Super-sized steam preservation: Are we entering the age of the articulateds?

News that Western Maryland Scenic is interested in a Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 as a running mate for its 2-8-0 in Cumberland, Md., is the latest information that leads me to think we’re entering into a true American era of railway preservation: supersized.

This is a surprising turn given that so many large engines have gone cold over the past dozen years since the coming of new Federal Railroad Administration regulations that raised the standards on boiler integrity.  For a while, it looked as if the world might truly be inherited by the growing number of 0-4-0Ts in steam.

But Americans have always gravitated to the big and bold, and it looks like now we may see a few new locomotives that fit this bill. There’s good reason to do this: Big gets attention.

Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific knew this years ago when NS ran Class A 2-6-6-4 No. 1218 (1987-1991) and UP put 4-6-6-4 No. 3985 into excursion and display service starting in 1982. Big steam is impressive. Bigger steam is even more impressive.

Two tourist railroads run Mallets, locomotives that use their steam twice: South Dakota’s Black Hills Central and California’s Niles Canyon Railway each operate logging 2-6-6-2Ts. Black Hills needs its engine to scale a steep grade at Hill City, S.D. Niles Canyon runs its locomotive, the recipient of the annual Trains preservation award in 2009, to celebrate the logging lokies that once roamed the Golden State’s forests in search of timber.

Don’t forget that an unusual logging Mallet, Deep River Logging Co. 2-4-4-2 No. 7 “Skookum” is coming back to life at the Oregon Coast Scenic in Garibaldi. That engine on the former Southern Pacific Tillamook Branch will be a sight to behold when it debuts, possibly as early as 2014.

Union Pacific, of course, eclipsed everyone this summer by acquiring Big Boy 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 from the Southern California Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. Its move this fall from Los Angeles to Cheyenne, dead in tow, will be a spectacle, and once its restoration is completed in a few years, it will draw a crowd of unimaginable magnitude to that UP landmark route of the Big Boys, Wyoming’s Sherman Hill.

The C&O 2-6-6-2 would be an impressive locomotive on the 18-mile run from Cumberland to Frostburg, Md., much of it on the former Western Maryland main line. The locomotive, with its 56-inch drivers, would look magnificent on the line’s 2 percent plus grades. Let’s hope that the tourist railroad and the B&O Railroad Museum, which owns the 1309, come to an agreement to put her back into operation. The 1309 would look good with a string of hoppers at the iconic Western Maryland location, Helmstetter’s Curve.

Both the Big Boy and the 1309 will take a few years to restore, but once they’re in operation, we’ll definitely be in the 21^st century age of the articulateds.