Anyone know where I might find some nice pictures of a C&O 284 Kanawah Berkshire steam locomotive pulling a coal train? They used to run the tracks behind my Grandmother’s house in Huntington, WV and I used to watch for hours. I am working on my Lionel O guage layout and I have 2 C&O kanawah engines. I would like to put something nice on the wall.
Thanks
Paul ( retired in Birmingham)
Paul, try www.railpictures.net, you’ll find some Kanawah shots there.
Also, search for C&O Kanawah on the 'net for other possibilities.
Lucky guy, I wish my Grandma’s house had a steam railroad in the backyard! No matter, her coal furnace was fascinating enough!
Grandma’s house had the PRR Bernice Cutoff running right acrosse the street. Not a whole lot of traffic but such interesting things as the “South Wind” with Atlantic Coast Line power, the earliest permutations of the Interlake Steel bottle train, and various IHB industry jobs to Republic Steel and Allied Chemical.
You’ll get a lot more hits of the right kind, btw, if you search for “Kanawha” which is how C&O spelled it.
I’m rather partial to 2716 – see what happens when you enter “CO 2716” at railpictures.net. Coal trains it isn’t… but I think you’ll agree the effect was remarkably good.
True–and that is the way the name of the river (source of the name for the locomotive) is spelled. The pronunciation (ka-NAH-wa) can be misleading–the first “a” is very short, almost a schwah.
Thanks, guys. Some really neat pics. I am hopeful to get to ride the 765 in Ft Wayne one of these days soon.
You’re welcome! Enjoy the 765 ride, “when and if.”
If you are coming to Fort Wayne, drop down to North Judson. The 2789 is sitting in our workshop. Unfortunately, we are only open on Saturdays, but can find some people around at other days. website: www.hoosiervalley,org.
Looks like a FUN place!
Also, look here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/default.aspx
I recently had the privilege to visit C&O 2727. I stood for a moment and imagined her speeding past with a massive plume, followed by endless black hoppers. What a beautiful sight.
Yes, 2727 is an amazing locomotive, If you can find it, one engineer wrote the museum a letter about running her. Apparently he ran her on almost all of her runs from the time she was delivered to the time she had her fires dropped. I would put it here, but I don’t want to commit plagiarism. The letter is in their “Collection Highlights” book, available on their website. Unfortunately, it seems to be over-priced. I go to the museum at least once a month and have pictures if you would like them.
Which museum? Do they have a web site?
Might as well just put the list of C&O 2-8-4’s out there.
2700 Dennison, Ohio, at former PRR depot (formerly Charleston, WV)
2705 Baltimore, Maryland, B&O Museum
2707 Union, Illinois, Illinois Railway Museum, (formerly Cleveland, Ohio)
2716 New Haven, Kentucky, Kentucky Railway Museum
2727 Kirkwood, Missouri, National Museum of Transport
2732 Richmond, Virginia
2736 Green Bay Wisconsin, National Railroad Museum
2755 Logan, West Virginia, Chief Logan State Park
2756 Newport News, Virginia
2760 Lynchburg, Virginia, Riverside Park
2776 Washington Court House, Ohio
2789 Peru, Indiana
Numbers 2770 and 2781 were also set aside for preservation, but I have no information on their disposition. Number 2701 was donated to Buffalo, New York, but was scrapped due to damage.
In addition, two former Pere Marquette 2-8-4’s have been preserved:
1223 Grand Haven, Michigan
1225 Steam Railroading Institute, Owosso, Michigan
It is possible that there could be some errors in this list. If so, please submit corrections.
Tom
After seeing the above list, I’m slightly astounded by the number of Van Sweringen 2-8-4’s (NKP, PM, C&O) that have been preserved.
Might as well add the NKP Berkshires:
755 Conneaut, Ohio, NYC Railroad station on Depot Street
757 Strasburg, Pennsylvania, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
759 Scranton, Pennsylvania, Steamtown
763 (near) Sugarcreek, Ohio, Age of Steam Roundhouse
765 New Haven, Indiana, Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society (operable)
779 Lima, Ohio, Lincoln Park
I was also reminded that the location for C&O 2789 is now North Judson, Indiana, at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum.
Wow, that’s a lot. Thanks!
The one in Richmond, Va. was removed from its long time display near the interstate and Byrd Field a while back. Last I heard it was getting a badly needed cosmetic do over and would go on display next to the Broad Street Station.
Vbeach, the Richmond Kanawha has been cosmetically restored and is now displayed at the Science Museum of Virginia, the old RF&P Broad Street Station.
The downside is it’s behind fences on the musum property to you have to pay admission to get near it. Maybe that’s not such a downside, at least it keeps vandals away.
Aside from the sheet metal that would have covered the asbestos boiler lagging being missing it’s pretty complete. A restoration wouldn’t be an impossibility but it would be costly, considering it’s been on outdoor display for 50-plus years. And being buried in CSX territory I don’t know where you’d run it either.
What’s particularly unfortunate with these two was that they didn’t meet their demise until the 1970’s. A date where it was all but shameful that such a fate was allowed to happen. K-2 2-8-2 1189 met a similar fate.
Yes, I had heard that these locos had been scrapped; but I had no documentation, so I included them in the list, hoping someone would provide the info.
The loss of the last C&O K-2 Mikado was particularly sad because there are no others in existence, and the K-2 and K-3 Mikes had a particular C&O look that we won’t see again.
Tom