Class 270 (Locobase 13942)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 41, p. 190 and Volume 43, p. 122. See also North Carolina Rails' summary of the history of the C & NW. Works numbers were 38180-38181 in August 1912 and 39443-39444 in March 1913.

The C & NW's Piedmont location induced the railroad to ask for the following in the 1913 engines: "Provide long wagon top extension with ample space above the crown sheet as locomotive will be run on sharp [2.7%] grades, the idea begin to allow as much room for steam as possible and have sufficient water over crown sheet." At the same time, the builder was to set the frames 1" closer together than the distance between the frames on the 1912 locomotives.

The C & NW started out as the Chester & Lenoir Narrow Gauge Railroad, which had laid 110 miles of track from Chester, South Carolina almost due north on a line 20 miles west of Charlotte to Lenoir, North Carolina by 1884. It was never robust and the turbulent financial times of the late 19th Century forced it into receivership twice.

It emerged from the second hiatus as the Carolina & North-Western Railway. Under this name, the road converted to standard-gauge operation in 1902. An important bit of this line consisted of trackage rights on the 9.2 miles between Newton and Hickory over the Southern Railway.

Although acquisition of the Caldwell & Northern in 1910 expanded operations, the Can't & Never Will struggled throughout its surprisingly long life. But a 1916 flood helped kill the timber industry traffic and increasing motor traffic diverted riders throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

Service dwindled until the ICC granted permission to abandon the line in 1938.

Class 61 (Locobase 14668)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 62, p. 23. Works number was 54216 in December 1920.

See Locobase 14669 for a history of the C&NE (the "Oil Belt Line"). Baldwin turned out this unadorned Consolidation a month after they turned out the superheated Ten-wheeler. The 61 had a saturated boiler, slide valves, low drivers.

The 61 was sold to the Louisiana & Pine Bluff after the C&NE closed.