While smaller than Union Pacific's famous and more numerous "Challenger" class of 4-6-6-4 locomotives, Norfolk and Western's design racked up unmatched records of performance in service.

1218's excursion career, it was the most powerful operational steam locomotive in the world,[3] with a tractive effort of 114,000 pounds-force (507.10 kN), well above Union Pacific 3985, the next-strongest-pulling operational steam locomotive, with a tractive effort of 97,350 lbf [433.0 kN]).

1210–1224) built in June 1943 at the East End Shops in Roanoke, Virginia by the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W).

1218 was retired from revenue service, and it was purchased by the Union Carbide Company of Charleston, West Virginia, where it was used alongside fellow A class locomotives Nos.

1218 was rescued by New England millionaire F. Nelson Blount, who added it to his private collection of steam locomotives at Steamtown, U.S.A. in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

1202 and 1230, including the air pump, the crosshead guide yokes, the front side rods, and the gauges, were cannibalized for the No.

[8] In 1967, Blount died in an airplane crash, resulting in the Steamtown foundation running into some financial trouble.

611, which was restored to operating condition for excursion service on the NS steam program, which started in 1966 by the SOU.

[6] After some subsequent disputes took place, NS and the Steamtown foundation settled on a trade where the former acquired No.

1218 and was then towed out of the museum and taken to the former Southern Railway’s Norris Yard Steam Shop in Irondale, Alabama, where it would be restored to operating condition at a cost of roughly $500,000.

1218 moved under its power for the first time in 28 years; it performed a break-in run between Irondale and Wilton, Alabama.

1218 pulled its first public excursion for the NS steam program between Roanoke and Bluefield, West Virginia, but some heavy rain and flooding that day caused some mudslides and fallen trees to delay the trip's completion.

611, who pulled a passenger excursion train from Roanoke to Radford, Virginia, in which the former was double-headed with the latter for the return trip later on.

611 to triple head a 28-car passenger excursion train from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Atlanta, Georgia.

1218 returned to Irondale, Alabama for an extensive overhaul, where its flues need to be replaced and the portions of the firebox need to be repaired.

1218 locomotive running again for the beginning of the 1996 excursion season,[22] but NS chairman David R. Goode cancelled the steam program in 1994 due to serious safety concerns, rising insurance costs, the expense of maintaining steam locomotives, a yard switching accident involving nine passenger cars in Lynchburg, Virginia, and decreasing rail network availability.

1218 locomotive was partially reassembled and towed back to Roanoke to be stored at the East End Shops.

[23][27] In 2000, the locomotive was moved out of the East End Shops and put on the turntable for a nighttime photoshoot, hosted by photographer O. Winston Link.

1218 to be exhibited near the former N&W passenger station in downtown Roanoke, which was planned to be converted into a museum that displayed Link's N&W photographs.

[29][30] Link died on January 30, 2001, but plans for the museum were still carried on, and in June, Norfolk Southern agreed to donate No.