The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad took delivery of five Class J-3, 4-8-4s from the Lima Locomotive Works in 1935. These very heavy (477,000 pound) locomotives were ordered for use on the C&O's first class passenger trains such as the "George Washington" or the "Sportsman".

The C&O preferred to call its 4-8-4s "Greenbriers" and gave each of the first five an additional name of a Virginian statesman. Road numbers 600 through 604 bore the names of: Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Harrison, James Madison and Edmund Randolph. In 1942 two more Class J-3s were acquired and given road numbers 605 and 606 along with the names of Thomas Nelson, Jr and James Monroe.

In all, the C&O would have twelve Greenbriers, with the final five (Class J-3a) coming in 1948 and given road numbers 610 through 614. Number 613 was modified with UP style smoke deflecters in 1948.

Only number 614 survives today. It is owned and operated by "Iron Horse Enterprises, Inc.", Lebanon, NJ. In the fall of 1956, just before retirement, it was renumbered 611. The C&O had a power shortage and as a result, leased a number of 4-8-4s from the RF&P, including their 614. To alleviate confusion, a paint brush and chisel were taken to the 614, since the original C&O 611 had already been retired. Thus 614 was retired as 611 and kept that number at the B&O Museum until Ross Rowland got the engine in 1989. Mr. Rowland renumbered it back to 614 and added a 'T' for test. In preparation for his ACE 3000 project, Ross Rowland had all sorts of monitoring instruments connected to 614T then ran many tests. The test runs took place in 1985 between Hinton and Huntington, WV. These runs included running lite, pulling coal trains, and pulling passenger trains.

614T has also been used on many special excursions including the Chessie Safety Special. Ross Rowland has plans to use this locomotive for the 21st Century Limited late in this decade.

In 1995 614T was moved from the B&O Museum to the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad in New Hope, PA. During 1996 614 completed a very successful set of excursions out of Hoboken, NJ, on rails belonging to NJ Transit. It is reported that waiting lists for tickets exceeded 1000 per trip. Ross Rowland himself took the throttle and showed them what 70 MPH behind big-time steam was all about.

Class J-3 (Locobase 246)

Data from tables in 1947 Locomotive Cyclopedia.

Actually 2 slightly different sub-classes: J-3 (600-604) and J-3a (605-606); 5 more J-3a delivered in 1948 with BoxPok drivers.. The specifications are for the J-3a. Known as Greenbriers on the C&O, these were among the largest 4-8-4s built. According to Drury (1993), the design was based on the earlier 2-10-4.

In their January 1981 Railfan and Railroad article "The Last Greenbrier", Jim Boyd & Tom Dixon say the J3's ran between Charlottesville, VA over the mountains to Hinton West Virginia, 175 miles with a ruling grade of 1.52% pullling up to 13 heavy passenger cars.

The authors note that the first 5 had the steam dome mounted well forward to be closer to the front-end throttle and thus be more efficient. They comment, however, "The theory worked fine on flat-land engines like the T-1s and the Berks], but when its long boiler tipped downhill from the top of a mountain, the C&O J3s had a nasty habit of drowning their dry pipes if the crew was carrying the water a little too high." Boyd & Dixon record that the latter two J3s, delivered in 1942 J-3s had the steam dome situated behind the sand dome. They also used Baker valve gear.

Boyd & Dixon also say that the 1948 batch were "fully roller-bearing equipped, including lightweight rods with rollers on the cranks." This quintet was highly regarded, but their service career was inevitably short-lived