28 CLASSIC TRAINS FALL 2019
Alco constructed C&O’s first 40 2-8-4s in 1943–44, including 1944-built No. 2718; Lima supplied the other 50 in 1945–47. C&O, John B. Corns collection
Don’t say “Berkshire”
ALTHOUGH IT SHARED one of steam’s great
design legacies — that of the Van Sweringen roads’
Advisory Mechanical Committee — the C&O
went in a slightly different direction with its K-4.
Or, shall we say, Kanawha. “Berkshire” just
wouldn’t do, not for a railroad rooted in the Alle-
ghenies of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia
and which liked to name its power for rivers along
its route. The C&O was a latecomer to the 2-8-4,
ordering its first 40 in 1943, 26 of which arrived in
1944 to help move a flood of coal and troop trains.
C&O gave the AMC design a different look in
front, lowering the headlight, placing an oval num-
ber plate on the smokebox, and equipping the pilot
with footboards. Otherwise, a Kanawha looked a
lot like a Nickel Plate Berk, right down to its 69-
inch drivers and 90.3 square feet of grate area. Ches-
sie liked its K-4s so much it kept buying them into
1947, amassing a total of 90. The C&O preserved a
whopping dozen of them, one of which, the Ken-
tucky Railway Museum’s 2716, is destined for re-
vival by the Kentucky Steam Heritage Society.Chesapeake & Ohio K-4 2-8-4