Remembering the bygone days of a legendary Appalachian steam locomotive

Remembering the bygone days of a legendary Appalachian steam locomotive

Big Emma 1977 hauls empty coal cars from Winchester to Ravenna, Kentucky, in June 1956. The big locomotive was retired that year and scrapped in 1959.(Robert F. Collins / L&N Historical Society Collection)It's been 70 years since the Big Emmas went cold. Also known as M1s, they were the Louisville & Nashville Railroad's last new steam locomotive, built in the 1940s as railroads were converting from coal power to diesel. They pounded the rails of…