The 2-6-6-6 C&O Allegheny Type, The Most Powerful Steam Locomotive Ever Developed

(Please note that the photos here, except for the lithograph, do not feature the C&O's 2-6-6-6 Allegheny Type.)

The Allegheny Type locomotive was true power to say the least! Designed and built almost exclusively for the Chesapeake & Ohio by the Lima Locomotive Works (the Virginian would be the other buyer of the locomotive). The locomotive, an articulated design (meaning that either one, or both, set of driving wheels pivots to better and more safely negotiate curves), was of the 2-6-6-6 wheel arrangement and based purely on horsepower and tractive effort nothing can top it. The locomotive gets its name from the lines it was assigned to in western Virginia and southern West Virginia, the C&O's Allegheny Division. Also, by being built in the 1940s the Allegheny Type carried the latest in steam technology and thankfully two survive today.

What resulted would go on to become the most powerful steam locomotive ever built, the 2-6-6-6 articulated, Allegheny Type known by the C&O as Class H-8. They were massive machines that topped out at nearly 126 feet in length, nearly half the size of a football field!

Wheel Arrangement – 2-6-6-6

Builder – Lima Locomotive Works

Original Year of Construction - 1941

Cylinders(4) – 22.5" x 33"

Boiler Pressure - 260 PSI

Driver Diameter - 67 Inches

Tractive Effort – 110,200 Pounds

Weight on Drivers – 504,010 Pounds

Locomotive Weight – 775,330 Pounds

Built by the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio in all the C&O would come to own, amazingly sixty of these locomotives beginning in December 1941. Unfortunately, however, these locomotives were practically new when they were retired with the oldest barely ten years of age before the C&O began replacing the fleet with diesels in 1952. Perhaps most incredibly, however, is that the final fifteen Alleghenies (numbered 1645 to 1659) never even saw the age of ten! Delivered during late 1948 the entire Allegheny fleet was retried by 1956! For more information about the Allegheny Type locomotive please click here.

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(A deep thanks to the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University for allowing Ron Nixon's historic collection of the Chesapeake & Ohio to be featured here. Please note that the photos featured on this page feature their corresponding image number so that you may quickly and easily find more information about it from their website. To view Ron Nixon's entire collection please click here.)

Also, consider the book American Steam Locomotives from author Brian Solomon. While this publication does not include quite as much technical data as Parker's book, How a Steam Locomotive Works, it is still a very good resource with lots of information and best of all, is loaded with photographs! If you're interested in perhaps purchasing either (or both) of these books please visit the links below which will take you to ordering information through Amazon.com, the trusted online shopping network.

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