The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum has such a fantastic collection that I have broken it into two separate pages on this website.

This page covers some locomotives in the yard and car shop. The other page includes some locomotives and other stuff in the roundhouse.

I visited the museum in November 2004 (overcast), March 2008 (sunny) and March 2009 (overcast). The photographs on this page are from all three visits.

Related links:

www.borail.org

www.maps.google.com

www.cohs.org

www.freedomtrain.org

www.steamlocomotive.com/misc/largest.shtml

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).

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).

Western Maryland #81 is one of  two 1,500 hp, 4 axle B-B, BL-2 diesels built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division for WM in 1948. In total, 59 of this type of locomotive were built between 1948 and 1949 for various railroads. They operated on freight, passenger and switching services.

Since the engine didn't occupy the entire width of the carbody, the hood was cut away to give the crew a slightly better line of sight. However, this also eliminated side walkways, which made it less useful as a switcher.

Coupled to the front of #81 is WM #138T, a 1,000 hp auxiliary engine, or “slug”. A slug has motors, but these must be fed with electricity from a coupled locomotive (usually referred to as “the mother”). It thereby produced additional tractive effort without the cost of another power plant.

Originally built by Baldwin as an S1 diesel locomotive, #138T was one of two converted to slugs in 1962. It mated with #81. #139T mated with WM BL-2 #82, which still operates for the West Virginia Central Railroad on passenger excursions, although no-one knows what happened to #139T.

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

K-4s operated over most of the C&O system. They performed so well, handling heavy drag freight, as well as fast passenger services, that 10 more were ordered from Lima in 1945, and a further 40 in 1947 from Alco and Lima. Eventually, C&O owned 90 K-4s.

The first K-4 was retired in 1950, possibly as a result of a collision, but the remaining 89 were not far behind. All had been retired by 1957 and the majority scrapped by 1961. In all, 12 Kanawhas have survived. You can see K-4 #2727 on the St Louis Museum of Transportation page of this website, and K-4 #2736 on the National Railroad Museum page.

C&O Class K-4 #2705 was one of the first 40 Berkshire type (2-8-4) locomotives built for C&O by Alco between 1943 and 1944, although they were known as Kanawhas on the C&O after the river that cut through the C&O heartland in West Virginia. They were designed to handle the fast freight demanded by the wartime economy. The design was based on the Pere Marquette line Lima-built 2-8-4s, but included improvements such as cast steel frames with integral cylinders. However, war shortages meant that economies had to be made, including substituting steel bells instead of the customary grass one (after the war, brass bells were retrofitted).

The grate area was 90 sq. ft. and the boiler operated at 245 psi. The cylinders were 26” x 34” and the locomotive had a tractive effort of 69,350 lbs.

The drivers are 69” in diameter. In total, #2705 weighs 850,000 lbs (locomotive 460,000 lbs, tender 390,000 lbs). Weight on the drivers is 292,000 lbs.

All engine axles were fitted with roller bearings, and the trailing truck rear axles carried booster engines to aid traction in starting and on heavy grades.

C&O 2-6-6-2 class H-6 #1309 was one of 10 built by Baldwin in 1949. It was the last Mallet ever constructed in the US, and the last domestic steam locomotive built by Baldwin. From 1906, large numbers of Mallets were produced for the U.S. market. They could double the tractive effort available from non articulateds and eliminate double heading, which was then very prevalent.

#1309 was built to a design refined by C&O between 1910 and 1923. Total weight was 602,900 lbs (434,400 lbs engine, 168,500 lbs tender). The grate area was 72.5 sq. ft. and boiler pressure was 210 psi. The drivers were 56” in diameter. Weight on the drivers was 364,900 lbs and tractive effort was 70,773 lbs. The cylinders were 22” x 32” (high pressure) and 22” x 35” (low pressure). In this view, the larger low pressure front cylinders of a compound articulated are clearly evident (the Alco reverse gear is directly over the rear, high pressure cylinder).

The original tenders had a water capacity of 9,000 gallons and 15 tons of coal. The tender attached to #1309 appears to be from another locomotive: it has a capacity of 12,000 gallons of water and 15 tons of fuel.

