FINE ART MODELS, CA. 2002

The best way to remember the old Norfolk and Western is as a railroad with enlightened management, focused on delivering a specialized product, coal, and using specialized locomotives under difficult operating conditions. The resulting Class A locomotive was exceedingly efficient for its 573,000 lb. weight (some 200,000 lbs. less than either the Allegheny or Big Boy designs of 1941, with which its performance has since been compared). Its continuous power curve reached a very high 6325 drawbar horsepower maximum at 40-45 mph, measured at the original boiler pressure of 275 psi, so the N&W used it mainly in bread-and-butter heavy coal service on flat terrain (east from Roanoke to the tidewater terminal at Norfolk and west from Williamson, West Virginia to Columbus, Ohio) where it could cruise at this speed (except for the helper district over the Blue Ridge just east of Roanoke, all the mountainous territory was left to the 2-8-8-2s). Yet the boiler never ran out of steam, even after pressure was raised to 300 psi, so the A also made an exceptional mountain passenger engine (the first two, numbers 1200 and 1201, were normally assigned to passenger service on the Roanoke, Virginia-Bristol, Virginia-Tennessee run before the advent of the famous Class J streamlined 4-8-4s). The 'A's continued as mainline power until they were withdrawn from service en masse in 1958 and 1959.