One of the great trinity of Roanoke steam, the
Y6B was the penultimate Mallet. The Norfolk and Western built 30 of
these monsters between 1948 and 1952 - a time when most railroads in the
country had already completely dieselized. The Y6B incorporated all of
the lessons learned from previous models, leaving a legacy based not
just on strength but of efficiency. Indeed, Y6B 2197 was one of two
steam locomotives pitted in a test against an ABBA set of F7s from EMD
in 1952. The results were essentially a draw, but with the steam
locomotives running well and paid off, the N&W saw no compelling
reason to make any immediate changes. It would be another three years
before retirements started to come. No. 2190 was the last to drop her
fires in 1960, a fitting farewell to mainline steam on the
N&W.Lionel's latest tribute to this masterpiece of engineering
includes several new features. Nos. 2174 and 2194 feature new tooling
for the original narrow smokebox door. 2188 and 2197 feature the later
retrofit smokebox. All locomotives are upgraded with kinematic
drawbars, control switches relocated to the top of the locomotive and
safety valve steam in addition to whistle and stack steam! And of
course they are available for the first time with 4-digit addressing and
Bluetooth capabilities. Notable among the N&W models, 2188 was the
second-to-last Y6B to see operation and 2197 of course battled the
dreaded diesels in 1952. Coming so late, the Y6B never made it to other
railroads like the earlier Y3 had. But what if? We've answered that
question with some fantasy paint schemes for the Pennsylvania, Santa Fe,
Great Northern and Union Pacific.