Omaha, Nebr. - 2 May 2009
QUESTION: The “Last Class 2 to operate steam?”
ANSWER: When did the New York, New Haven and Hartford drop the coal fires at its Cos Cob generating station? OKAY! Yes, I know! It’s not a steam engine, per se, but Cos Cob did generate the steam that made the New Haven’s electrified zone run for many years.
2nd ANSWER: Didn’t Conrail, Amtrak, and some New York metropolitan transit agencies operate 4-6-6-4 Challengers until the mid 1970’s? They inherited those engines from The Pennsylvania Railroad if I recall correctly. I’m referring, of course, to a certain Raymond Loewy designed, boiler-equipped class of locomotives that ran among New York, Harrisburg, and Washington, DC.
3rd ANSWER: Sometime during the mid-1960s didn’t the “Q” fire up a Mikado and a Northern and place them in service to shuttle road freights through some springtime flood waters in and around Burlington, Iowa? The reason they did that was because the “tired iron” could handle high water better than the ground relay switches found on any diesel locomotive.