Central of Georgia "Big Apple"

The Central of Georgia Railway (CofG), like most other railroads, were in need of motive power during World War II.

Part of the wartime traffic consisted of "mains" as troop trains headed to and from the numerous military bases located on the line, namely Fort Benning, near Columbus, Georgia.

Because of the War Production Board's restriction on designing new engines, they were patterned after the Southern Pacific GS-2 type 4-8-4s.

It was noted in the 1944 Railway Mechanical Engineers that fuel performance for the CofG K class 4-8-4s was well under 100 lb of coal per 1,000 gross ton miles and averaged 11.4 lb per passenger-train car mile in service The "Big Apples" operated in passenger and freight service from Albany, Georgia to both Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia.

Engine #451 remained in storage in Macon, Georgia until 1959 when it was scrapped after the railroad failed to find a city or an institution to accept it as a display piece.