5 Trains That Barely Escaped Being Scrapped | History in the Dark

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The mass-scrapping of steam locomotives is always a sore subject for any historical railfan. Many models were rendered completely extinct by these actions, though the companies were just attempting to make sound business decisions at the time. However, many locomotives did survive, and a few, just barely. Here's five locomotives that were just one decision away from being scrapped.

0:00 - Intro
1:12 - Southern Pacific 4449
7:54 - Stepney
12:16 - Norfolk and Western 611
15:16 - New York Central Mohawks
21:21 - GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall

"Southern Pacific 4449, also known as the Daylight, is the only surviving example of Southern Pacific Railroad's "GS-4" class of 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotives and one of only two GS-class locomotives surviving, the other being "GS-6" 4460 at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. GS is an abbreviation of "General Service" or "Golden State," a nickname for California (where the locomotive was operated in regular service)."

"Stepney is named after the area of London of the same name (many of the Terrier locomotives were named after similar areas) and served first as a suburban shunter and station pilot in London. All terrier tank engines like Stepney at the time, were built with wooden brakes. However, these were soon replaced with metal brakes due to their obvious tendency that wooden brakes could ignite into flames if they were overused. The engine was then used for push-pull trains and branch-line duties."

"Norfolk and Western 611, also known as the "Spirit of Roanoke" and the "Queen of Steam", is a Norfolk and Western (N&W) class J 4-8-4 "Northern" streamlined steam locomotive built in May 1950 by the N&W's East End Shops in Roanoke, Virginia. It was one of the last steam passenger locomotives built in the United States and represents the pinnacle of steam locomotive technology."

"The New York Central Railroad (NYC) called the 4-8-2 type of steam locomotive the Mohawk type. It was known as the Mountain type on other roads, but the mighty New York Central didn't see the name as fitting on its famous Water Level Route. Instead, it picked the name of one of those rivers its rails followed, the Mohawk River, to name its newest type of locomotive. Despite the more common name, the 4-8-2 was actually suited in many ways more to flatland running than slow mountain slogging, with its 4-wheel leading truck for stability at speed."

"Built in April 1937 at Swindon Works for the Great Western Railway (GWR), 5972 was first allocated to Carmarthen, South Wales where it remained until 1951. After being fitted with a three row superheater at Swindon Works, it was allocated to Plymouth Laira. Its last shed allocation was to Cardiff East Dock, before it was withdrawn in December 1963, and sold to Woodham Brothers, Barry for scrap in May 1964."

🚂 Further reading 🚂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souther...
https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/St...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebel...
https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bl...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yor...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yor...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yor...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_490...

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