| This massive loco now appears to be sitting in the storage/scrap line at an unidentified locaiton - probably Grafton yards in West Virginia. This was originally built by Alco-Richmond in January of 1918 as Seaborad Air Line 2-8-8-2 #503. When the size and maintenance was too much of the SAL, they sold it to B&O in 1920 and renumbered BO 7302. In 1923, the B&O Shops undertook to rebuild it from a compound Mallet to simple-articulated,removed the trailing truck and reclassed BO 2-8-8-0 #7302 as EL-6a class. The loso was finally sold for scrap in August of 1950 after nearly 32 years of heavy service. Simplified EL-6a specs - 63" drivers, 200 psi boiler pressure, four 25x32" cylinders, engine wt of 492,000 lb and impressive tractive effort of 97,800 lb. No date, location or photographer was listed for this photo. |