Join the discussion on the following article:
The Berkshire: Steam’s fast-freight legend
Great article, I am from southwestern Ohio and I am a huge fan of berkshires because of C&O 2776 in Washington C.H. Ohio. Also DT&I which ran through this area used Berks as well.
Will Woodard was born and raised in my current home of Utica, NY before going off to Cornell and a degree in mechanical engineering. He was among the first generation of college-trained locomotive designers. Little by little, I’ve been trying to piece together info about him, beyond the basic bio that seems to appear “everywhere.” Yes, he was “an intense little man with silver-rimmed spectacles” but there was much more to him than that. And his wife, Phebe Hatfield, was a pretty interesting individual in her own right.
Having lived in Northeast Ohio in the 1940 and 1950s I lived along the Nickel Plate main line and witnessed those high speed Berkshires pulling long strings of wood refer cars toward the East.they were a very impressive machine crossing the main street 0f town running the speed limit of 30mph but when the caboose crossed the same street it was rocking and rolling at over 60mph clocked by radar in police car.impressive at least true high speed service
The last Berkshire built in 1949 by Lima Loco, NKP 779, has been on display in Lima’s Lincoln Park since 1966. The covered exhibit also includes the tender, a NKP Pullman coach, and NKP wooden caboose 1091.