"Jawn Henry" Locomotive: Specs, Diagram, Photos

Last revised: October 14, 2026

Norfolk & Western No. 2300, class TE-1, was a single steam turbine-electric tested by the railroad during the mid-1950s. Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton, Westinghouse, and Babcock & Wilcox delivered it in May 1954, and it was scrapped in December 1957. A water-tube boiler worked at 600 pounds and fed a turbine, and the turbine drove generators for twelve traction motors. The engine put 818,000 pounds on its drivers, was rated at 4,500 horsepower, and on test produced 199,000 pounds of tractive effort at one mile an hour. The railroad named it Jawn Henry. On the specification sheet it is also Big Jawn, the steel-driver of the ballad.

The hope was a coal-fired road locomotive that could do the work of the Class A and the Y6b on less coal. What came back from the builders was a C-C+C-C in a streamlined carbody, 161 feet 1½ inches over the engine and the water tender, with the coal piled in the nose.

Norfolk and Western steam turbine-electric 2300 beside the Powhatan Arrow, led by streamlined 4-8-4 605, circa 1954

A Norfolk & Western publicity photograph of No. 2300 beside the Powhatan Arrow, led by 4-8-4 No. 605, circa 1954. Photographer unknown.

On this page: At a glance · The coal-fired turbines · Coal in the nose · Specifications · On test · Coal drags, and one locomotive

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Norfolk & Western
Road number	2300. One locomotive
Class	TE-1. The diagram prints TE1
Builders	Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. Westinghouse turbine, generators, and electrical equipment. Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boiler
Built	May 1954
Wheel arrangement	C-C+C-C. The drawing titles it a 6-6-6-6. Twelve axles, all drivers, 42-inch wheels
Weight on drivers	818,000 lb, which is 409 tons
Horsepower	4,500, the published rating
Boiler	600 psi. Automatically controlled water-tube boiler
Tractive effort	144,000 lb continuous at 9 mph. On test, 199,000 lb at 1 mph
Disposition	Scrapped December 1957. Outside the 1,266 on the steam roster

The coal-fired turbines

No. 2300 was the last of a short line of American steam turbines built as an answer to the diesel. Trains sets them out in order. In 1938 General Electric built two oil-fired steam-turbine-electrics. They were tested mainly on the Union Pacific and were soon scrapped. Those two are the General Electric turbines. In 1944 Baldwin built Pennsylvania No. 6200, a mechanical-drive turbine on a 6-8-6, with a rear cab and rods to the drivers. It was out of service by 1949. The Pennsylvania also drew a steam-turbine-electric, the V1, and that locomotive stayed on the drawing board. No. 6200 is on the Pennsylvania steam roster.

The machines that actually resembled 2300 were Chesapeake & Ohio 500, 501, and 502. Baldwin-Westinghouse built them in 1947–48 for the proposed Chessie. Coal rode in the nose, the boiler faced the rear, and a separate tender carried water, the same general layout Trains describes for the Norfolk & Western engine. The three were scrapped in 1950. They are a different set of machines. The class page is the M-1.

The Norfolk & Western was still a steam railroad when it ordered its own. The Elkhorn grade had been worked by electric locomotives from 1915 until June 26, 1950. Roanoke was still building reciprocating engines after that: the last Class A in 1950, the last Y6b in 1952, and 0-8-0 No. 244 in December 1953, the last reciprocating steam locomotive built for common-carrier service on an American railroad. Coal was the traffic, and coal was the fuel. A turbine-electric was a way to keep burning it in a locomotive whose traction motors, on paper, could start a train the way a diesel could.

The name came with the engine. Trains calls Jawn Henry the legendary steel-drivin’ man. The specification sheet says the locomotive was officially 2300 and was known to railroaders and onlookers as Jawn Henry, or simply Big Jawn. In the ballad, John Henry beats a steam drill. The pronunciation Jawn is the one the railroad’s own sheet uses.

Coal in the nose

The carbody is a long hood on four three-axle trucks. The diagram heads the arrangement C-C+C-C and titles the drawing a 6-6-6-6 coal-fired steam turbine, electric-drive locomotive. Every axle is a driver. The wheels are 42 inches. The sheet credits a traction motor on each of the twelve axles, and the data line prints twelve motors.

Inside, the order is the one Trains describes and the drawing labels. A coal hopper of 20 tons sits in the nose, ahead of the cab. Behind the cab the boiler faces the rear. Farther back the drawing labels the compartment turbine and generators. Westinghouse supplied that machinery. Babcock & Wilcox supplied the boiler, a water-tube design with automatic control, working at 600 pounds. Exhaust left by the stack, which is smoking in the portrait below. Water, 22,000 gallons, rode in a separate tender. The tender on the drawing is 49 feet 6 inches. The engine is 111 feet 7½ inches. Together they are 161 feet 1½ inches, and the drawing’s height figure is 15 feet 10½ inches.

