Virginian Railway Steam Roster (Post 1900)

Published: October 16, 2026

Virginian steam was built for one hill and one commodity. Clark’s Gap, east out of Elmore, was thirteen miles of crooked 2 percent, with a maximum of 2.07 percent, and every eastbound load of coal had to climb it. The railroad answered with Mallets, a Triplex, the only successful 2-10-10-2s, and, late, eight 2-6-6-6s and five 2-8-4s. The class letters are the company’s own system. The first letter is the wheel arrangement: S for a switcher, C for a Consolidation, M for a Mikado, B for a Berkshire, A for an articulated, P for a Pacific, T for a Ten-Wheeler, E for an Eight-Wheeler. The second letter is the series. Class MA is M for Mikado and A for the first series. The table is E. W. King, Jr.’s grid, in George H. Drury’s Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, for locomotives built since 1900.

Virginian Railway 2-6-6-6 No. 902, class AG, with a train of empties over the Elizabeth River at Norfolk in December 1954

2-6-6-6 No. 902, class AG, with a train of empties over the Elizabeth River at Norfolk in December 1954. The train appears to be headed west. Author’s collection. Lima built Nos. 900–907 in 1945. They weighed 753,000 pounds.

On this page: The first engines · Clark’s Gap · The Triplex · 2-10-10-2s and the USRA engines · 1945 and 1946 · Passenger locomotives · The class grid

The first engines

Deepwater’s first locomotive, acquired in 1903, was an 0-6-0 built at the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Altoona shop in 1873. It is older than this table. Three light 2-8-0s, Deepwater Nos. 2–4, came from Richmond in 1904 and 1905 and became Virginian 300–302, class CA. Two 51-inch Mikados, Deepwater 30 and 31, came from Baldwin late in 1905 and became class MA, Nos. 400 and 401. The Tidewater’s two little Consolidations, Nos. 5 and 6, became class CB, Nos. 303 and 304, Baldwin, 1905. Four more light Mikados, similar to 30 and 31, arrived in 1907 as MA Nos. 402–405. Consolidations 306 and 307, class CD, came from nearby short lines. No. 305, class CC, was not delivered until 1909. Those Consolidations were 60-ton engines with 20-by-24-inch cylinders. All of them, and the six MA Mikados, were scrapped in 1933.

The first switchers were class SA. Richmond built Nos. 1–3 in 1909, and Baldwin built Nos. 4 and 5 in 1910. The last steam the railroad bought, in 1950, was another switcher class. Fifteen secondhand 0-8-0s came from the Chesapeake & Ohio at a bargain price, while that railroad was dieselizing. They were Lima products of 1942 and 1943, they kept their Chesapeake & Ohio numbers, 240–254, and they were classed SB. They replaced class MB Mikados in yard service and were scrapped in 1957–1959.

Clark’s Gap

The all-purpose engine was the class MB Mikado. Baldwin built 42 of them, Nos. 420–461, between May 1909 and August 1910, with 56-inch drivers. They switched, they hauled coal, they worked the work trains, and they ran passenger trains. They were built hand-fired and saturated. All of them later received stokers and superheaters. In 1912 the railroad added 18 heavier Mikados, class MC, Nos. 462–479, and the tractive effort went over 60,000 pounds.

The first big articulateds were for the Gap. Class AA, Nos. 500–503, came from Richmond in 1909, hand-fired and non-superheated. All but No. 503 were later superheated. The railroad stationed relief firemen along the hill to help them over the humps. In 1910 Baldwin delivered eight more 2-6-6-0s, class AC, Nos. 510–517. They had two firedoors, they were more powerful than many 2-6-6-2s, and they too required relief firemen until stokers and superheaters were applied. Both classes were scrapped in 1933.

The summer of 1912 brought the class AD 2-8-8-2s, Nos. 601–604 from Richmond that year and 605 and 606 in 1913. They had 56-inch drivers, 28-inch high-pressure cylinders, and 44-inch low-pressure cylinders. Simple tractive effort was 138,000 pounds, and compound was 114,000 pounds. King calls them 270-ton locomotives, and possibly the largest in the world at the time. A train of 58 loads could leave Elmore for Clark’s Gap at 7 miles an hour with an AC on the head end and two ADs pushing. The two pushers cut off at the top of the hill, and the AC took the train on into Princeton. From Princeton to Roanoke, one MC could move 80 loads with an MB pushing from Whitethorne over Merrimac Grade. From Roanoke to Norfolk, one MC handled 100 loads alone, a train King puts at 7,500 tons.

