Throwback Thursday

by Keith MacCauley

C&O 8401

 According to rrpicturearchives.net, SW1 C&O 8401 was built for the Pere Marquette Railway as their No. 11 in April of 1942. After five years of service with her original owner, as part of the merger, No. 11 would transition to Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ownership and renumbered C&O 8401. Further to spending many year toiling in Canada for C&O and subsequently CSX, in the mid 1980’s, No. 8401 was retired and set aside for preservation at the B&O Museum in Baltimore. While at the museum the venerable SW1 was restored to its original paint scheme and original condition; single beam headlights along with removal of full length handrails. Miraculously, PM 11 survived the B&O Museum roof collapse on February 17, 2003 with only minor damage and continues in operation on short trips within the museum grounds. Perhaps Peter’s photo taken in St. Thomas in June of 1983 shows the diminutive unit spruced up for donation to the museum. It’s certainly very clean!