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Just days off the erecting floor at Lima Locomotive, Chesapeake and Ohio 4-8-4 Greenbrier type #604 poses for a company publicity photo. The Greenbriers were used in passenger service over the Appalachians from Hinton WV to Charlottesville, Richmond, and Newport News VA. Each of the four original Greenbriers were named after a prominent Virginia statesman. 604 was the Edward Randolph. She's so shiny you could shave in the reflection off the boiler jacket. Unfortunately, she'll never be this clean again!
C&O Greenbriers 4-8-4s are named after the railroad-owned hotel, NYC 4-8-2 Mohawks are named after the New York State indian tribes and Northern Pacific 2-8-8-4 Yellowstones are named for the national park served by NP.
CN officially did call their 4-8-4s Confederation types for a while in conjunction with the passenger train of the same name, one of the transcontinental services introduced at the same time as the locomotives in 1927. The train disappeared during the Great Depression, and the locomotives were renamed Northern -- also quite appropriate.
The wheel arrangement of this loco, 4-8-4, was commonly called a Northern. But not on railroads running into Southern states such as Virginia, in this case. I've counted at least 17 names used for the one type of steam loco. The Northern name was actually from the Northern Pacific Railroad, who got the first 4-8-4's into service only weeks before the Canadian National Railway. CNR intended to call their 4-8-4's the Confederation class. I wonder if this would have been more acceptable in the old Confederacy?
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