4 CLASSIC TRAINS FALL 2019
Welcome From the editor
Steam’s last great year
Three-quarters of a century ago, a world war was placing unprecedented demands
on the railroads of the United States and Canada. A tidal wave of traffic was taxing
employees, facilities, and equipment. The carriers urgently needed more locomotives.
By 1944, Electro-Motive’s E and FT units had convinced many railroads of the
superiority of diesel power. But wartime restrictions on industrial production cur-
tailed the availability of diesels, forcing some roads that might have preferred them to
settle for steam. Other railroads, still committed to the fire-plus-water equation, added
to their fleets with the expectation that steam would reign for decades to come. So
pressing was the need for basic, proven power, that government regulators discour-
aged the time-intensive development of new steam designs, as well as the construction
of purely passenger power. It was a formula for an extraordinary year for steam, both
in terms of quantity and quality.
More than 350 steam locomotives were built for road service on the major U.S. and
Canadian carriers in 1944. Among them were some of the greatest stars in steam’s uni-
verse, including 4-8-4s for the Santa Fe, Canadian National, and Union Pacific; 2-8-4s
for the Nickel Plate, Chesapeake & Ohio, and Louisville & Nashville; 2-10-4s for the
Pennsylvania and Santa Fe; and notable articulateds like Baltimore & Ohio’s 2-8-8-4,
Norfolk & Western’s 2-6-6-4, Southern Pacific’s 4-8-8-2; and UP’s 4-8-8-4 Big Boy.
As it turned out, 1944 was also a last hurrah. Many railroads took delivery of their
final steam locomotives that year. In 1945, as the war ended, steam production fell by
more than half, never again approached the 1944 figure, and soon ceased entirely.
Although some notable engines were built in the postwar era, no single year produced
such an all-star cast as did 1944, steam’s last great year.Editor Robert S. McGonigal
Senior Art Director Lisa A. Bergman
Associate Editor Brian Schmidt
Contributing Editor J. David Ingles
Editorial Assistant Diane Laska-Swanke
Graphic Designer Lisa M. Schroeder
Lead Illustrator Rick Johnson
Contributing Illustrator Bill Metzger
Librarian Thomas E. Hoffmann
Columnist Kevin P. Keefe
Editorial Director Diane M. Bacha
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contributing, contact the Editorial Assistant.Canadian National 6076, one of 20 semi-streamlined 4-8-2s the road received in 1944, heads
train 75 at Bayview Junction, Hamiliton, Ont., on May 17, 1958. William P. PriceEDITOR