# Chesapeake and Ohio 490

Chesapeake and Ohio No. 490 is the sole survivor of the L-1 class 4-6-4 "Hudson" type steam locomotives. It was built by ALCO's Richmond works in 1926 as an F-19 class 4-6-2 "Pacific" type to be used to pull the Chesapeake and Ohio's secondary passenger trains. It was eventually rebuilt in 1946 to become a streamlined 4-6-4 for the C&O's Chessie streamliner.
After the Chessie was cancelled, No. 490 remained in secondary passenger service, until it was retired in 1953. It spent several years in storage in Huntington, West Virginia, until 1968, when it was donated to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. It remains on static display at the museum, as of 2024.

## History

Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) acquired multiple 4-6-2 "Pacific" and 4-8-2 "Mountain"-type locomotives for use in pulling their heavy passenger trains. Since some of the C&O's main passenger routes traveled over mountainous grades in the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, the trains often required doubleheading 4-6-2s and 4-8-2s. In 1926, the C&O approached the American Locomotive Company's (ALCO) Richmond, Virginia works, and ordered a new class of 4-6-2s, the F-19 class. The F-19s, Nos. 490-494, were the final new 4-6-2s the C&O received (later 4-6-2s would be purchased second-hand from the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (RF&P).
No. 490 was the first locomotive of the class, and it was initially assigned to pull mainline trains on flat portions of the C&O system east of Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1930, No. 490 was assigned to pull the C&O's premiere passenger train, The Sportsman between Washington, D.C. and Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as the George Washington between D.C. and Louisville, Kentucky. In 1933, No. 490's original Vanderbilt tender was swapped for a modern VA tender to increase its water capacity by 6,000 gallons.
By the early 1940s, No. 490 was reassigned to secondary passenger service after the C&O had ordered larger 4-8-4 "Greenbrier" locomotives for their mountainous passenger operations. After World War II, most of the C&O's 4-6-2s and 4-8-2s were found to be worn out. Concurrently, C&O president Robert R. Young began designing a new steam-powered passenger train to demonstrate coal as an alternative to diesel power. The train was planned to be called the Chessie, and it was to be mainly hauled by M-1 class steam turbine locomotives between D.C. and Cincinnati. The C&O also decided to rebuild their F-19 locomotives as 4-6-4 "Hudsons" to haul the Chessie feeder trains out of Newport News, Virginia and Louisville.
The railway sent No. 490 to their Huntington, West Virginia shops in 1946. No. 490's original Baker valve gear was replaced with Franklyn type A poppet valve gear, an extra trailing axle was added beneath the new, larger firebox, the locomotive received roller bearings, it received a front-end throttle, it received a high-speed booster, it received a cross counterbalance, it became shrouded with fluted, stainless steel streamlining akin to that on the M-1s, and it was reclassified as an L-1. The other F-19s went through the same rebuilding process, but No. 494 became the only L-1 without streamlining.
By 1948, passenger traffic on the C&O slowly declined, and due to how costly the Chessie was planned to be, it was cancelled before service was planned to begin. While equipment for the train was being auctioned off, No. 490 and the other L-1s subsequently proceeded to pull secondary passenger trains and mail trains alongside the L-2 class 4-6-4s, despite having already been modified for premiere passenger service. Since their new streamlined looks were mostly yellow, the L-1s were nicknamed "Yellowbellies" by crews.
Following a major coal strike in 1949, the C&O's newest president, Walter J. Tuohy, began to dieselize the C&O's operations, with EMD E8s being ordered to cover their passenger trains. 1953 was the final year No. 490 operated under its own power, as it hauled the final scheduled steam-powered passenger train on the C&O in April of that year before it was retired. No. 490 spent the next fifteen years being stored in Huntington, and by the end of the 1950s, No. 490 became the last remaining C&O 4-6-4, as all of the other L-1s and L-2s were scrapped.
In 1968, the C&O donated No. 490 to the B&O Railroad Museum with the hopes of putting it on static display. A cosmetic restoration took place in 1971, and the locomotive was subsequently moved to the museum's property in Baltimore. Since its arrival at the museum, No. 490 would spend several decades being left on static display outdoors alongside other locomotives. The last remaining L-1 would slowly deteriorate as a result of being exposed to the elements, but museum volunteers have given the locomotive one cosmetic repaint in the early 1990s. In 2005, No. 490 was moved inside one of the museum's buildings to be protected from further deterioration. As of 2024, No. 490 remains on static display inside one of the museum's buildings, waiting for another eventual cosmetic refurbishment.