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Big Mike Big Wheels
Locomotive history from Science Museum of Virginia
Locomotive No. 2732 is a Chesapeake & Ohio Kanawha class steam engine with maximum speed of 70 miles per hour.
Built in 1943 and 44 at the Alco Plant in New York by American Locomotive Works.
It was one of 90 Class K-4, 2-8-4 Kanawhas the C&O purchased between 1943 and 1947. Crews nicknamed 2-8-4s The Big Mikes.
The 2-8-4 engine has 2 pilot wheels, 8 drivers and 4 trailing wheels. Its tender can hold 30 tons of coal. The water storage area totaled 21,000 gallons.
During World War II, C&O started using engines with the 2-8-4 wheel arrangement to handle a fast freight schedule needed to fill war-time needs.
K-4s pulled military supplies and troop trains during World War II and after the war they pulled coal, merchandise trains, and heavy passenger trains.
For five years it pulled freight through the mountains of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. It traveled 300,000 miles before it and the Co.’s other Kanawhas were retired because diesel engines were taking over. The C&O started retiring Kanawhas mid-1952 and they were all retired by 1957. The railroad saved one Kanawha for its collection and donated 12 — including No. 2732 — to various cities for preservation. The railroad stored No. 2732 in West Virginia before donating it to the city of Richmond.
Big Mike Big Wheels
Locomotive history from Science Museum of Virginia
Locomotive No. 2732 is a Chesapeake & Ohio Kanawha class steam engine with maximum speed of 70 miles per hour.
Built in 1943 and 44 at the Alco Plant in New York by American Locomotive Works.
It was one of 90 Class K-4, 2-8-4 Kanawhas the C&O purchased between 1943 and 1947. Crews nicknamed 2-8-4s The Big Mikes.
The 2-8-4 engine has 2 pilot wheels, 8 drivers and 4 trailing wheels. Its tender can hold 30 tons of coal. The water storage area totaled 21,000 gallons.
During World War II, C&O started using engines with the 2-8-4 wheel arrangement to handle a fast freight schedule needed to fill war-time needs.
K-4s pulled military supplies and troop trains during World War II and after the war they pulled coal, merchandise trains, and heavy passenger trains.
For five years it pulled freight through the mountains of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. It traveled 300,000 miles before it and the Co.’s other Kanawhas were retired because diesel engines were taking over. The C&O started retiring Kanawhas mid-1952 and they were all retired by 1957. The railroad saved one Kanawha for its collection and donated 12 — including No. 2732 — to various cities for preservation. The railroad stored No. 2732 in West Virginia before donating it to the city of Richmond.