Return of the 1309
We have just released a 36-page saddle bound 11x8-1/2-inch booklet on the RETURN OF THE 1309. It is all about C&O’s 1300-1309-series H-6 2-6-6-2 compound articulated locomotives built in 1949 and used until the end of steam out of Peach Creek yard.
No. 1309 was the last commercially-built steam locomotive in America, arriving on C&O in November, 1949, and being retired in August, 1956. It was not scrapped, and in 1971 was given a cosmetic overhaul and sent to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore where it remained on display until 2014.
It was then moved to the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad and has undergone a complete rebuilding. It is now ready for regular tourist train operations out of Cumberland, Md.
This book gives all the details about the 1300-1309 class engines and also explains the workings of a compound articulated type (a Mallet), and how and where the 1300-1309 engines were used with really good photos. Included are diagrams, drawings, and maps that expand and help to tell the story. It also has a memory of an engineer who had this particular engine on many trips out of Peach Creek yard.
Photos shows not only 1309 in heavy coal mine run shifter work but also many of the other nine locomotives in this order that worked side-by-side with 1309.
