Locomotive No. 6755 National Register of Historic Places Listing

It is a beast. Locomotive No. 6755 sits at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, looking like a quiet mountain of cold iron, but it used to rule the rails. Built in 1926 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, this Pennsylvania Railroad class M1 monster was the ultimate mid-century workhorse. It weighs a staggering 385,000 pounds. Actually, the railroad upgraded it to an M1b in 1946 at their Altoona shops. They added circulators to the firebox and jacked the boiler pressure up to 250 pounds per square inch to haul heavier freight. Then came World War II. This engine, and others like it, dragged endless miles of coal, steel, and troops over the grueling grades of the Allegheny Mountains. It was dirty, backbreaking work.

This is the only one left. Out of 301 M1-class locomotives that the Pennsylvania Railroad once owned, scrap yards ate every single one except for No. 6755. Think about that. In the late 1950s, railroad officials saved this specific engine from the cutting torch because they recognized its historical value. Now, it sits indoors. Visitors can walk right up to those massive 72-inch driving wheels and touch the cold metal of a bygone era. No other M1 exists on the planet.