C&O acquired a larger fleet of articulateds over its operating life than any other U.S. Railroad, and this partly reflected the nature of its core business: hauling heavy coal trains over the Allegheny Mountains to the east coast, a business that called for drag power rather than speed.

The H-6 class endured remarkably well, remaining in service until September 1956, three months longer even than the Allegheny class. The last H-6 was retired in 1957, and two have been preserved. One is in the B&O Museum. #1308 is on display at the Collis P. Huntington Museum in Huntington, WV.

View from the right side of the locomotive showing the underside of the deck apron (top), the stoker feed connection (upper centre) and  radial buffer (bottom).

Over-fire jets fitted to the firebox are shown in these two views. Steam operated, the jets introduced additional air to aid combustion. They were operated by the fireman and increased efficiency as well as reducing smoke exhaust in built up areas.

Flying air pumps, pilot mounted headlight and low-slung General Steel Castings pilot give the H-6 a characteristically C&O look.

These views also clearly show why this type of front end number plates were so often called “frogs eyes”.

The complexity of steam locomotion is intriguing.

#2101 is a 4-8-4 Northern type locomotive. It was sold by the Reading Railroad to Striegel Supply & Equipment (scrap yard) in Baltimore, MD in 1965.

In 1975, it was bought by Ross Rowland and restored at Chessie's Riverside engine terminal. Although never operated on Reading’s “rambles”, between 1975 and 1979, #2101 took part in numerous excursions. After being severely damaged in a roundhouse fire in 1979, it was cosmetically restored as American Freedom Train #1 and has been on static display at the museum ever since.

View of the livery on the side and rear of the tender. Like much of the contents of the train, which included a copy of the U.S. Constitution, Judy Garland's dress from The Wizard of Oz and Martin Luther King's robes, the decoration graphically brought the country’s Bicentennial celebration to life. Once restored, the locomotive and tender will be something to see!

#2101 was the first of three locomotives specially restored to haul the 26 car 1975-76 American Freedom Train (AFT). The other two locomotives were former Southern Pacific 4-8-4 #4449 and former Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 #610.

The train was conceived as a celebration of the nation’s bi-centenary. Between April 1975 and December 1976, it visited all 48 contiguous states. More than 7 million people visited it during its tour, and tens of millions saw it go by.

RS-3 #195 was a 1,600 hp switcher built by Alco for Western Maryland in 1953. It was one of 1,370 of this type delivered to various railroads in the U.S., Canada and Mexico between 1950 and 1956, and also served on freight and passenger services.

A number  were rebuilt as RS-3m locomotives because of the unreliability of the Alco 244 prime movers.   

SW-1 #11 was one of two 600 hp switchers built for the Pere Marquette by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in 1942. It was the second diesel switcher delivered to the Pere Marquette (the first, SW-1 #10, was delivered in 1939).

A total of 661 SW-1s were produced by EMD for a great number of U.S. railroads between 1939 and 1953, as well as for railroads in Canada, Mexico and South America. The first SW-1 is preserved at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, CA. Several others are preserved and working on excursions at other sites.

#3684 was one of the first 3,000 hp GP40s built for the B&O by General Motors Electro-Motive Division, part of a batch of 16 delivered in 1966 (the only set delivered to B&O with extended range dynamic braking). By this time, the B&O had been acquired by the C&O. B&O retained its identity until 1987, when it was folded into the CSX, and took delivery of another 145 GP40s between 1969 and 1971. The rather striking plain blue and yellow livery was adopted by C&O for the B&O.

1,187 GP40s were built for U.S. railroads, 16 for Canadian and 18 for Mexican railroads. They were designed for freight service but a slew of variants were produced for individual railroads as well as, for example, passenger service.

The GP40 was discontinued in 1972, and was 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 861 were built, examples still operate on railroads such as the CSX, UP, NS and many shortline railroads.

#6405 was one of 33 1,500 hp GP7s built for the B&O by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in 1953. 2,729 were built from 1949 to 1954 (2,615 for U.S. railroads, 112 for Canadian and 2 for Mexican railroads). They were astoundingly successful, hauling freight and passenger services, as well as serving as switchers, and are often credited with completing main line dieselisation in the U.S.

