Locomotive, Steam, 4-6-2, Pacific B&O P-7

History: B&O class P-7 is a 4-6-2 'Pacific' type steam locomotive, built by the Baldwin locomotive works in 1927 for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. 20 were produced and numbered #5300 to #5319. This type became known as the Presidential Class since all twenty were named (and lettered) after the first twenty presidents of the United States.

This locomotive was assigned on passenger trains and, as the first of the type built, it was (co-incidentally) named "President Washington", after George Washington, the first President of the United States who was President from 1789 through 1797. It was unveiled at the "Fair of the Iron Horse" in 1927.

The P-7s initially hauled the Royal Blue trains between Washington DC and Jersey City, NJ, but they were soon relegated to the western division by the B&O's early dieselisation in the 1930s with the EMC EA/EB units.

In 1947, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad rebuilt four of its class P7 "President" series Pacific 4-6-2 passenger locomotives (numbers 5301-5304, class P7d) for service on a new high-speed daytime run between Washington and Cincinnati. The modified engines had streamlined shrouds (designed by Olive Dennis), and were equipped with larger tenders to reduce the number of stops needed for fuel and water. There were two streamlined heavyweight train-sets of five cars each, strikingly painted in gleaming royal blue, light gray, and black, with yellow striping and lettering. Train length was strictly limited so that the P7d would not require a helper to maintain speed while crossing the Alleghenies. To assist in maintaining its tight 12.5-hour schedule, the Cincinnatian's stops were limited. The train was routed via the Patterson Creek cutoff, and also via the Magnolia cutoff, a line otherwise devoted exclusively to fast freight traffic.

From Locomotive Wiki and The Lounge personal web site.

Railroad/Company: The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was originally located in Philadelphia, and later moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as the largest producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of diesels was far less so. Later, when the early demand for diesel locomotives to replace steam tapered off, Baldwin could not compete in the marketplace. It stopped producing locomotives in 1956 and went out of business in 1972, having produced over 70,000 locomotives, the vast majority powered by steam.

In 1956, after 125 years of continuous locomotive production, Baldwin closed most of its Eddystone plant and ceased producing locomotives. The company instead concentrated on production of heavy construction equipment. More than 70,500 locomotives had been built when production ended. In 1965 Baldwin became a wholly owned subsidiary of Armour and Company. Greyhound Corporation purchased Armour and Company in 1970, and in 1972 Greyhound closed Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton for good.

From Wikipedia