Interesting question came up on another thread. MTH has the 30-1507-1 Allegheny with N&W livery. C&O and Virginian were the only two railroads to buy these from Lima so... Did the Virginian units survive long enough to migrate to and operate under N&W. I checked a few of the usual sites and could not find any clues. MTH must think so.
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Virginian dieselized fully in 1957.
Seeing the N&W merged with the Virginian in 1959, the answer would be no.
Rusty
While all Virginian diesels had officially been retired by the time of the merger, several of them were still on the lot. I have never heard of any of them being fired by the N&W, or for that matter by the Virginian after 1957. Considering the N&W was retiring its own steam by that point, I doubt they repainted any remaining Virginian locos. Maybe someone with more info can tell us for certain.
Sounds like a fantasy model, seems I remember a y6b with UP on it (or something similar) Maybe this is more common than I realized. I like to look up real pictures of the locos I buy.
I emailed the NWHS and lets see what kind of answer we get and at the same time I joined the NWHS.
hokie71 posted:Sounds like a fantasy model, seems I remember a y6b with UP on it (or something similar) Maybe this is more common than I realized. I like to look up real pictures of the locos I buy.
The Railking Line in particular is subject to fantasy paint jobs.
Rusty
According to Eugene Huddleston's book "The Allegheny: Lima's Finest" all except two of the C&O engines were scrapped after their service on C&O (there is one at the Ford Museum and one at the B&O museum), and all of the Virginian engines (eight total) were scrapped after their service on Virginian, starting in January 1960. The locomotives were never in service on the N&W or any other railroad.
Good idea, your Mth unit opened my eyes on the Allegheny / blue ridge locos. Who knew they were the most powerful steam units built (at least according to Wikipedia). Impressive!
If you're interested in a full history of the Allegheny locomotives, Huddleston's book (authored with Thomas Dixon, Jr.) is fascinating. It's well written, thoroughly researched, and very well illustrated. And it includes a whole chapter systematically and objectively comparing the Allegheny to other very large and powerful engines, like the UP Big Boy and N&W Class A.
I remember seeing a 2-6-6-6 in the roundhouse along with a 2-8-4 and 4-6-2 in Roanoke in late 1959. All were still very much lettered Virginian. I believe on merger date these locos were still around, but IRRC the few remaining Virginian steam locos were quickly moved off the property and scrapped.
That had to be an impressive sight! Sounds like they survived several years before the scrap process.
On the Huddleston book, the cheapest one I can find is $75 - not bad for a book originally retailing for $44.95.
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