36 CLASSIC TRAINS FALL 2019
WHEN THE WAR CAME TO NORFOLK & WESTERN, the
railroad was ready. Always profitable through the Depression, it
was able to keep its physical plant in tip-top shape, an important
advantage for a carrier that served the key Navy port of Norfolk
and tapped into much of the nation’s coal reserves. It also had its
splendid lineup of home-built locomotives, of which the A-class
2-6-6-4 was arguably the greatest. Unusually nimble for its size and
power, the A could turn its 70-inch drivers and 114,000 pounds of
tractive force into the longest coal train or the highest-priority
troop train. Which it did, time after time. When feeling the pinch
of wartime traffic in 1944, the N&W simply ordered its Roanoke
Shops to build 10 more A’s to add to the 25 already on the roster.
The war helped cement their legacy. N&W’s 2-6-6-4 fleet topped
out at 43 when construction ended in 1950. A member of the 1943
class — No. 1218, the 1980s–90s excursion engine — is in the col-
lection of the Virginia Museum of Transportation.On a fine October 25, 1956, class A No. 1233 lifts a freight up the east side of the Blue Ridge grade at Montvale, Va. William P. PriceNorfolk & Western class A 2-6-6-4
Roanoke’s best
ready for duty