Vintage work crew photos

[mrz80]

I love those compound locomotives, this one looks to be a Challenger, with twelve drivers, it was smaller than the Union Pacific's Bigboy, but the Challenger had more traction effort than Bigboy's 16 drivers, due to less weight per driver!

The photo is of Norfolk and Western #2180 . It's a Y-6 class 2-8-8-2 articulated. The N&W Ys were among the largest and most powerful steam locomotives ever operated (the UP's 4-8-8-4 Big Boys were larger and faster, but with less tractive effort, and the Virginian's 2-10-10-2s had higher tractive effort but at a much lower speed). They were used for heavy freight and coal trains in the mountains, moving to mine runs as diesels finally started displacing steam in the late 50s. There exists one remaining example of the type, nonoperational, in a museum.