Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Locomotives in the USA

Class 2 (Locobase 13799)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 39, p. 14. See also "History - 1904 through1965: BC&G Railroad" at [], last accessed 29 January 2012. Works number was 37163 in November 1911.

This small West Virginia road gained an outsized prominence at the other end of the steam era from the year this little Consolidation entered service as the first new rod-driven locomotive on the BC&G.

Although the 2 was scrapped in 1930, the 18.6-mile road connecting Dundon to Widen in Clay County readily accepted other engines as they were discarded by dieselizing railroads.

Thus, when almost all other steam revenue service had ended in the early 1960s, photographers could still image full-size engines in a setting both picturesque and relatively near major population centers.

Class 4 (Locobase 15342)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 77, pp.823+. See also "History - 1904 through1965: BC&G Railroad" at [] and [], last accessed 5 August 2013. Works number was 59472 in September 1926.

4 was only the second rod-driven steam locomotive built for the BC&G. According to Gene Connelly's Baldwin production list, it was originally ordered by the Ferrocarril Mexicano as their 200, but redirected to the BC&G. Its firebox heating surface area included 28 sq ft (2.6 sq m) of four arch tubes. Relatively large 14" (356 mm) piston valves fed the cylinders. Its 70 lb/yard (35 kg/metre) rail ran over 1/2-1% grades and around 16 degree main line curves (30 degrees on Y tracks).

After its long career on this West Virginia coal road, the 4 was sold in 1967 to Francis Ede of Bethlehem, PA, who stenciled the herald of the defunct Quakertown & Eastern and pulled excursion trips on main lines such as the Lehigh Valley, Penn Central, and the Reading. It was in this service that the saturated-boiler 4 acquired her nickname "Ol' Slobber Face" as the condensation of her exhaust dripped down onto her smokebox front.

After five years, Ede sold the engine in February 1972 to Carter Cash Enterprises of Appalachia, Va, who in turn sold it to the Southwest Virginia Scenic Railroad in Hiltons in April 1975. The 4 reached the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer in 1978, where she operated occasionally in tourist service.

A four-year effort to restore the 4 to operational condition was estimated to cost $500,000.