1944: Steam’s last great year

By | September 19, 2015

In our Fall 2019 issue, we devoted 36 pages to the 350-plus steam locomotives built for service in the U.S. and Canada in 1944. Some of the greatest stars of the steam era — including Santa Fe's 5011-class 2-10-4s, B&O's EM-1 2-8-8-4s, Nickel Plate's Berkshires, and Union Pacific's Big Boys — were built in that wartime year. Steam construction fell off sharply the following year, and never again approached the levels of 1944.