ClassicTrainsMag.com 23IN 1944, EVERY RAILROAD IN AMERICA could have been de-
scribed as mission-critical, perhaps some more than others. Case in
point: Bessemer & Lake Erie, the 153-mile U.S. Steel-owned road linking
ore docks at Conneaut, Ohio, on Lake Erie with Pittsburgh-area steel
mills. No wartime commodity was more important than steel. To keep
the mills fed, B&LE relied mainly on its 2-10-4 Texas types, of which it
ultimately had 47. The B&LE topped off its roster in 1944 with the final
5 in the H1G class from Baldwin. Based originally on the Burlington’s
M-4, the B&LE 2-10-4s were brutes, with 31-inch cylinders and 64-inch
drivers combining to produce 96,700 pounds of tractive force. The 1944
engines weren’t substantially different from the original of 1929, but they
made up in power what they lacked in modernity. One survives today in
private ownership, at McKees Rocks, Pa., but its fate remains uncertain.
H1G No. 647 was the Bessemer’s last 2-10-4 and last new steam locomotive.
She ended her career on the Missabe, a sister U.S. Steel road. B&LE
Bessemer & Lake Erie H 1 G 2-10-4
Muscle for the mills