The flank in the publicity photograph is lettered NORFOLK AND WESTERN, with the number 2300 and the warning DANGER 600 VOLTS. The boiler worked at 600 pounds per square inch, the figure on the specification sheet and in the Trains account.

Three-quarter view of Norfolk and Western steam turbine-electric 2300, number boards and road name visible, exhaust at the stack, a man standing on the roof

No. 2300 in a three-quarter view. Photographer unknown.

In the photograph at the top of the page, 2300 stands beside the Powhatan Arrow. The train on the next track is led by 4-8-4 No. 605, one of the Roanoke engines that wore the streamlined jacket of the class J. The Arrow was trains 25 and 26, April 28, 1946, through May 23, 1969. The photograph is a publicity pairing, circa 1954. The turbine was a freight engine.

Specifications

The card below follows the specification sheet reproduced on this page. The drawing carries a Norfolk & Western Mechanical Department title block, Roanoke. The weights, the continuous tractive effort, the boiler pressure, the motor count, and the wheel diameter are the data line printed with that drawing. The lengths, the 20-ton coal hopper, the 22,000-gallon tender, and the height are dimensioned on the drawing itself. The 4,500-horsepower rating is the Trains figure, and the test result of 199,000 pounds at one mile an hour is the steam roster’s. The three weights add up: 818,000 pounds on the drivers and 364,100 pounds in the loaded tender are 1,182,100 pounds.

Item	Detail
Road number	2300
Class	TE-1. One locomotive. The diagram prints TE1
Built	1954, by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. Delivered May 1954
Electrical equipment	Westinghouse turbine, generators, and traction motors
Boiler	Babcock & Wilcox water-tube, automatically controlled, 600 psi
Wheel arrangement	C-C+C-C. Drawing title: 6-6-6-6 coal-fired steam turbine, electric drive
Running gear	Four three-axle trucks. Twelve axles, each with a traction motor. All weight on the drivers
Wheels	42 inches
Weight on drivers	818,000 lb (409 tons)
Tender, loaded	364,100 lb
Engine and tender	1,182,100 lb
Engine length	111 ft 7½ in
Tender length	49 ft 6 in
Engine and tender length	161 ft 1½ in
Height	15 ft 10½ in, the drawing’s figure
Coal	20 tons, in a hopper in the nose
Water	22,000 gallons, in the separate tender
Horsepower	4,500, the published rating. Trains sets that against 2,400 horsepower for the biggest single-unit diesel of the day
Continuous tractive effort	144,000 lb at 9 mph. The sheet calls this rating conservative
Test tractive effort	199,000 lb at 1 mph
Turbine limit on the sheet	Maximum allowable turbine revolutions at a road speed of 41.5 mph
Disposition	Scrapped December 1957. Trains records that it was cut up in 1957

Specification sheet for Norfolk and Western class TE1 No. 2300, with a C-C+C-C diagram showing the coal hopper, boiler, turbine and generators, and a 22,000-gallon water tender

The specification sheet for No. 2300. The drawing is titled a 6-6-6-6 coal-fired steam-turbine, electric-drive locomotive, and the title block is the Norfolk & Western Mechanical Department, Roanoke. Coal is in the nose, the boiler and the turbine and generators fill the carbody, and the tender is marked 22,000 gallons of water. The note printed above the drawing is the test comparison in the next section.

On test

Louis Newton’s account of the locomotive, quoted from Rails Remembered, puts the arrival at Shaffer’s Crossing in Roanoke on May 22, 1954. A large delegation of railroaders was there, and the press had been invited. From May 26 through May 28 the engine was at the Southern Appalachian Industrial Exhibit. Road work followed.

The continuous rating on the sheet is 144,000 pounds of tractive effort at nine miles an hour. The note printed with the diagram calls that figure a conservative indication of the capacity, and says the motors could sustain an enormous overload for a short time. The test number that goes with that claim is the one on the steam roster: 199,000 pounds at one mile an hour. Trains records the same 199,000 pounds. The two figures are a rating and a short-time test, and the sheet treats the rating as the lower of them.

The same note is where the comparison with reciprocating steam is written down. Up to about twelve miles an hour, it says, Big Jawn bettered the Y6b and the Class A in both tractive effort and horsepower. It hauled more freight for less fuel cost than the Y6bs on the Radford and Pocahontas divisions, between Roanoke, Bluefield, and Williamson. Against a Class A on the Scioto Division, between Williamson and Portsmouth, the note calls the savings equally impressive, and says the Class A brought the freight over the road about 15 percent faster. It puts the turbine’s maximum allowable revolutions at a road speed of 41.5 miles an hour. Trains draws the same conclusion in fewer words: more tonnage on less fuel than a conventional steamer, at lower speeds.

