#1 Otto
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In the beginning there was Otto:
The B&W's first locomotive (#1, of course) is "Otto", a steam locomotive of the 0-4-0 wheel arrangement built by Henschel of Kassel, Germany in 1939. Otto weighs about 10 tons dry or 12 tons with coal and water added, and takes about three hours to build up enough steam to go to work, so the engine is only run several days each year. The B&W got started in 1966 when the Bauer brothers of St. Marys, PA, purchased a German-built steam locomotive through an advertisement in Trains magazine, and shipped the engine from Germany through Philadelphia to St. Marys. During the overseas journey the crew on the American Merchant decided that the locomotive deserved a proper Bavarian name and chalked "Otto" on the cab, the name stuck! |