| |
The 2-6-6-6 C&O Allegheny Type, The Most Powerful Steam Locomotive
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. Much like the Union Pacific attempted to develop a powerful steamer that needed few, if any, helpers to shove freight over steep sections of its main line in Utah (which led to the creation of the Big Boy) so too did the Chesapeake & Ohio look to build a steam locomotive that could handle the stiff grades along its main line between Hinton, West Virginia and Clifton Forge, Virginia (with a maximum grade that ranged between .58% and 1.14%). 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!  Their power, however, is what really set them apart from all other large steamers. With sixty-seven inch drivers and over 110,000 pounds of tractive effort an Allegheny could move 5,000 tons at an incredible 45 mph although they were commonly asked to haul twice this tonnage. The C&O Allegheny Type Specifications 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 For more information on the Allegheny Type steam locomotives consider one (or both) of the books below. Guide to North American Steam Locomotives by author George Drury includes nearly 500 pages of information on virtually all of the steam locomotive wheel arrangements and designs (including streamlined steamers) ever developed. The book is a great resource on steam locomotives and a fine reference tool; you should find it very useful. Also, consider the book American Steam Locomotives from author Brian Solomon. While this publication does not include quite as much technical data as Guide to North American Steam Locomotives it is still a very good resource with lots of information and best of all, is loaded with photographs! 
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!
|