Trains also gives the service verdict that the sheet’s enthusiasm leaves aside. The engine had a few bugs, and it performed well. What ended the experiment was the high first cost of production units, caused in part by the lack of interest from other railroads. One demonstrator, with nobody else waiting to share the design, stayed one demonstrator.

Helper service is in the note as well as road service. The note records one helper trip on which the engine telescoped a steel-underframe caboose over a tank car, and offers that as a sign of what a short overload could do. The rest of that paragraph is the road comparison: division freight against a Y6b and a Class A.

Coal drags, and one locomotive

The engine was still moving coal on the road in its second summer. A Norfolk & Western publicity photograph shows No. 2300 on the head end of an eastbound coal drag near Christiansburg, Virginia, in the summer of 1955, the hoppers following the water tender around the curve.

Norfolk and Western 2300 leading an eastbound coal train of hoppers on a curving double-track main line near Christiansburg, Virginia, summer 1955

A Norfolk & Western publicity photograph of No. 2300 with an eastbound coal drag near Christiansburg, Virginia, in the summer of 1955.

That same season the railroad took its first road diesels. In September 1955 Electro-Motive GP9s 10 through 13 arrived, later renumbered 710 through 713, and in September and October Alco RS-3s 300 through 303 arrived. The diesel roster is the full list. No. 2300 remained on the property through that change. Reciprocating steam remained too. The last road engine was Y6b No. 2190, a mine run out of Williamson, its fire dropped in the early hours of May 7, 1960.

It was scrapped in December 1957. Trains records that Jawn Henry was cut up in 1957. The class was this one engine. The steam roster keeps it, with the Shay, outside the 1,266.

Sources

Specification sheet reproduced on this page. Norfolk & Western Mechanical Department drawing, Roanoke, with the data line and the note printed above it. Class TE1, No. 2300, built 1954 by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton, with Westinghouse and Babcock & Wilcox named in the note. C-C+C-C, titled a 6-6-6-6 coal-fired steam turbine, electric drive. Weight on drivers 818,000 lb, tender loaded 364,100 lb, engine and tender 1,182,100 lb. Continuous tractive effort 144,000 lb at 9 mph, called conservative. Boiler 600 psi. Twelve traction motors. Drivers 42 inches. Coal hopper 20 tons. Water tender 22,000 gallons. Engine 111 ft 7½ in, tender 49 ft 6 in, together 161 ft 1½ in, height 15 ft 10½ in. The note’s road comparison: up to about 12 mph against the Y6b and the Class A; more freight for less fuel than the Y6bs on the Radford and Pocahontas divisions between Roanoke, Bluefield, and Williamson; savings against a Class A on the Scioto Division between Williamson and Portsmouth, the A about 15 percent faster; maximum allowable turbine revolutions at 41.5 mph; helper service, including the recorded trip that telescoped a steel-underframe caboose over a tank car.
Angela Cotey, "The Jawn Henry," Trains, June 5, 2006, last updated November 23, 2020. The last of the American experimental steam turbines. General Electric’s two oil-fired engines of 1938, tested mainly on the Union Pacific. Pennsylvania 6200, a mechanical-drive 6-8-6 of 1944, out of service by 1949, and the unbuilt V1. Chesapeake & Ohio 500–502 and Norfolk & Western 2300, all Baldwin-Westinghouse, the C&O trio in 1947–48 and scrapped in 1950, Jawn Henry in 1954. Coal bunker ahead of the cab, rear-facing boiler, turbine and generator toward the rear, streamlined carbody, separate water tender. Automatically controlled water-tube boiler at 600 psi, 409 tons, rated 4,500 horsepower against 2,400 for the biggest single-unit diesel, 199,000 pounds of tractive effort, more tonnage on less fuel at lower speeds, a few bugs, performed well, left an orphan by the high first cost of production units. Cut up in 1957.
The Norfolk & Western steam roster on this site. Class TE-1, No. 2300, Baldwin-Westinghouse, May 1954, Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boiler at 600 psi, 818,000 pounds on the drivers, rated 4,500 horsepower, 199,000 pounds of tractive effort at one mile an hour, scrapped December 1957, outside the 1,266.
Louis Newton, Rails Remembered, vol. 4, "Tale of a Turbine." Arrival at Shaffer’s Crossing, Roanoke, May 22, 1954, with a delegation of railroaders and the press, and the Southern Appalachian Industrial Exhibit, May 26–28, 1954. Quoted by Overmod from pp. 783, 785, and 789, Railway Preservation News, June 7, 2014.

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