Norfolk & Western No. 1218 is the only surviving Class A locomotive and the only surviving steam locomotive with the 2-6-6-4 wheel arrangement.
The locomotive was completed at Norfolk & Western’s East End Shops in Roanoke and delivered for service on June 2, 1943.
Class A locomotives were articulated high-speed freight engines designed to move heavy trains without sacrificing road speed.
No. 1218 worked coal and merchandise trains and also moved military traffic during World War II.
Virginia historic-register documentation records that Class A locomotives could handle very heavy trains at comparatively high average speeds, reflecting N&W’s unusually advanced late-steam operating philosophy.
No. 1218 remained in regular operation until 1959 as dieselization ended Norfolk & Western steam service.
It escaped scrapping after industrial use plans changed and was eventually preserved through the Steamtown Foundation and later returned to Roanoke display.
Norfolk Southern removed the locomotive for operational restoration in the mid-1980s, and 1218 hauled excursion trains between 1987 and 1991.
A later planned overhaul was not completed, and the locomotive returned to static preservation at the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
In 2025 No. 1218 was listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places. For TransitSatellite, this current preservation status should be distinguished from its earlier excursion-operating condition.