Designed and built by the Norfolk & Western Railway Class A locomotives were considered some of the best steam locomotives ever produced. Designed to haul fast freight trains through the Appalachian mountains, these articulated locomotives produced in excess of 5400 HP. 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, #1218, was restored to operation in 1987 but was again retired in 1994. It is preserved at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. Here she is shown as she would have appeared in the late 1940s.