Virginian AG's taken over by N&W

[NW Mailing List]

Geoff - 

The VGN was merged into the N&W in late 1959.  N&W had decided to dieselize several years before, and the process was almost completed.  The Class A engines made their last runs before the VGN merger.  N&W didn’t “mothball” the AGs; it scrapped them.

No VGN steam locomotives operated after merger date that I know of; the VGN itself had been dieselized before the merger date.

The AG was not a viable competitor for the Class A.  It was vastly overweight for its power output and was, IMHO, misapplied on the VGN – even more so than the H-8 was on the C&O.  The H-8 was not designed to provide efficient transportation service to the C&O; it was designed to make a name for its designers by producing more drawbar horsepower than any steam locomotive yet built, and this it did.  But when measured in gross ton miles per train hour per dollar (first cost, operating cost, etc.) it was not in the same league with either N&W’s A or the Y-6.  The first H-8s weighed more than UP’s Big Boy – more than 100 tons more than the A, and cost, on average, more than $100,000 per engine and tender more than the A.  These comparisons with backup figures can be found in the last chapter of someone’s book on the Class A which has been out for several years (it’s available through the Society).   

But the 2-6-6-6 was impressive to look at, and Gene Huddleston was its most vociferous cheerleader . . .

Ed King 

From: NW Mailing List 
Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2016 4:25 AM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
Subject: Virginian AG's taken over by N&W

Members , here is a question from an Englishman

I have read several books on the Virginian RR and Gene Huddlestones book on the H8

My question is  :Why did the N&W mothball the 8 AG's it inherited from the Virginian. It seems to me that those 8 locomotives would have fitted in well with N&W "A" diagrams

Geoff Burton

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