Virginian Railway 2-8-2 No. 462, class MC, switching the yard at Norfolk in December 1954

2-8-2 No. 462, class MC, switching the yard at Norfolk in December 1954. Photographer unknown. Author’s collection. Baldwin built Nos. 462–479 in 1912. Five of them were later rebuilt as class MCA.

Between 1938 and 1941 the Princeton shop rebuilt five of those MC engines, Nos. 472, 466, 470, 475, and 463, with disk drivers and lightweight rods. They became class MCA, Nos. 480–484. The major specifications were unchanged, and the chapter does not say which old number became which new one. They were still not fast enough for the time freights east of Roanoke. The railroad bought five virtual duplicates of the Chesapeake & Ohio’s K-4 Kanawhas from Lima in 1946, class BA, Nos. 505–509, with 69-inch drivers. The fastest run attributed to one of them is hedged in the chapter: No. 505 was said to have made 87 miles an hour with a 3,500-ton train on a detour over the Norfolk & Western.

The Triplex

Baldwin delivered one experimental Triplex in 1916, class XA, No. 700, a 2-8-8-8-4. It had six 34-by-32-inch cylinders and 56-inch drivers. Simple tractive effort was 199,560 pounds, and compound was 166,300 pounds. The type’s defect was the same one the Erie Triplexes had shown. Adhesive weight on the tender engine fell as coal and water were used, and the rear engine exhausted through its own stack, so only half the exhaust was available to draft the fire. No. 700 often ran out of steam. The boiler could not sustain the simple starting effort for more than a couple of revolutions, and 166,300 pounds compound was not a dependable figure. Baldwin had sent it out as an experiment, to be accepted if it worked. It was not accepted. In 1920 it went back to Baldwin.

The rebuild used new 28-inch high-pressure cylinders and 44-inch low-pressure cylinders, and a new frame. The boiler and the frames became a 2-8-8-0, class AF, No. 610, rated the same as the AD 2-8-8-2s. It was later given a trailing truck and worked as a 2-8-8-2, still numbered 610, and it lasted until 1953. The tender was given a pair of 22-inch cylinders and placed under a new boiler and tender. That locomotive was a 2-8-2, class MD, No. 410, rated the same as an MC, and it too lasted until 1953. The table lists 700, 610, and 410 as three rows. They are one locomotive and the two engines made from it. The low-pressure cylinders of the rebuild kept slide valves, which the Virginian also specified on its new 4-4-0s and 4-6-0s, and on some of its other Mallets, years after most railroads had gone to piston valves.

2-10-10-2s and the USRA engines

Alco’s Schenectady Works built ten 2-10-10-2s in 1918, class AE, Nos. 800–809. King calls their usable tractive effort the high-water mark: 176,600 pounds simple and 147,200 pounds compound, and unlike the Triplex they could produce it and sustain it. Their own page is the class AE article. After the electrification of 1925, the motors on the mountain ran at 14 miles an hour and doubled the speed the AEs had been making there. The 2-10-10-2s then worked easier grades into the early 1950s. The grid dates their scrapping to 1948–1958.

During the federal control of the First World War the railroad was assigned five standard 2-8-8-2s, already lettered 900–904. It refused them. They could not do the work of the AEs. They were sold to the Norfolk & Western, where they became class Y-3, Nos. 2000–2004, the first of fifty such engines. They are not rows in this table. The Norfolk & Western steam roster carries the Y-3. The numbers 900–907 were used again in 1945, for a different locomotive.

