The Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-6 “Allegheny” was one impressive machine, being one of the most powerful steam locomotives ever to be conceived and built. At 40 MPH they could generate 7,500 HP. They were built by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio between 1941 and 1948 for a total of 60 locomotives.
While used in several locations and services on the the C&O, their intended service was hauling the coal trains between Hinton, West Virginia and Clifton Forge, Virginia. Leaving Hinton, the train would have an H-8 on the head end of a train of 140 loaded cars, with another H-8 serving as a pusher on the rear. That pusher locomotive was needed for the 13-mile, 0.57% eastward climb over the Allegheny mountains from just east of Ronceverte, West Virginia to Alleghany, Virginia (yes, the spelling is correct). At the summit the pusher would be cut off, and the train then headed down the mountain and on to Clifton Forge.
For many years I was an operator on the model railroad layout of the late Lou Schultz. Lou modeled the C&O railroad, running between Hinton and Clifton Forge. The layout was in a huge 2nd story room built just for it, and was more than adequate to experience the long run between those two points. One of my favorite jobs was running those loaded coal trains, doing so just as is described above. Even in HO scale, those Alleghenys are BIG!
Isn’t there a Allegany at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit? There a C&O on the tv show called innovation nation on Sunday morning on CBS.
Yes, there is. There is also another Allegheny at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. These are the only two that survived the scrapper’s torch.
-Jack
Monsters on the rails!
What a sight that must have been.
Funny story, when delivered ALCO didn’t give the C&O the correct weight of the H-8’s something I believe to do with the weight they were contracted to be under. When after several years the deception was discovered, the C&O weighted one to get the correct weight. Since locomotive weight figured into the Engineer’s and Fireman’s pay the C&O had to go through their records and pay the difference between what had been paid and what should have been paid. We’re talking several years after delivery.
George