Chesapeake and Ohio 1309
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 1309 is a steam locomotive built in 1949 for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) where it pulled coal trains until retirement in 1956. It was the last steam engine built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the North American market. In 1976, it was moved to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum for static display. The engine was purchased in 2014 by the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad which began restoration with the intention of returning it to service as the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad 1309.
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
C&O's passenger services ended in 1971 with the formation of Amtrak. Today Amtrak's tri-weekly "Cardinal" passenger train follows the historic and scenic route of the C&O through the New River Gorge in one of the more rugged sections of the Mountain State. The rails of the former C&O also continue to transport intermodal and freight traffic, as well as West Virginia bituminous coal east to Hampton Roads and west to the Great Lakes as part of CSXT, a Fortune 500 company which was one of seven Class I railroads operating in North America at the beginning of the 21st century.