What the railroad did take from the United States Railroad Administration were twenty 2-8-8-2s, class USA, Nos. 701–720, built at Richmond in 1919, and fifteen duplicates, class USB, Nos. 721–735, built at Richmond in 1923. They lacked the AE’s punch on Clark’s Gap. They worked mine runs, heavy switching, and helper service over Merrimac Grade. In the mid-1930s Princeton rebuilt six of the USB engines, raising the boiler pressure to 250 pounds and adding Worthington BL feedwater heaters. Those six, Nos. 721, 723, 726, 728, 729, and 733, were reclassed USC. They kept their numbers, and they are not a separate row. In 1947 the railroad bought seven more USRA 2-8-8-2s from the Santa Fe, class USE, Nos. 736–742, built at Schenectady in 1919. They carried the highest boiler pressure on the railroad, 270 pounds. They had been Norfolk & Western Y-3s 2014, 2015, 2021, 2022, 2026, 2029, and 2035, and then Santa Fe 1794, 1792, 1790, 1791, 1793, 1795, and 1796. The chapter gives the three lists and does not pair them one to one. An eighth engine, Santa Fe 1797, which had been Norfolk & Western 2042, was scrapped by the Santa Fe and did not come. The USE engines were recognizable by their Norfolk & Western roll-top tenders and six-wheel Lewis trucks. They were scrapped in 1954 and 1955.

In 1947 and 1948 Princeton rebuilt five more engines with one-piece cast-steel low-pressure engine beds and a bridge-pipe exhaust, the arrangement used on the Norfolk & Western’s modern 2-8-8-2s, and added Worthington feedwater heaters. The five were USA Nos. 701, 702, 703, and 705, and USB No. 735. They were reclassed USD, they were not renumbered, and the major specifications were unchanged. That reclass is not a row either.

One earlier articulated belongs with this heavy power and not with the USRA engines. Class AB, No. 600, a Baldwin 2-8-8-2 of 1910, was built with a separable boiler. The idea did not work. Baldwin fitted a conventional boiler in 1922, and the engine lasted until 1937. The early articulateds, other than No. 610 and the 2-10-10-2s, were scrapped between 1933 and 1937.

1945 and 1946

The east end needed faster freight power during the Second World War. Lima built eight 2-6-6-6s in 1945, class AG, Nos. 900–907, duplicates of the Chesapeake & Ohio’s Alleghenies. The Virginian billed them as the heaviest of the type, at 753,000 pounds, until it was found that the Chesapeake & Ohio’s original 2-6-6-6s weighed 778,000 pounds. The AG engines were scrapped in 1960, as were the five BA 2-8-4s. Some of the MC Mikados and the Pacifics lasted to the same year. The Norfolk & Western had already absorbed the railroad, on December 1, 1959.

Virginian Railway 2-6-6-6 No. 903, class AG, on display at the NRHS convention in Roanoke in the summer of 1957

2-6-6-6 No. 903, class AG, on display at the National Railway Historical Society convention in Roanoke in the summer of 1957. Fred Byerly photograph. American-Rails.com collection.

Passenger locomotives

The first passenger locomotives were six 4-4-0s, class EA, with 67-inch drivers. Baldwin built them in 1906 and 1907 as Tidewater Nos. 11–16. They became Virginian 100–105, and in 1925 they were renumbered 294–299 so the numbers would not collide with the new electric locomotives. The table lists the 100–105 numbers. The renumbering did not add engines. They were scrapped between 1934 and 1953.

Class TA, Nos. 200–203, four 4-6-0s from Richmond in 1907, had 63-inch drivers. They were slower than the Eight-Wheelers and much stronger on the grades west of Roanoke. Stephenson valve gear, as built, was replaced with Southern valve gear in 1919 and 1920. They were the only Virginian locomotives to use that gear. They were scrapped in 1947 and 1949.

The last and largest passenger locomotives were six Pacifics, class PA, Nos. 210–215, from Richmond in 1920. They had 69-inch drivers and 26-inch cylinders, Duplex stokers, and two cross-compound air pumps under the left running board, with the tender coal bunkers recessed to clear the pumps. They were built at 190 pounds pressure, with a tractive effort of 44,300 pounds. In the late 1930s the pressure was raised to 200 pounds and the tractive effort to 46,634 pounds. They did a considerable amount of freight work during the Second World War, and they were scrapped in 1957–1960.

Virginian Railway 4-6-2 No. 214, class PA, departing Norfolk with train No. 3 at Carolina Junction in October 1954

4-6-2 No. 214, class PA, with train No. 3 departing Norfolk at Carolina Junction, South Norfolk, on an October morning in 1954. The train is crossing the original Norfolk Southern. H. Reid photograph. American-Rails.com collection.

