J. Craig Thorpe (American, B. 1948) "Ohio Locomotive" Signed lower right. Original Oil painting on Paper.
Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation.
This painting originally appeared on the Fleetwood Legendary Locomotives of the 50 States Ohio Commemorative Cover postmarked June 12, 1995.
During the predawn hours of June 12, 1905, engineer Jerry McCarthy received a call imploring him to make up time on the Pennsylvania Special's much-publicized inaugural run. McCarthy was assigned to engine No. 7002 and given the formidable task of shaving time off the next leg of the westbound trip. Because the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway (a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad) was locked in a speed war with its rival, the New York Central, a timely run was imperative. Both companies were vying to trim their Chicago-to-New York schedules to 18 hours. While McCarthy was pulling out all the stops with No. 7002, switch-tower operators compared timings and estimated his train's speed along a three-mile stretch between AY Tower and Elida, Ohio. Although they concluded that the engineer had achieved a world-record speed of 127.1 miles per hour, it is now believed that this finding was speculative at best. Nonetheless, McCarthy was traveling at a tremendous clip and did indeed make up a sizable amount of time on the lagging Pennsylvania Special's maiden run. In this painting, No. 7002 is steaming across flat lands in western Ohio. This storied E2-class 4-4-2 engine was built in the Pennsylvania Railroad's Juniata Works in 1902. To avoid confusion with its similarly-named Pennsylvania Limited, the Pennsy in November 1912 renamed the Special to become its flagship Broadway Limited -- a name it has held ever since.
Image Size: 14 x 12 in.
Overall Size: 18 x 15 in.
Unframed.
(B15099)
Condition
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