From Ohio to Korea: C&O's wandering 2-8-0s

When the Hocking Valley Railway (HV) received its C-12 class 2-8-0s from American Locomotive Company's Richmond, Virginia, works in 1911, the motive power officials never would have dreamed that some of these locomotives would end up half a world away in the Korean peninsula forty years later, but they did. A recent inquiry at the Archives about C&O locomotives sent to Korea following the devastating Korean War (19501953) prompted this article.

These locomotives were fairly large for their type, with 215,000 pounds on the drivers and 23,000 pounds on the engine truck, and they suited the needs of the HV very well. They looked modem (see the photo above) with their large cab and high boiler profile. The small 57-inch drivers indicate that they were intended for handling slow, heavy freight, with a rated cylinder horsepower of 1,951.

It is likely that HV ordered these engines from ALCO's Richmond works because Richmond was a favorite builder for the C&O, and the C&O had in 19 10 taken control of the HV. The C&O liked Richmond, of course, because its headquarters was in that city, and it was in those days a decidedly Southern road in its orientation, unlike the Eastern/Midwestern image it would take on a decade or two later.

Hocking Valley gave the C-12s road numbers 170-179, and they were renumbered to C&O 700-709 when the HV was merged in 1930. The C&O assigned the locomotives to the G-5 class, since all the locomotives originally in that class on the C&O were by then scrapped. To avoid confusion they were sometimes called "Second G-5," especially by railway historians. Diagrams and C&O documents do not seem to use the "Second" wording. The locomotives were rated by C&O at 48,500 pounds of tractive effort, which was significantly above the tractive effort rating for C&O's own G-7 and G-9 class Consolidations, which were seen doing so many light work jobs around the system.

Not surprisingly these locomotives stayed generally in their old HV haunts in central and southeastern Ohio through the rest of their lives. No. 701, however, was taken out of this service and sent to Clifton Forge, Virginia, in 1940, and it spent the next decade and more pulling the passenger trains operating on the Hot Springs branch from Covington to Hot Springs. The high tractive effort, short wheel base and ample boiler made this a logical decision for trains that consisted of two to six passenger cars and an occasional freight car, going up a 25-mile long branch with one tremendous 4.6% grade at its end. The 701 handled countless thousands of high class passengers on the first or last leg of their trip from the great cities of the East Coast and Midwest to the fabulous Homestead Hotel at Hot Springs. The short trip from the terminal at Clifton Forge took the train over nine mainline miles to Covington, then 25 miles up the branch and back, several times a day. The 701 turned in an admirable performance, especially for a machine built in 1911.

Nos. 706 and 706 were scrapped in 1935 for reasons not evident. The remaining class members continued in service until dieselization and were retired by about 1951. On the C&O they carried class 7RA rectangular tenders holding 7,500 gallons of water and 13 tons of coal. They more or less kept their original HV appearances with the usual changes in headlight style and location, and other appliances that locomotives in operation over such a length of years were bound to have changed over time.

In 1954, No. 701, out of service since 1952 (replaced by a specially equipped GP7), was spruced up with shiny black paint and donated to the city of Covington, Virginia, where it had seen so much well-known service in the latter part of its life. There it still rests in a small city park, and it is, remarkably, the one and only surviving original Hocking Valley locomotive!

Three other locomotives of this class and of about the right size were during that period rendered surplus. They were donated to the Republic of Korea to aid in rebuilding that country after the war. The donation was arranged by John Kusik, vice-president-finance of the C&O, with Kenyon C, Bolton, chairman of the Cleveland American-Korea Foundation and Col. Walter J. Easton, chairman of the Help Korea Train Committee. C&O President Walter J. Tuohy had been president of the Cleveland American-Korea Foundation the previous year (1953). Initially the gift included three of the G-5s and six C-16 0-8-0 switchers, but the number was later increased to 18 0-8-0s. President Syngman Rhee of Korea wrote C&O President Walter J. Tuohy that he was "deeply touched by this spontaneous contribution to the economy" of South Korea.

The lined-out locomotives of the first batch (the three G-5s and six C- 16s) were taken to C&O's Newport News terminal and loaded on naval transport ships as were the subsequent 12 C-16s. They were then taken through the Panama Canal and offloaded at the Long Beach, California, Naval Ship Yard, where they werre reloaded onto supply ships bound for Korea. Much was made of this donation at the time, but it is largely forgotten now. We have no record or knowledge of what happened to these old locomotives once they arrived in Korea, but their life there was probably fairly brief as the Korean railroad modernized.

One thing to be said for the G-5 is that it was a tall, handsome locomotive, with clean lines, a big boiler, and a cab that seemed to match - just the image that has become ingrained in the public's imagination of a "typical" locomotive.

HOME FOR THE MERRY WIDOW

The following article appeared in the December 1954 issue of Tracks, C&O's company magazine. Some pictures taken on the occasion and used here aren't exactly the same as used in the original article - Ed.

Locomotive No. 701, which puffed

the equivalent of 34 times around the world before she seemed headed toward the scrap heap, will never leave her Allegheny Mountain community now. On November 15, the friendly steamer was hoisted onto a pedestal near the track she formerly ran along and was dedicated as a gift to the children of Covington, Va., from the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.

Engineer Perry Nicely, of Covington, who was at the throttle when No. 701 made her last run up the C&O's Hot Springs Branch on December 12, 1952, ws on hand to help dedicate the old "Iron Horse." So were the city's school children, let out of classes early to attend the ceremony in the city's playground.

Built in Richmond in 1911, and put on the Covington-Hot Springs run fourteen years ago, the 701 is a Consolidation freight hauler. All by herself, the 701 handled all of the daily traffic in both directions on the Hot Springs Branch. Because she had no mate on the run, she was dubbed the "Merry Widow."

- Tracks, December 1954.

Copyright Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, Inc. Nov 1999
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