Virginian Railway 4-6-2 No. 212, class PA, on display at the NRHS convention in Roanoke in the summer of 1957

4-6-2 No. 212, class PA, on display at the National Railway Historical Society convention in Roanoke in the summer of 1957. Fred Byerly photograph. American-Rails.com collection. Richmond built Nos. 210–215 in 1920.

The class grid

Each row is a class as Drury prints it. Five of the MC Mikados are also the MCA engines, so those two rows are not ten extra locomotives. Nos. 700, 610, and 410 are the Triplex and its two rebuilds. The USC and USD reclasses are described above and are not given rows. The 1919 engines lettered 900–904 were refused and are not listed. Adding the quantity column counts some locomotives more than once.

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Scrapped	Notes
0-8-0	SA	1–5	5	Richmond, Baldwin	1909, 1910	1934, 1955	1–3 Richmond, 1909. 4 and 5 Baldwin, 1910
0-8-0	SB	240–254	15	Lima	1942, 1943	1957–1959	Ex-Chesapeake & Ohio. Bought 1950. Kept those numbers
2-8-0	CA	300–302	3	Richmond	1904, 1905	1933	Ex-Deepwater 2–4
2-8-0	CB	303, 304	2	Baldwin	1905	1933	Ex-Tidewater 5 and 6
2-8-0	CC	305	1	Richmond	1909	1933
2-8-0	CD	306, 307	2	Richmond	1907	1933	From nearby short lines
2-8-2	MA	400–405	6	Baldwin	1905, 1907	1933	400 and 401 ex-Deepwater 30 and 31, 51-inch drivers
2-8-2	MD	410	1	Baldwin	1921	1953	Rebuilt from 700
2-8-2	MB	420–461	42	Baldwin	1909–1910	1938–1959	56-inch drivers. May 1909–August 1910
2-8-2	MC	462–479	18	Baldwin	1912	1953–1960	Tractive effort over 60,000 pounds
2-8-2	MCA	480–484	5	Baldwin	1912	1955	Rebuilt 1938–1941 from 463, 466, 470, 472, and 475
2-8-4	BA	505–509	5	Lima	1946	1960	69-inch drivers
2-6-6-0	AA	500–503	4	Richmond	1909	1933
2-6-6-0	AC	510–517	8	Baldwin	1910	1933	Two firedoors
2-6-6-6	AG	900–907	8	Lima	1945	1960	753,000 pounds
2-8-8-2	AB	600	1	Baldwin	1910	1937	Separable boiler. Conventional boiler fitted in 1922
2-8-8-2	AD	601–606	6	Richmond	1912, 1913	1934	601–604 in 1912. 605 and 606 in 1913
2-8-8-2	USA	701–720	20	Richmond	1919	1953–1955
2-8-8-2	USB	721–735	15	Richmond	1923	1954, 1955
2-8-8-2	USE	736–742	7	Schenectady	1919	1954, 1955	Ex-Santa Fe. Bought 1947. Boiler pressure 270 pounds
2-10-10-2	AE	800–809	10	Schenectady	1918	1948–1958	Class page. 176,600 pounds simple, 147,200 compound
2-8-8-0	AF	610	1	Baldwin	1921	1953	Rebuilt from 700. Later worked as a 2-8-8-2, still 610
2-8-8-8-4	XA	700	1	Baldwin	1916	1920	Returned to Baldwin. Rebuilt as 610 and 410
4-4-0	EA	100–105	6	Baldwin	1906, 1907	1934–1953	Ex-Tidewater 11–16. Renumbered 294–299 in 1925
4-6-0	TA	200–203	4	Richmond	1907	1947, 1949	63-inch drivers. Southern valve gear, 1919–1920
4-6-2	PA	210–215	6	Richmond	1920	1957–1960	69-inch drivers

Sources

E. W. King, Jr., “Virginian,” in George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pp. 320–323. The class grid, the grade and the 58-load, 80-load, and 100-load assignments, the Triplex and its rebuild, the refused 900–904, the AE ratings, the USC and USD reclasses, the USE purchase, the SB purchase, and the passenger-locomotive specifications.
H. Reid, The Virginian Railway (Kalmbach, 1961). Published rosters named in the chapter: Railroad, April 1937, p. 71, and July 1951, p. 106; Trains, January 1950, p. 25. The Norfolk & Western Historical Society, nwhs.org, is the society named on p. 323.

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