Why the Last Railroad to Build Its Own Steam Locomotives Finally Quit — In Three Years

Norfolk and Western was the last major American railroad still building its own steam locomotives — as recently as 1953. It had its own factory in Roanoke, Virginia, cheap coal from the mines it served, and some of the most efficient steam engines ever built in the United States. Every other Class 1 railroad had already converted to diesel. Norfolk and Western had the numbers to justify holding out. Then, between 1958 and 1960, it scrapped everything and went all-diesel in under three years. This is the story of why the holdout made sense for as long as it did, what finally broke it, and what the Roanoke shops built in the years when everyone else had already given up on steam.