Chicago & North Western 4-6-2s 1617 & 1620: Minnesota 400 Yellow Jackets

Published: September 19, 2026

The Chicago & North Western dressed exactly two Pacifics to match the Minnesota 400. Class E 4-6-2s 1617 and 1620 left Alco’s Schenectady works in September 1917 as ordinary coal-burning passenger engines, two of some 168 Es built at Schenectady and Brooks from 1909 to 1923. In 1941 the shops put air-smoothed casings on them in the same contours as the Class E-4 Hudsons, then painted the shells yellow and green so trains 418 and 419 would look like the rest of the 400 fleet. Crews called them Yellow Jackets. They were not unique to 1617. They were a pair.

They were not the rebuilt Class E-2 Pacifics of the original Chicago–Twin Cities 400, and they were not the nine olive E-4 Hudsons Alco built new in 1938 for Chicago–Omaha. The Minnesota run was a short Mankato–Wyeville connection. The railroad shrouded two old Es instead of buying a diesel. The shells stayed on after diesels took the name train in 1950. The leading “1” came off in 1951–52. Both were cut up in 1956. Neither was saved.

Chicago and North Western streamlined Class E 4-6-2 1617 posed in yellow and green for the Minnesota 400 late 1940s publicity photograph

Chicago & North Western publicity photograph of Class E 4-6-2 #1617, posed in the late 1940s for the Minnesota 400. The still was issued as an Audio-Visual Designs postcard. American-Rails.com collection.

On this page: At a glance · What they were—and were not · Alco Class E, 1917 · Yellow-and-green shells, 1941 · Minnesota 400 · Still shrouded after the 400 · Specifications · 617, 620, none saved

At a glance

Item	Detail
What they are	The only two Chicago & North Western Pacifics streamlined for the Minnesota 400. Class E 1617 and 1620. Crew nickname: Yellow Jackets
What they are not	Not the rebuilt Class E-2 4-6-2s of the Twin Cities 400. Not the nine olive Class E-4 Hudsons (4001–4009). Not the three Omaha Road E-3s of 1930. Not the train encyclopedia
Builder / class	Alco, Schenectady, September 1917. Class E. Works nos. 57318 (1617) and 57321 (1620)
Shroud	1941. Same air-smoothed casing as the E-4 Hudsons, on a shorter Pacific wheelbase. Yellow and green, not Pullman olive
Train	Minnesota 400, trains 418/419, Mankato, Minn.–Wyeville, Wis. Engine change at Winona. In streamliner dress from January 1942
Off the name train	April 30, 1950, when the Dakota 400 took the corridor with EMD E units. The pair kept the shells on local passenger work
Later numbers	Dropped the leading 1 in 1951–52: 617 and 620. The four-digit numbers went to new Alcos
End	617 scrapped July 6, 1956. 620 in August 1956. Neither preserved

Works numbers follow Locobase 15906 (1616–1627 = Alco 57317–57328). Shroud weight and 200 psi from the 1952 diagram tradition and later roster notes. Information compiled September 18, 2026.

What they were—and were not

The North Western streamlined steam in three different looks, for three different jobs. Four rebuilt Class E-2 Pacifics, unshrouded, launched the original 400 between Chicago and the Twin Cities on January 2, 1935, and gave way to Electro-Motive E3s in 1939. Nine Class E-4 4-6-4s came from Alco in 1938 already dressed, Pullman olive with yellow trim, for Chicago–Omaha. 1617 and 1620 were a third treatment: two 1917 Es, already a quarter-century old, given Hudson-style sheet metal in 1941 so a southern Minnesota connection train would match the yellow-and-green 400 cars.

Model-railroad copy sometimes folds those stories together and dates the Yellow Jackets to 1930, built for the Twin Cities 400 and scrapped in 1953. That is the Omaha Road E-3 build year mixed with the E-4 Hudson ending. These two engines were Schenectady 1917, Minnesota 400 from 1942, and last steam on the North Western in 1956.

Railfans often letter the pair Class ES. The 1952 company diagram book does not use that suffix for the shrouds. E-S, when the mechanical department used it at all, more often meant the stoker-and-appliance rebuild applied to many ordinary Es in the 1940s. On the railroad 1617 and 1620 remained Class E. The name that stuck in the cab was Yellow Jackets.

The 168-engine E class, the E-2 rebuilds, and the E-4 Hudsons belong on the company steam roster. The Mankato–Wyeville schedules, the nurse-stewardess coach, the 1945 Official Guide, and the Dakota and Rochester years belong on the Minnesota 400 page. This page stays with two road numbers.