Good visibility, a near full-length catwalk and easy engine access made the series a favourite for both operating and maintenance crews, and it soon had a nickname that became synonymous with the GP series: from the initials “GP”, they were known as Geeps (pronounced “Jeeps”). Many rebuilt or restored units still operate today on regionals and shortlines, as well as in railroad museums.

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The EA/EB was designed to haul passenger trains for the B&O. Six were built by the Electro-Motive Corporation of La Grange, IL, between 1937 and 1938. #51 was the first delivered. They were two-unit, 3,600 total hp locomotives, consisting of a lead, cab-equipped EA “A unit” and a cabless booster EB “B unit”. They could reach a maximum speed of 98 mph.

The slant-nosed locomotives hauled the first dieselised passenger trains on the East Coast, initially the B&O’s flagship Capitol Limited between New York and Chicago via Baltimore and Washington DC. Eventually, they were to haul all the major B&O passenger trains, including the Royal Blue and National Limited. #51 was retired in 1953.

The Royal blue, grey and gold livery was designed by Otto Kuhler, whose locomotive designs included Milwaukee Road’s four A 4-4-2 and six F7 4-6-4 Hiawatha locomotives, the two Lehigh Valley Railroad’s K-5B 4-6-2 John Wilkes locomotives, and Southern Railway's Ps-4 #1380 for the Tennessean.

Its position in the shed makes #51 difficult to photograph.

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#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 “aged” for the anniversary celebration of the first C&O locomotive to arrive at the city in 1904. C&O then combined it with ex-Hocking Valley wooden combine for display. It was occasionally steamed up before being permanently relocated to the museum in 1971.

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C&O #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 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.

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.

Following WWII, 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. C&O ordered new streamlined passenger cars and invested in three new steam-turbine locomotives for the service in 1947 and 1948. However, as passenger numbers continued to decline, the plans were abandoned.

The steam-turbine locomotives were maintenance nightmares 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.

The vertical lever visible just behind the back cylinder head in these photographs transferred movement from the crosshead to camshafts in the gearbox.

Poppet valves were tried out on a few U.S. railroads, but their internal complexity compared to the external simplicity of the Walschaert or Baker valve gear rendered them unpopular. They were 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.

#4500 is an historic locomotive so, although these are not very good photographs, I have decided to include them. This was the first locomotive produced by the United States Railroad Administration (USRA). Created in 1917 in response to America’s entry into WWI, the USRA nationalised the nation’s railroad system in the interest of ensuring the most efficient operations possible.

Built by Baldwin in just 20 days, #4500 went into service for the B&O on 4th July 1918. It is a “Light Mikado” (2-8-2) type. 625 of this type were built, proving the most popular of the USRA standard designs. 12 designs were produced by a committee of representatives of the USRA, railroad owners and locomotive manufacturers. In all 1,586 steam locomotives were built by the USRA, and many of the designs were copied by individual railroads after the USRA was disbanded in 1920 and the railroads returned to private ownership.

The design was sturdy, functional and popular with maintenance and locomotive crews. 641 copies of the type were produced by individual railroads after the war.

#4500 ran on the B&O Ohio Division mainly hauling freight. It was retired in 1957 and went on display at the museum in 1964. It was accorded National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark status in 1990.

The “Heavy Pacific” (4-6-2) was another USRA design, from which B&O derived its P7 class locomotives. #5300 was the first of 20 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. They could easily reach 90 mph, and there is 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 hauled the Royal Blue trains between Washington DC and Jersey City, but were soon relegated to the western division by B&O’s early dieselisation in the 1930s.

When I visited in 2004, #5300 was in the museum’s rear yard.

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.

This backhead view shows a somewhat parlous state, with jacketing removed and the brake valve control gone, amongst other parts.

The Presidents were capable of  reaching 95 mph, a speed that would have been unattainable without the automatic stoker (the elevator pipe to the distributor in the firebox is at the middle bottom of this view).

