In order to be able to cope with the increase in fast freight trains caused by the war, the C&O had locomotives built with the wheel arrangement 2-8-4. While this wheel arrangement is commonly known as “Berkshire” in North America, the C&O named it “Kanawha” after a river in West Virginia. The engineers called them "Big Mikes". They shared many similarities with the Pere Marquette N class, but were slightly heavier overall and had a tender with a larger amount of coal. By 1947, a total of 90 had been built by ALCO and Lima. They all had a booster in the trailing truck. They were used not only for fast freight trains, but also for passenger trains. The first of these locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives as early as 1952, and by 1957 the last one had disappeared from active service. Twelve of these still exist today and number 2716 is being restored to working condition since 2019.