Built in 1942, Norfolk & Western’s Class Y6 locomotives were considered some of the best steam locomotives ever produced. Designed to haul heavy trains of coal from Appalachian coal fields, these articulated locomotives rank amongst the most powerful ever built. Exerting 166,000 lbs of starting tractive effort, two or three of these locomotives were often used to haul 175 car trains over the Appalachian Mountains. Norfolk & Western was rightly proud of their home-built machines and used them long after most railroads had converted to diesel. The subject of this print, #2156, was finally retired in 1959 and is preserved at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. Here she is shown at the head of a coal drag on the railroad's Pocahontas Division.