Berkshire locomotive

A "Berkshire" type steam locomotive refers to a steam locomotive built with a 2-8-4 wheel configuration. The design was initially intended to improve on the USRA Mikado design (2-8-2), which was deemed to lack sufficient speed and horsepower. That was overcome by the inclusion of a larger, 100-square-foot (9.3 m²) firebox, requiring an extra trailing axle, giving the locomotive its distinctive 2-8-4 wheel arrangement.

The Nickel Plate 765 is one of two remaining operating Berkshire steam locomotives. Operated by the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society in Indiana, 765 has pulled numerous excursions over decades of excursion service.

The name of "Berkshire" was chosen for the 2-8-4 type based on the Lima Locomotive Works testing on the Berkshire Hills of the Boston & Albany Railroad. After the Class A-1 successfully outperformed a Class H-10 Mikado, the Boston & Albany Railroad became the first to order the new Berkshires. Over 600 were built by the Lima Locomotive Works, the American Locomotive Company, and Baldwin Locomotive Works. A total of nineteen different railroads purchased Berkshires, including the Erie Railroad, who owned 105 Berkshires, more than any other railroad; the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, who nicknamed theirs the Kanawhas; and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad's, whose locomotives were technically designated as Class M-1 but were referred to as "Big Emmas".

Only two "Berkshire" type steam locomotives are in operating condition today: Pere Marquette 1225 and Nickel Plate 765. However, in February, 2016, the newly formed Kentucky Steam Heritage Corperation based out of Irving, KY, was established to restore Chesapeake & Ohio 2716 back into operation. [1]