CB&Q 4-6-4 3001: History, Specs & Ottumwa Display

Last revised: September 5, 2026

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 3001 is a Baldwin class S-4 4-6-4 Hudson, construction number 61446, outshopped in August 1930. It is the second engine of the twelve Baldwin Hudsons the Q bought that year (3000–3011) and one of five that still exist. It was never shrouded, never renumbered into the 4000s, and never rebuilt as an S-4A. For a generation it pulled Burlington varnish. On August 31, 1958, it headed a fan trip at Barstow, Illinois—the photograph on this page. In August 1959 the railroad gave it to Ottumwa, Iowa, on the hundredth anniversary of the first train into town on the Burlington & Missouri. It still sits in Ballingall Park beside the Amtrak depot.

This page is that locomotive. The Hudson type encyclopedia is 4-6-4. The company is Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. New York Central Mohawk 3001 is a different engine, on a different railroad, with its own restoration page. Do not mix them.

Chicago Burlington and Quincy 4-6-4 3001 on a fan trip at Barstow, Illinois on August 31, 1958.

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 4-6-4 3001 on a fan trip at Barstow, Illinois, August 31, 1958. Photographer unknown. Rick Burn collection.

On this page: At a glance · Class S-4 · 3001 in service · Barstow, 1958 · Ottumwa · Specifications · S-4 roster · Survivors

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (reporting mark CBQ)
Road number	3001. Never renumbered
Class	S-4 (4-6-4 Hudson). Not rebuilt to S-4A
Builder	Baldwin Locomotive Works, Eddystone, Pa. Construction no. 61446
Built	August 1930 (works numbers 61445–61446 that month are 3000 and 3001)
Whyte / gauge	4-6-4, 4 ft 8½ in
Role	Fast passenger: Ak-Sar-Ben, Aristocrat, Black Hawk, and other Burlington varnish, plus late fan trips
Last photographed in steam (this page)	Fan trip, Barstow, Ill., August 31, 1958
Donation	City of Ottumwa, Iowa, August 1959, centennial of the first B&M train into town
Location (2026)	Ballingall Park, adjacent to the Ottumwa Amtrak station (OTM), still an active California Zephyr stop on BNSF
Not this engine	New York Central L-3a 4-8-2 Mohawk 3001 (restoration page)

Builder date and construction number from Baldwin works records as tabulated by Steve Llanso (Locobase 181) and Corbin & Kerka. Information compiled September 5, 2026.

Burlington class S-4

The Hudson is a New York Central idea: a 4-6-2 Pacific with a four-wheel trailing truck under a larger firebox, named for the river on the Water Level Route. Alco delivered NYC 5200 in February 1927. The Q waited until 1930, then went to Baldwin for twelve engines numbered 3000–3011. Burlington classed its Pacifics S-1, S-2, and S-3, so the Hudsons became S-4—the next 4-6-x passenger slot, not a copy of anyone else’s letter. West Burlington Shops added a thirteenth S-4, 3012, in 1935 on a Baldwin boiler, and a streamlined S-4A, 4001, in 1938.

Bernard G. Corbin and William F. Kerka, in Steam Locomotives of the Burlington Route (1960), called the 4-6-4s among the most successful locomotives the Q ever ran. They had speed and endurance. One of the class is credited with ten standard passenger cars between Cochrane and La Crosse, Wisconsin, at 112 mph. That is a class figure, not a timed run pinned to 3001. What the S-4s did for the timetable was more important than any one sprint: they took Chicago–Lincoln, Chicago–Denver, and Chicago–Twin Cities trains through without swapping engines en route. The Ak-Sar-Ben (Nebraska spelled backward), the Aristocrat, and the overnight Black Hawk are the trains Corbin and Kerka name.

The S-4 was a late Super Power passenger engine in all but the Lima badge: 78-inch drivers, 250 psi, 25-by-28-inch cylinders, Baker long-frame valve gear, 14-inch piston valves, Elesco feedwater heater (all of the Baldwin twelve; 4001 later got a Worthington), Type B stoker, Barco Type 4 power reverse, Franklin trailing-truck booster, and a cast engine bed integral with the cylinders. Firebox heating surface included 43 square feet of arch tubes and a 70-square-foot combustion chamber. The grate was 87.9 square feet. Superheater 1,830 square feet; combined heating surface 6,077.

Two of the class became the stainless Aeolus pair for Zephyr-era publicity: 3002 was rebuilt at West Burlington in 1937 as S-4A 4000, shrouded to match the Budd trains, nicknamed “Big Alice the Goon.” 4001 was built new to that pattern in 1938. Three more S-4s—3008, 3009, and 3011—received running-gear upgrades in 1938 (Boxpok mains, lightweight roller-bearing rods) without shrouds and were renumbered 4003–4005. 3001 was not in that program. It stayed an S-4 in Q freight-and-passenger black, Elesco on the smokebox, 78-inch plain drivers.

3001 in service

3001 entered service in 1930 on the same pool as its eleven Baldwin sisters. Ottumwa sat on the Chicago–Denver main. First-class trains through that depot—the Aristocrat among them—were S-4 territory. The park plaque in Ballingall Park, presented with the engine, says 3001 pulled first-class passenger trains through Ottumwa and could exceed 100 mph. Treat the plaque as civic memory, not a dynamometer card. The class was built for that work: 47,676 pounds tractive effort from the cylinders, another 11,700 from the Franklin booster when starting, 207,730 pounds on the drivers, engine weight 391,880.

