filling any low spots manually, breaking up any clinkers that might form and shaking the grates to release built up ash to the ash pans.

Alongside #5300 is a brass model with cutaways of the locomotive's firebox, boiler, smokebox, frames and cylinders. It was built by George Klein, one of the museum volunteers, in 1995.

#1604 is one of sixty 2-6-6-6 Allegheny H-8 class locomotives built by Lima for the C&O from 1941 to 1948. When I visited in 2004, it was in the museum's rear yard.

#1604 was part of the first order of ten locomotives. Eight almost identical locomotives were also supplied to the Virginian in 1945.

They were designed for speeds in the region of 45 mph but could easily sustain 70 mph under the right conditions.

Above, the right rear cylinder shows the effects of resting outdoors.

When I visited in 2008, #1604 had been spruced up and moved into the car shop.

In 2009, a couple of pieces of 4 x 2 had been attached to #1604 to brace a partition along the adjoining track (on the right in these photographs).

The views above show the Allegheny's "flying pumps", centrally mounted headlight, angular shield, vertical ladders and very deep platform. Combined with the low-slung, snub nosed General Steel Castings pilot, these gave the locomotive its distinctive front-end.

The Alleghenies were designed to handle heavy grades over the Allegheny Mountains, C&O's New River and Alleghany sub-divisions, but also worked from Russell to Toledo, OH, which had numerous short adverse grades, as well as hauling some passenger trains on the Mountain division (Charlottesville to Clifton Forge, VA).

The air brake compressors were supplied by the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. The two cross compound pumps took steam from the saturated side of the superheater header.

When the Alleghenies were first outshopped, the handrails and ladder steps were painted white, as was the radiator panel surround in some of the series.

Above and below, the Worthington feedwater heater cold water pump is just below the cab.

Installed in a mount at the front of the smokebox, the open type feedwater heater could return 14% of the water used from the tender as condensate.

The hot water pump was located behind the air after coolers.

Above, a view of the rear left engine's third driver (note the size of the counter weight). Behind is the firebox supported by the six wheel trailing truck. The trailing truck wheels are 43" and of spoked design. The two pilot truck wheels are 36" in diameter and of solid design.

The trailing truck supports the grate, which is set entirely behind the drivers. It has a lateral centering device supplied by the Timken Roller Bearing Company.

The trailing truck was actually designed to accommodate a booster, although this was never fitted to any of the Alleghenies.

The view above along the engineer's side of the boiler shows the front end of the air reservoir tank at the upper left and the two massive sand domes with their sand pipes leading down to the drivers. The reservoir line, train line and brake cylinder line run just below the running board. Beneath them is another air reservoir tank housed just above the right rear valve gear.

The horizontal rods with the elbow lever at the upper centre of the photograph connect to the American type throttle at the front of the boiler. The boiler operated at 260 psi.

The outside boiler diameter (i.e. beneath the cladding) is 109". The boiler is fitted with 48 x 2¼" tubes and 278 x 3½" flues 23' in length supplied by the National Tube Co. A 118" long combustion chamber was added, and three siphons with a combined heating area of 162 sq ft were fitted to the firebox.

An Elesco Type E superheater is installed, which supplied 3,186 sq ft of heating surface.

Left front cylinder and Nathan automatic engine lubricator operated by elbow link from combination lever.

Above, the left front cylinder showing the steam supply (middle) and exhaust pipe (lower middle).

The four 22½" x 33" cylinders are all high pressure.

Front engine, showing left front cylinder, rear cylinder exhaust, steam line, Baker valve gear and main rod.

Close up of the left rear cylinder showing the steam supply (upper left), steam exhaust (upper right) and cylinder heads.

The small vertical pipe is to sand the rails.

Left rear cylinder, Nathan automatic engine lubricator and multiple bearing crosshead. .

Side view of left rear elbow link from the combination lever to the Nathan automatic engine lubricator.

A Detroit automatic valve lubricator is on the right side.

Rear engine, showing Baker valve gear, main and side rods. An air reservoir tank is above the valve gear.

The drivers are 67". All wheels were supplied by the American Rolling Mill Company.

#1604 weighs 507,000 lbs on its drivers and delivered 110,200 lbs tractive effort.

The water bottom tender frame was built by General Steel Castings.. It rides on two Buckeye Steel trucks.

Above, the coal bunker. The tender had a capacity of 25 tons of coal and 25,000 gallons of water.

Fired by a Standard Stoker Company MB type stoker, the firebox is 108" x 108". With three thermic siphons, three hundred and twenty-six fire tubes and Elesco Superheater, #1604 had a total heating surface of 10,426 sq ft.

Above, the grate is 135 sq ft. It was built by the Waugh Equipment Company.

Rods connecting the grates to shakers in the cab run horizontally in the lower part of the photo. Shaking the grates was usually the fireman's responsibility. It released ash and clinkers from the fire to promote better combustion.

Hover your mouse over the photo to identify the main backhead controls.

Which was biggest/greatest/most powerful steam locomotive?

For somewhat obscure reasons (apparently because of regular but unco-ordinated tinkering with the design), the first Alleghenies were much heavier than the C&O allowance, and their weight was progressively reduced in following orders. The C&O actually sued Lima because of the weight difference and were reportedly awarded a settlement of $3,000,000 that effectively wiped out any profit they might have made on the locomotives. As a result, the first Alleghenies were heavier even than Big Boys (778,000 lb vs. 772,500 lb). They also had a larger maximum boiler diameter (109" vs. 106½"), a larger smokebox diameter (102" vs. 95" tapering to 90") and longer boiler tubes (23' vs. 22').

However, if you check the photos of DMIR #229 on the Two Harbors Depot Museum page of this website, you'll see it is also sign posted as an example of the world's largest steam locomotive. It was certainly the heaviest on its drivers (564,974 lb vs. 545,200 lb for the Big Boy) and had a higher tractive effort (140,000 lb vs. 135,375 lb) but it was nearly 8' shorter than the Big Boy with its tender, and the engine itself was almost 73,000 lb lighter.

The debate over the greatest steam locomotive is ongoing, and the conclusion depends on which aspect of locomotive weight and/or performance you consider. For example, in terms of surviving locomotives, you could argue the N&W Y-6 was the most powerful steam locomotive with its 170,000 lb tractive effort when running simple (There is a Y-6a on the St. Louis Museum of Transportation page of this website).

Others include the N&W A class 2-6-6-4 in their calculations, as much because of its versatility as its high gross tonnage (18,000 lb v the Allegheny's 14,000 lb). Eugene Huddleston includes the N&W A class, along with the UP Big Boy and C&O Allegheny in his World's Greatest Steam Locomotives, TLC Publishing, 2001. You can see NW A Class #1218 on the Virginia Museum of Transportation page of this website.

Related Links:

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum Website
Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society
Story of the American Freedom Train
Steamlocomotive.com on the Largest Steam Locomotives

Join the mailing list, send a comment or query, report a broken link or suggest a new one.

Patrick Dorin's Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was published by the Superior Publishing Company in 1981 (click on the cover to search for this book on Bookfinder.com).

Below, Eugene L. Huddleston and Thomas W. Dixon Jr. have written an excellent book on C&O's H-8, The Allegheny, Lima's Finest, published by Hundman in 1984 (click on the cover to search for this book on Bookfinder.com).

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Page published 1st Jan 2009. Updated 5th May 2009 and 6th Dec 2010.