Seaboard Air Line Locomotives 2500-2504 (demolished) - Portsmouth VA In 1934, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved a loan of $3.5 million from the Public Works Administration (PWA) to the Seaboard Air Line, a railroad company headquartered in Portsmouth, Virginia. Among the purchases made with this PWA funding were five very large freight locomotives (requiring hefty 2-6-6-4 wheel configurations), to be built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania.
The engines, numbered 2500 through 2504 were completed in 1935, with the first engine put on display on Sunday, April 28 at Union Station in Raleigh, North Carolina. Raleigh’s newspaper, The News and Observer, enthusiastically described the new arrivals: “Both awesome...