Good looking engines Trumpettrain. How did they ever keep that Pacific clean?
Bob - That's a great question. Here on the Free State Junction Railway our locomotive maintenance crew expertly steam clean the 5308 and our engine wipers are top notch! They keep number 5308 as clean as a hospital operating room .. lol!
In reality, I believe the Lionel paint scheme, as beautiful as it looks, is actually a fantasy paint scheme. I could be wrong, however as a student of B&O history, I've never read any text or viewed photos of the President Harrison being painted in the paint scheme Lionel has chosen. In its' later years the 5308 was painted all blue, as it headed passenger trains. Eventually though, like many steam locomotives during the 1950s, the 5308 was relegated to freight trains. The 5308 was retired by the B&O in 1957 and scrapped in 1958.
The B&O's P7 class of Pacifics built by Baldwin honored the first 20 presidents of the US. The locomotives were number 5300 - 5319. They were the power for all of B&O's name passenger trains back in the steam era. Top end speed of 85 mph. Over the life span of the P7 class, some were given streamlined shrouding but not the 5308. These shrouded locomotives were assigned to certain passenger trains. Four of these streamlined shrouded P7 locos were assigned to B&O's Cincinnatian which ran daylight hours between Baltimore and Cincinnati.
Good looking engines Trumpettrain. How did they ever keep that Pacific clean?