Step inside the place where Covington met the wider world. The restored C&O passenger depot and its neighboring freight depot preserve the railroad story that reshaped the community after the rails arrived in 1867.

Built in Richmond in May 1911 by the American Locomotive Company, the engine began service for the Hocking Valley Railway in Ohio. It became Chesapeake and Ohio No. 701 after the C&O acquired the Hocking Valley system in 1930.

No. 701 is a Class G-5 Consolidation locomotive with a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement. During its best-known years in the Highlands, it pulled passenger cars between Clifton Forge, Covington and The Homestead in Hot Springs. The locomotive handled that branch so dependably that it earned the affectionate nickname “The Merry Widow.”

The engine made its final run on December 13, 1952. Saved from the scrap line, it was donated to the City of Covington and placed on display in 1954. Its massive wheels, boiler and mechanical details give visitors an immediate sense of the technology that once moved people and freight through the mountains.