Tags: Locomotive.
The Illinois Central Railroad’s No. 1 was the railroad’s only 4-6-4 Hudson type locomotive and the only 4-6-4 in North America built for freight service. It was rebuilt in the railroad’s own shops from Illinois Central 7000 class 2-8-4 Berkshire No. 7038 in 1937 as an experiment to haul fast freight trains which were growing too large for 4-6-2 Pacific types and required more speed than the road’s 2-8-2 locomotives could manage.The experiment was not successful.