Although the stoker took care of feeding much of the coal, a fireman still had to keep a regular eye on the state of the fire, keeping the bed even by filling any low spots with a shovel, 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.

The cylinders are 27” x 28”. The valve gear is Walschaert.

The original livery is more evident in these photographs. However, before being retired in 1956, the colour scheme applied to #5300 was actually Royal blue with a grey smokebox.

Sister locomotives #5301-#5304 were streamlined to a design by Otto Kuhler for the prestigious B&O Royal Blue in 1937. Although the streamlining was removed in 1940, it was reinstated in 1946 when the four locomotives were assigned to the Cincinnatian. None of the streamlined P7s survive.

View along the boiler.

Operating boiler pressure was 230 psi. The total engine weight was 326,000 lbs with a weight of 205,000 lbs on the drivers.

The tractive effort was 50,000 lbs.

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

#1604 is one of 60 2-6-6-6 Allegheny H-8 class locomotives built by Lima for C&O from 1941-48. #1604 was part of the first order of 10 locomotives. 8 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.

When I visited in 2004, #1604 was in the museum’s rear yard.

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

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

Left front cylinder showing steam supply (middle) and exhaust (lower middle). The exhaust pipes were hidden by the pilot shield as they entered the smokebox.

Side view of left rear cylinder and the elbow link from the combination lever to the Nathan automatic engine lubricator. A Detroit automatic valve lubricator was on the right side of the locomotive.

The drivers 67” in diameter. Weight on drivers was 507,000 lbs and tractive effort was 110,200 lbs.

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

Rear left third driver (note the size of the counter weight), firebox and 6 wheel trailing truck. The front two trailing truck wheels were 36” in diameter and of solid design. The back wheels were 43” and spoked design.

The trailing truck supported the grate, which was set entirely behind the drivers. It had a lateral centering device supplied by the Timkin Roller Bearing Company.

The trailing truck was actually designed to accommodate a booster, although this was never added.

This view along the right side of the boiler shows the front end of the air reservoir tank at the upper left, the two massive sand domes and piping leading down to the drivers. The horizontal rod levered at the centre of the photograph connects to the throttle. The outside boiler diameter was 109”

The reservoir line, train line and brake cylinder line run just below the running board. Beneath them is another air reservoir tank just above the right rear valve gear.

The boiler operated at 260 psi. The combustion chamber was 118” in length. Three siphons with a combined heating area of 162 sq ft were fitted to the firebox, and the boiler was fitted with 48 x 2.25” tubes and 278 x 3.5” flues of 23’ length.

An Elesco Type E superheater was installed, which supplied 3,186 sq ft of the total 10,426 sq ft heating surface.

The coal bunker and conveyor screw. The MB type stoker was supplied by the Standard Stoker Company.

Backhead view.

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. 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 Lima 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. 106.5"), a larger smokebox diameter (102" vs. 95" tapering to 90") and longer boiler tubes (23' vs. 22').

However, if you check out the photographs of DM&IR #229 on 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 (a Y-6a is shown 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.

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).

These views 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 pilot design was also used on the C&O’s H-6 and K-4 front ends.

The Alleghenies were designed to handle heavy grades over the Allegheny Mountains (C&O New River and Alleghany sub-divisions), but also worked from Russell to Toledo, which had numerous short adverse grades, and hauled some passenger trains on the Mountain division.   

The Worthington feedwater heater cold water pump is just below the cab (detail on the right).

The Type 6 ½ SSA feedwater heater was of the open type. Installed in a mount at the front of the smokebox, it could return some 14% of the water used from the tender as condensate.

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.

Views of #5300’s firebox. The grate area was 70.8 sq ft and the firebox was fitted with thermic siphons.

The handrails and ladder steps were originally painted white, as was the radiator panel surround in some models.

The right rear cylinder shows the effects of resting outdoors.

The firebox was 108” x 108” (762 sq ft heating surface), and the grate 135 sq ft. The rods connecting the grate shakers run horizontally in the lower part of this photograph.

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

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

The small vertical pipe is for sand.

The water bottom tender, built by General Steel Castings held 25 tons of coal and 25,000 gallons of water.

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