by atsf sp
Are there any surviving NYC Berkshires especially B&A Berkshires. And if there aren't any, when were they scrapped?
Very few New York Central steam locomotives have survived, and I don't think any of them were A1 or A2 Berkshires. There is a website that lists surviving steam locomotives in the U.S. -- sorry, I don't remember exactly what it's called (and would probably start by Googling "steam locomotive" if I wanted to find it again) -- where you can check to make sure, but I'm pretty confident there aren't any left. Berkshires were big power, so not suitable for use by shortlines, the A1 were getting on in years by the end of steam, and the A2 were a small group of not-particularly-well-loved engines, so they would probably not have been sold to another railroad. The New York Central, unlike the Pennsylvania and some other railroads, didn't set aside a representative sample of its steam power for a historic collection, so they would just have gone for scrap.
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The Boston and Albany was (one of) the first part(s) of the New York Central system to be dieselized (sensibly: hilly terrain and furthest from coal sources!), and I think many of its newer steam locomotives served their last years further west: Big Four comes to mind. So probably the Berkshires were scrapped in various places in Ohio, Indiana, and/or Illinois.
