Hot Water posted:TrainMan1225 posted:Surprised no one has mentioned this, but how about the runs of Chesapeake & Ohio 4-8-4 no. 614 between Huntington and Hinton, W.Va? She was numbered as 614T during this time, and hauled 4000 ton loaded and empty coal trains between the two cities, 6 days a week, in January and February of 1985. This was to test a project launched by Ross Rowland to build a brand-new coal-fired steam locomotive, in an attempt to reduce dependency on foreign oil, for which prices were high at the time.
Perhaps these weren't revenue runs, maybe someone could correct me on that.
They were indeed "revenue runs"!
Regardless, she put on a grand show unlikely to be seen again.
Since the 614T revenue runs took place during January & February of 1985 there were at least one day where she was the only locomotive operating since most of the diesels had frozen up due to the extreme cold. It's a shame the project did not come to fruition but when crude oil prices dropped so did interest in the project. I was born and raised in northeast Ohio and was able to witness the end of steam on the Nickel Plate Road. They operated their celebrated Berkshires until mid 1958 when the unavailability and high cost of replacement parts forced the road switch to diesels. They did operate a pair of 0-8-0 steam switchers until late 1959.
