The interchange thread on the Roanoke belt line donation viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38966 got me looking through "The Virginian Railway" H. Reid (c) 1961. Fascinating Railway to say the least.
The thread on the C&O Berk in Ohio viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38903 posed the question which one would be "simplest" to get operational - 2716, IMO. But no place to run it. Letter it Virginian #505 and it becomes a heritage banner loco for the NS.
From time to time folks ask what is the status, and even what happened to K&T 2-8-2 No. 10. (It's safe at TVRM) This ol' gal would make a close facsimile of a Virginian MB 2-8-2 all-be-it a bit smaller.
And of course there are 2 C&O 2-6-6-6's that become Virginian's if numbered 900 to 907.

My choice for attempting to recreate a VGN MB 2-8-2 would be a Chinese SY. This is one machine that really looks like an MB, though smaller; main changes would be to move the headlight up and add a second sand dome, along with rebuilding the cab, the last step being something done on the Valley Railroad not too long ago.

To really do it right would also involve rebuilding the tender to the rounded top type the VGN used, which was also similar to some older N&W tenders and to the (much larger) style as used on L&N M-1 2-8-4s.

Now, a bit of a joke--the SY has what amounts to BoxPok drivers rather than the classic spoked drivers of the MB. But, prior to the delivery of the BA class 2-8-4's, the VGN modified 5 of its portlier MC 2-8-2s with Baldwin disc drivers and lightweight parts to create class MCA. We could thus consider these MB facsimilies to be class MBA, and claim to have the smartest 2-8-2s around!

Bad joke? Not as bad as telling a diesel enthusiast about the almost all F-M (and one GE 44-tonner) VGN's orange and black Alco PAs. Yes, the VGN had Alco PAs, painted black and orange--that happened to burn coal and had a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement, came from the Richmond works, too.

(Takes off for the bomb shelter under the Greenbiar. . .)

Having said that, can you also imagine facsimile MBs, N&W 4-8-0s or the 4-6-2 in Ohio, or even the Y-3a 2-8-8-2 in Illiniois (and VGN had seven, classed USE, purchased third hand from the Santa Fe) steaming along on the former VGN trackage that was recently made inactive in West Virginia, between Deepwater and Princeton?

And I wonder if NS, like predecessor NYC (former Kanawha & Michigan), would allow trackage rights from Deepwater to Charleston?

For comparison:
Virginian MB http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=1351
K&T 10 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=275282
Chinese SY http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/fileSendAc ... ebuild.jpg