ClassicTrainsMag.com 43MICHIGAN’S PERE MARQUETTE RAILWAY
had already rewritten its own record books with
the first two orders of 27 Lima-built Berkshires,
the N class of 1937 and N-1 of 1941. Like their Van
Sweringen AMC cousins on the Nickel Plate, the
PM 2-8-4s allowed the railroad to run like a high-
speed bridge carrier, especially in overnight Chica-
go–Detroit time-freight service. But as a primary
railroad serving the arsenal of Detroit — incoming
coal, outgoing weaponry — the PM had its hands
full by 1943, so back it went to Lima, ordering an-
other dozen Berks for delivery in 1944, in the N-2
class. This time, PM made two significant improve-
ments, converting to a one-piece cast frame on all
engines and flipping the sandbox to a position
ahead of the steam dome. The 1944 group brought
PM’s 2-8-4 fleet to 39, and closed the books on the
road’s steam acquisitions. Today, No. 1225, a mem-
ber of the 1941 class, runs out of Owosso, Mich., at
the Steam Railroading Institute.
Delivered the previous year, Pere Marquette 1228 makes
a stirring sight as it hurries boxcars west at Whiting,
Ind., in 1945. The immaculate right of way belongs to
B&O, by which PM accessed Chicago. Tom Harley
Reinforcing
the Detroit
arsenal
Pere Marquette N-2 2-8-4