Schenectady Pacifics, 1917

Class E was the North Western’s standard passenger 4-6-2: Alco Schenectady and Brooks, 1909 through 1923, 1500–1667 on the parent road, plus a similar Omaha Road batch. From 1580 (1913) they used Baker valve gear and 12-inch piston valves. 1610–1627, the 1916–17 lots, put 164,500 pounds on 75-inch drivers and weighed 263,500 pounds ready for service. Cylinders were 25 × 28. Fireboxes carried arch tubes. They were ordinary Midwest Pacifics—fast enough for the Chicago–Elroy and Chicago–Milwaukee runs the class had been designed around, not in the same sentence as a Hudson.

1617 and 1620 sat in the September 1917 Schenectady dozen, road numbers 1616–1627, works 57317–57328. 1617 was 57318. 1620 was 57321. They burned coal. They were not oil-burning E-2s. They were not the three enormous Omaha E-3s of 1930, the heaviest Pacifics built in North America, which never wore streamlining.

Shop records on the pair diverge slightly before the shrouds. 1620 had its boiler reset to 200 psi in August 1938 and a stoker applied in February 1940. 1617’s documented heavy shopping is October 1941, the same visit that put the casing on: stoker, 200 psi, and the Yellow Jacket shell together. By the time both engines were in Minnesota 400 paint they were the same machine—Class E, 200 pounds, mechanical stoker, about eight extra tons of sheet metal.

Chicago and North Western Class E 4-6-2 1620 in Chicago commuter service 1955

Chicago & North Western's other streamlined Class E 4-6-2 #620 (ex-1620), departs Chicago with a commuter train in May, 1955 about a year before the shrouding was scrapped. Robert Spragg photo. American-Rails.com collection.

An E-4 suit on a Pacific wheelbase

January 1942 was the month the North Western turned the 400 name into a fleet. New Pullman-Standard sets went out as the Minnesota, Peninsula, Shoreland/Valley, Capitol, and Chicago–Milwaukee 400s, echoing the 1939 Twin Cities train. Gasoline and tire rationing were already filling the conventional cars those streamliners released. The Minnesota run did not get a diesel. Mankato to Wyeville was about 204 miles. Jim Scribbins, in The 400 Story, is the standard account: the railroad shrouded two Class E Pacifics instead.

The shells followed the Class E-4 Hudson: bullet nose, skyline casing, skirting along the running board, tender tank enclosed to match. On the Hudsons that look was olive. On 1617 and 1620 it was the 400 yellow and green. Steve Llanso, writing from the company diagrams, noted the obvious: on the shorter Pacific wheelbase the same casing looked less powerful than stubby. The engines gained almost eight tons. Tractive effort rose when pressure went to 200 psi, to about 39,600 pounds. Drivers and rods stayed in the open, the way the E-4s did. It was not a bathtub. It was not a Loewy K4. It was a 1917 E wearing a Hudson coat cut for one train.

The publicity department posed 1617 broadside and three-quarter for stills that Audio-Visual Designs later sold as postcards. The late-1940s view at the top of this page is that company photograph—clean running gear, yellow nose, green boiler, the Minnesota 400 assignment lettered on the card even though the engine itself carried only the road number. Sister 1620 was the same engine in the same paint. A Robert Spragg photograph of 620 leaving Chicago in May 1955, still fully shrouded, is on the company page.

Two engines, one connection train

Trains 418 and 419 had started on June 14, 1936, as a conventional connection with the Twin Cities 400 at Wyeville, Wisconsin. First power was old Class D 4-4-2 Atlantics; Scribbins noted the train was often two cars. Rochester and the Mayo Clinic were on the line from the first day. Chicago through service was a short 1937–38 experiment, then gone until 1950. The 1942 streamliner rebuild is when 1617 and 1620 enter the story.

Locomotives were changed at Winona. East of the Mississippi the train was still a 400 only by brand and by the Wyeville meet; west of Winona it was southern Minnesota—Rochester, Owatonna, Waseca, Mankato. The assigned steam was this pair. When one was in the shop an ordinary E could substitute, which is why an unshrouded Pacific on 418/419 in the 1940s is not a contradiction. The Yellow Jackets were the advertised power, not the only power the mechanical department would let onto the train.

The consist, the nurse-stewardess stateroom, the illuminated rear-end sign, and the March 1945 Official Guide plates are on the train page. This leaf does not restage them. What matters here is that the Minnesota 400 was short enough, and diesel-scarce enough in 1941–42, that two rebuilt Es were the entire streamlined steam fleet for that name.

Still Yellow Jackets after 1950

On April 30, 1950, the Minnesota 400 was replaced by the through Chicago–Huron Dakota 400, trains 518/519, diesel from the start. 1617 and 1620 came off the name train. Unlike many American streamliner rebuilds, they did not shed the casings. Locobase is explicit: after they left the Minnesota 400 they went into local passenger service still air-smoothed. Photographs in the mid-1950s show 617 at Crystal Lake and 620 leaving Chicago with the nose, skyline, and skirting intact, yellow and green over ordinary coaches instead of a 400 set.

