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APPN Berkshire CA Late

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. The locomotive is equipped with the electro-pneumatic "Steam Master" Mk. 2 multiple unit system, which expanded upon the previous version by allowing it to interface with steam locomotives of different classes, and even diesels, which greatly extended the locomotive's service life well into the 1960s. The upgrade also inlcuded a paint scheme update to the then-current "orange arrow" livery, which allowed for better visibility than the previous "green arrow" scheme.