Chesapeake Western No. 662 is a DS-4-4-600 Baldwin diesel switcher that operated on the western Virginia shortline railway known as the Chesapeake Western Railroad. It was built in 1946 and was one of three first-generation diesel locomotives that served on the shoreline that helped to completely transition the Chesapeake Western from steam to diesel power.
No. 662 was retired in 1964 after being replaced by ALCO T-6's, and wound up in the Virginia Scrap Iron & Metal Co. scrapyard in Roanoke, VA, along with its classmate No. 663. The two diesels sat rusting away in the scrapyard for over forty years along with other rolling stock and four Norfolk and Western Railway steam locomotives, Nos. 917, 1118, 1134, and 1151. This small collection of railroad history became known as the "Lost Engines of Roanoke."
In 1997 the website The Lost Engines of Roanoke was launched as a call to action to save all of the locomotives and rolling stock from the Roanoke scrapyard to find them new homes in preservation. All of them were eventually removed from the scrapyard with Virginia Scrap Iron & Metal Co. donating Nos. 662, 663, and 1151 over to the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
In 2009 the Museum donated No. 663 to the Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) who in exchange provided a cosmetic restoration of No. 662.
No. 662 is now currently on static display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation restored to its former glory wearing its striking blue and gold Chesapeake Western livery.
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