ClassicTrainsMag.com 29WAR WAS STILL MONTHS AWAY when
Lima first approached Chesapeake & Ohio
about building a locomotive of unprecedent-
ed size and power — at least east of the Mis-
sissippi. The result was the class H-8 2-6-6-6
Allegheny, a monstrous simple articulated
notable for its six-wheel trailing truck and
fearsome front end. David P. Morgan said
Lima “poured all its genius” into the H-8, and
it showed. The Allegheny married that huge
truck with a 135.2-square-foot firebox, a
massive boiler, and 67-inch drivers, putting
110,200 pounds of tractive force in the handsAllegheny 1644, built in late 1944, advances along the Kanawha River with westbound tonnage at Handley, W.Va., in June 1956. William P. Price
of one engineer. C&O ultimately bought 60
of the giants from Lima, 25 of them in 1944.
Although 23 of the H-8s were equipped with
steam lines for passenger service — much of
it on troop trains — they were basically
there for one job: haul a tidal wave of coal
from West Virginia to the summit at Allegh-
eny Tunnel, on the Virginia state line, then
ease that tonnage down the 1.14 percent to
Clifton Forge and on to tidewater. Two sur-
vive, at The Henry Ford in Michigan and the
B&O Museum in Baltimore.