Back in late December 1972, a derelict steam locomotive was sitting at the Armco Steel plant in Middletown, Ohio, where it had once worked as a stationary boiler. All signs pointed toward the steamer heading for a scrap yard.
That rough looking steamer was Norfolk & Western Y3a No. 2050, a 2-8-8-2 Alco built in 1923.
It was built to a USRA standard design for heavy drag freight service in the Virginia and West Virginia mountains.
It worked for the N&W between 1923 and 1959 before winding up at Armco, which owned it until 1976 when it was donated to the Illinois Railway Museum.
IRM cosmetically restored the 2050, which the IRM website notes is just one of two 2-8-8-2 mallets still in existence.
Although no longer operational, the 2050 still can be enjoyed at the museum.
The 2050 escaped the scrapper’s torch which goes to show that you never know how a locomotive you are capturing on film or megapixels today might turn out down the road.
To view a photograph of the 2050 as it appears today at IRM, visit https://www.irm.org/cgi-bin/rsearch.cgi?steam=Norfolk+&+Western=2050
To see an image of the front of the locomotive visit https://www.steamlocomotive.com/places/irm/
Photograph by Robert Farkas
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