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APPN Berkshire US Early

For many years, steam was king on the Appalachia Northern. Robust, mid-size engines like the 2-8-4 "Berkshire" and 2-10-4 "Selkirk" hauled the bulk of the APPN's freight and passengers through the smoky mountains and stony tunnels that characterized the road. However, even the legendary "Kirks and Berks" would soon find themselves obsolete. Unwilling to invest completely in the still-new diesel power, the APPN employed the Advanced Machinery Company of Magnum, Pennsylvania (MAMCO) to design equipment that could be retrofitted to existing steam locomotives in order to help them catch up with diesels. Such equipment included tender-axle dynamic braking, automatic fire tending, and the revolutionary Steam Master multiple unit control system, which allowed steam locomotives of the same class to operate in multiple with one another, just like a diesel could. Many of APPN's locomotives would be fitted with this system by MAMCO and by the Montreal-based Laboratorie de Technologie Industrielle du Canada (LTIduC) under license.

The Berkshires were given the designation "RFPS-284", denoting a Road Freight/Passenger Steam locomotive with a 2-8-4 wheel arrangement. This particular locomotive sports the "green arrow" paint scheme used from the railroad's inception in 1921 to the mid 1950s, when it was replaced by the "orange arrow" livery which lasted into the 1960s. The locomotive is one of many equipped with the pneumatically-operated Steam Master (mk. 1) multiple unit system, allowing two locomotives of the same class to operate together with only one crew.