This is not Thomas the Tank Engine but an older, very distant cousin. No. 9501 of New York Central subsidiary Kanawha & Michigan was a 2-8-2T type belonging to class H-Xa, as seen here in an October 18, 1935 by John F. Boose of La Grange, Illinois,. This engine was built by ALCo's Brooks Works in 1902 with builder's number 26254 and originally carried road number 556. In the 1936 NYC renumbering it became No. 7180, but was scrapped the following year. With low 49-inch drivers, it had 19x26 cylinders with slide valves, and sustained 200 pounds of boiler pressure. These H-Xa engines weighed 216,000 pounds and produced 32,560 pounds of tractive force. The K&M used tank engines, which could run in either direction, on its coal mine branches which had no turning facilities. In the photo No. 9501 has no pilot on the boiler end, but there appears to be a "cowcatcher" pilot on the bunker end suggesting that normal practice was to run bunker-first. However, the engine appears to be stored out of service (note the cover over the stack), so perhaps its front pilot had been "borrowed" for another locomotive. The New York Central acquired the K&M, a West Virginia coal road, through its 1922 lease of the Toledo & Ohio Central.