Chesapeake & Ohio J3a Class 4-8-4 614 was moved from its long-time home in Virginia to the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pa., on the weekend of June 7 and 8, the first step toward an eventual operational restoration. 

In November 2024, RJD America LLC announced it had acquired the engine from Iron Horse Enterprises, Inc. and preservationist Ross Rowland. The organization has not disclosed who is funding the project, but they believe the locomotive will be operational within 24 months. 

On June 7, C&O 614 departed Clifton Forge, Va., heading north via the Buckingham Branch Railroad and Norfolk Southern. On June 8, the locomotive was interchanged with the Strasburg, which sent former Great Western 2-10-0 90 to Leaman Place to pick up the 4-8-4 for the final few miles to the shop where it will be restored. 

Locomotive 614 was one of a dozen 4-8-4s owned by the C&O. While many railroads called their 4-8-4s “Northerns,” the C&O called theirs “Greenbriers,” after the West Virginia resort on its main line. Locomotive 614 was built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1948 as the last commercially-built 4-8-4 in the U.S. It was initially retired in 1952, but was briefly put back in service three years later before being put in storage. In 1975, it was sent to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. In 1979, Rowland traded Reading Company 2101, which had been damaged in a roundhouse fire, to the museum for 614. In 1980, it was used on the Chessie Safety Express. In 1985, the locomotive became “614-T” to haul coal trains in West Virginia as part of a test by American Coal Enterprise to see if a modern steam locomotive could be developed (it wasn’t). The locomotive made its last major appearance in the late 1990s, leading a series of excursions on New Jersey Transit. —Justin Franz