A visitor on the Bluefield.

In 1946, The Bluefield was considering its options for adding to its fleet of modern steam power for freight service and decided to borrow locomotives off of other roads to test their performance on the Bluefield. One of the locomotives tried was a Reading T1 4-8-4, 2103. The T1 design was the result of a collaboration between the Reading Company and Baldwin locomotive works, and they were built by elongating the boilers of several of the Reading's large 2-8-0s and building a new engine around that key component. They proved so successful that the Reading built 30 total.

In this nighttime photo, 2103 sits alongside a Bluefield P4 Pacific and a class M Mikado, the night before her trial runs were to begin. Eventually, The Big 4-8-4 was deemed to long the drivers too big for the Bluefield. After her trials, she was stored temporarily at Mount Frigid before being returned to the Reading.

Doubleheaded Mikados blast forth from Mount Frigid's North Tunnel with a southbound freight. Even on the relatively short trains seen on the Bluefield, doubleheading was often necessary. The Bluefield was primarily a coal hauler, and most of that coal was bound for the connection with the N&W. 

Pacifics in the Roundhouse

 Here we see pacifics, 2900 and 2922 with their noses sticking out of the Mount Frigid roundhouse. Mount Frigid was a division point and essentially the midpoint of the Bluefield to Fairmont mainline. All north and southbound trains would change engines and crew here. 2900 and 2922 were  regular locomotives on the Bluefield Flyer and Pittsburgh Limited as availability allowed, and both engines were kept exceptionally clean for that service all the way up to the end. 2900 was one of 4 locomotives painted "Bluefield Blue" with gold lettering for service on the flyer. In later years she would be the only heavy pacific to keep her Blue Livery. Early on, all passenger engines ran with gold lettering instead of the standard yellow, but this too was [mostly] phased out later on.

This color slide, taken the same day as the previous photo shows P5a pacific 2922 proudly displaying the gold lettering on black livery.  She was one of several engines to keep the gold lettering, even after the railroad had mostly phased it out for the cheaper yellow used by all freight power. 2922 is about to back to the waiting Bluefield Flyer for the run north to Fairmont where the train will likely be turned over to a New York Central Hudson for the run into Pittsburgh.

A Bluefield 2-8-4 makes her way slowly through Williams Ridge with a reefer train in tow.  Bluefield had several 'hotshot' freights, and although they were not extremely high speed, they were faster than one would assume on a steep and winding road like the Southern Allegheny Division. 777 was a division favorite as far as heavy home steam power. She was a bit slippery on the grades, however, as were the other 2 original Bluefield 2-8-4s. The railroad continued to make small adjustments to try to give the engines better starting power.

This photo was taken at the Mount Frigid Engine Terminal in fall of 1950. You can see N&W 1238 on the right. She was a regular guest on the Bluefield in 1950 and was regularly serviced at Mount Frigid along with a couple of her articulated sisters.  In the center is an older Bluefield consolidation.