Steam Power
All images copyright by Jerry Custer
The C&O 614 is a Northern, a designation for a steam engine with 4 pilot wheels, 8 drive wheels and 4 trailing wheels. It was built in 1948 but only saw active operation for seven years. In 1955 it was retired and eventually came to be one of the locomotives in the B&O Museum's collection. After the roundhouse fire put Chessie's engine for their steam special out of commission (Chessie 2101/AFT1), the owner Ross Rowland made a trade with the museum. The engine took 2101's place as the lead engine in special steam excursions Chessie ran and pulled the Chessie Safety special through the early 80s. Ross Rowland was responsible for the American Freedom Train excursion and a champion for continued use of coal powered steam engines as transportation that used alternative energy. His efforts came to a head in the 1980s when the price of oil began to rise. He helped formed American Coal Enterprises and began working to modernize steam engines to be more competitive with the diesels that replaced them decades earlier. He had plans for a new engine called the ACE 3000 and C&O 614 was used in helping to test the new technology. However, by the mid-80s oil prices dropped and the broader interest in developing modern steam engines was lost.
This engine is currently under the care of the C&O Railway Heritage Center in Clifton Forge, Virginia is being prepared to be put on display for the Greenbriar presidential express. The picture to the left was taken in Weaverton Md.
Here we see the Southern Pacific's daylight adorned with patriotic paint meeting up with American Freedom Train 1 just outside the pentagon in Washington DC as part of the bicentennial celebration.
To the left is AFT1 returned to its old number 2101 and new Chessie Steam Special paint on an excursion in 1977. Below the Chessie Steam Special steams into a station in Cumberland Maryland aside a variety of Chessie Diesels wearing a mix of paint jobs.
It is hard to believe the engine to the left was to become AFT1 and the the Chessie Steam Special (and then AFT1 again!).
Reading 2101 sits in a scrapyard outside of Baltimore Maryland in May of 1973 waiting for the cutters torch. Fate had different plans for this locomotive.
Speaking of restorations, I am pleased that 611 will return to the rails under her own steam power. The picture to the right was taken in Alexandria, Virginia in the 80's at the King Street yard, early in the morning as she prepared for a special excursion. I have fond memories of seeing this steam engine as a little boy and hearing its whistle blare as it thundered by. I am excited for my son to have that experience one day as well.
Another restoration is happening out west as one of Union Pacific's Big Boys is making its way from the fairgrounds in Los Angeles to the steam shop in Cheyenne. That is a bit out of the way for me at the moment, but there is another example on display in Steamtown in Scranton, Pennslyvania that I might try to go see some day.