The four-digit numbers had to move. In 1951–52 the remaining Es dropped the leading 1, a system-wide compression as diesels took 1600-series slots. 1617 became 617. 1620 became 620. Alco delivered RS-3 1617 in July 1952 (serial 80135) and a six-motor 1620 in August (serial 80446). The steam engines kept the shells. The diesels kept the numbers.

Last years were Wisconsin Division locals and whatever Chicago suburban work still wanted steam. North Western steam in regular service ended May 10, 1956, when the last 4-6-2 closed out a commuter assignment. By then 617 was already in the 40th Street deadline. A visitor that April found her there with 620 behind her, the stack casing already off 617, the rest of the Yellow Jacket still on.

Specifications

Figures below are the 1610–1627 Class E diagram (Locobase 15906) for the as-built machine, with the 1941 shrouded state noted where the later diagrams and roster notes differ. Streamlining added weight; treat 263,500 pounds as 1917 and about 279,000 as the Yellow Jacket.

Item	1617 / 1620
Builder	Alco, Schenectady. September 1917
Works nos.	57318 (1617), 57321 (1620)
Whyte / class	4-6-2, Class E. Railfan ES refers to the shrouds, not a separate company subclass
Cylinders	25 × 28 in. Baker gear, 12-in. piston valves
Drivers	75 in.
Boiler pressure	185 psi as built (class). 200 psi after 1938–41 shoppings
Engine weight	263,500 lb as built (1610–1627). About 279,000 lb with shroud
Weight on drivers	164,500 lb as built
Starting TE	About 36,700 lb at 185 psi; about 39,600 lb at 200 psi
Fuel	Coal. Mechanical stoker by 1940–41
Shroud	1941–1956. E-4 Hudson contours, yellow and green
Later numbers	617 (1951–52), 620 (1951–52)

Plain numbers, then scrap

617 was scrapped July 6, 1956. 620 followed in August. They had outlasted most of the E-4 Hudsons. They had kept a 1941 streamliner suit longer than the train they were dressed for. The North Western saved no Pacific. 1617 and 1620 exist as the publicity still on this page, as Spragg’s 1955 Chicago view of 620, as deadline photographs from 40th Street, and as two numbers on the Minnesota 400’s 1942 page.

Sources

Llanso, Steve. Locobase 15906 (Class E, 1580 series), 9383 (E late / E-S note), and 4856 (E superheated). C&NW 1927 and 1952 locomotive diagrams via Allen Stanley. Works 57317–57328 for 1616–1627; 1610–1627 weight 263,500 / 164,500 on drivers; 617 and 620 fitted 1941 with E-4 air-smoothed casing; shrouds retained after the Minnesota 400
Scribbins, Jim. The 400 Story. Park Forest, Ill.: PTJ Books (Interurban Press), 1982; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. January 1942 shrouded Class E Pacifics on the Minnesota 400; yellow and green, E-4-style shells; Winona engine change; Dakota 400 April 30, 1950
Scribbins, Jim. “The 400.” RailNews, March 1997; reprinted TrainLife. Minnesota 400 became a streamliner in January 1942; two class E Pacifics shrouded rather than a new diesel for the short Mankato–Wyeville run
Railroad Picture Archives, C&NW 617 (Alco 4-6-2, serial 57318). Schenectady September 1917; streamlined 1941; renumbered 617 in 1952; scrapped July 6, 1956. Sister 620 captions: 200 psi August 1938, stoker February 1940, shroud December 1941, scrapped August 1956
RailPictures.Net, Juice Junkie. C&NW 617 in the 40th Street deadline, Chicago, April 1956, sister 620 behind her. Last C&NW steam in Chicago that spring
American-Rails.com, Minnesota 400. January 1942 pair of Class E Pacifics; Scribbins on consist and Winona
American-Rails.com, Chicago & North Western. Class E 1500–1667, 168 engines, 1909–1923, retired 1937–1956; last regular steam May 10, 1956; E-4 Hudsons 4001–4009, Alco 1938, olive
Kelly, John. Chicago & North Western, Photo Archive: Passenger Trains of the 400 Fleet. Hudson, Wis.: Iconografix, 2006
Murray, Tom. Chicago & North Western Railway. Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2008
Audio-Visual Designs, Earlton, N.Y. Postcard of C&NW 1617, “Streamlined Pacific type locomotive for the C&NW’s Minnesota 400,” posed late 1940s. Chicago & North Western Railway photograph

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