The Chesapeake & Ohio C-16 was a class of large 0-8-0 switch engines built in three batches by three different builders - ALCO, Lima and Baldwin - between 1942 and 1948. In all, 110 were built.
Subclasses and Developments[]
Shortly after the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941 (and the start of WW2's Pacific Theatre), Lima borrowed ALCO's blueprints for the C-16s and built 15 copies (dubbed C-16a, and given road numbers 240-254) in 1942. Interestingly, 30 more (dubbed C-16b) were built by Baldwin in 1948, and were given road numbers 255-284. By 1950, 63 engines became redundant due to dieselisation and were sold to other roads; the C-16as went to the Virginian (where they were classed SB), the C-16bs to the Norfolk and Western (becoming class S1) and, curiously, in 1954, 18 of the original C-16s were overhauled and donated to South Korea, for use on Korean National Railways.
The C-16bs became the basis for the N&W's S1a 0-8-0 switchers, built between 1951 and 53, totalling 45 examples (numbers were 200-244). The last one built had the dubious distinction of being the very last steam locomotive ever built for a Class 1 Railroad... and the first of the S1as to be scrapped, after only four and a half years of service.