Diesels took the varnish in the 1950s. The Q still liked its Hudsons well enough that five of the thirteen Baldwin-and-shop S-4/S-4A engines were donated instead of scrapped. 3001 was among the last in steam, which is why a fan trip could still put it on the point in August 1958 with stainless cars behind the tank and corn on both sides of the right-of-way.

Barstow, August 31, 1958

Barstow, Illinois, is in Rock Island County, on the Burlington. On August 31, 1958, 3001 headed a passenger extra there. The Kodachrome on this page—photographer unknown, Rick Burn collection—shows the engine stopped beside standing corn, headlight on, a wisp of steam, two men in the gangway, a railroader on the ground, and a line of fans along the stainless cars. It is a fan trip, not a revenue Black Hawk. A matching view from that date and location is also in the Chuck Zeiler collection; Zeiler did not take this frame. 3001 still wears service black and the number plate on the smokebox door. A year later it was a park engine.

Donation and display

The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy presented 3001 to the City of Ottumwa in August 1959, on the 100th anniversary of the first train into Ottumwa over the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, later part of the Q. The locomotive was placed in Ballingall Park, next to the passenger station. The current limestone depot is the 1950 CB&Q building that replaced an 1889 station. Amtrak still stops there twice a day with the California Zephyr. A 2026 ADA platform project rebuilt the 1,000-foot concrete platform and canopy; the Hudson remains in the park beside the depot, not on the new platform.

The on-site marker repeats the gift, the Whyte 4-6-4, and the Hudson name from the New York Central. Some of its round numbers (overall length, a 235-ton figure, 27 tons of coal, “3,000 horsepower”) do not match the Baldwin/Locobase diagram used below. Use the specification table for weights, coal, and tractive effort. Use the marker for the donation story, which it has right.

Specifications (class S-4 as built; 3001)

Figures below are the Baldwin S-4 diagram set as published from Corbin & Kerka (1960), Railway Age (March 7, 1931), DeGolyer Volume 81, and the 1953 CB&Q diagram (Locobase 181). 3001 was not rebuilt to S-4A, so the as-built S-4 card is the right card.

Item	Specification
Whyte / class	4-6-4, CB&Q S-4
Builder / c/n / date	Baldwin, 61446, August 1930
Gauge	4 ft 8½ in
Drivers	78 in, three coupled axles
Cylinders (2)	25 in dia. × 28 in stroke
Piston valves	14 in diameter
Valve gear	Baker, long frame
Boiler pressure	250 psi
Tractive effort (cylinders)	47,676 lb
Booster (Franklin trailing truck)	11,700 lb additional at starting
Factor of adhesion	4.36
Engine weight	391,880 lb
Weight on drivers	207,730 lb
Maximum axle load	69,780 lb
Tender weight (loaded)	326,050 lb
Engine + tender (loaded)	717,930 lb
Tender coal / water	24 tons / 15,000 gallons
Driver wheelbase	13.67 ft
Engine wheelbase	39.92 ft
Engine + tender wheelbase	82.23 ft
Grate area	87.9 sq ft
Firebox	131⅞ in long × 96 in wide; 70 sq ft combustion chamber; 43 sq ft arch tubes
Firebox heating surface	369 sq ft
Tubes / flues	62 tubes, 2¼ in; 184 flues, 3½ in; length 19 ft
Evaporative heating surface	4,247 sq ft
Superheater	1,830 sq ft
Combined heating surface	6,077 sq ft
Minimum rail (calculated)	115 lb/yd
Feedwater heater	Elesco (Baldwin S-4s)
Stoker	Type B
Reverse	Barco Type 4 power reverse
Engine bed	Cast integral with the cylinders

Tender coal is 24 tons on the diagram, not the 27 tons on the Ottumwa plaque. Combined heating surface is evaporative plus superheater. Do not add a single “horsepower” figure; the plaque’s 3,000 hp is not a Baldwin rating on this card.

Baldwin S-4 roster (3000–3011)

Works numbers from Locobase 181 (DeGolyer): 61445–61446 August 1930, 61500–61501 September, 61525–61528 October, 61555–61558 November. Shop-built 3012 and S-4A 4001 are listed for context; they are not Baldwin 1930 engines.

No.	Baldwin c/n	Built	Notes / disposition
3000	61445	Aug. 1930	Scrapped (sold for scrap Apr. 1955 in photo-archive notes)
3001	61446	Aug. 1930	Donated Ottumwa, Aug. 1959. Display, Ballingall Park
3002	61500	Sept. 1930	Rebuilt 1937 as S-4A 4000 Aeolus (shrouded). Display, Copeland Park, La Crosse, Wis.
3003	61501	Sept. 1930	Display, Burlington, Iowa
3004	61525	Oct. 1930	Scrapped (Apr. 1955 in photo-archive notes)
3005	61526	Oct. 1930	Scrapped (Apr. 1955 in photo-archive notes)
3006	61527	Oct. 1930	Display, Galesburg Railroad Museum, Galesburg, Ill.
3007	61528	Oct. 1930	Display, Illinois Railway Museum, Union, Ill.
3008	61555	Nov. 1930	Rebuilt 1938, running gear only; Locobase groups 3008/3009/3011 as 4003–4005. Scrapped
3009	61556	Nov. 1930	Rebuilt 1938, running gear only (same 4003–4005 group; some photo archives show 4002 as ex-3009). Scrapped
3010	61557	Nov. 1930	Scrapped (Dec. 1960 in photo-archive notes)
3011	61558	Nov. 1930	Rebuilt 1938, running gear only (same 4003–4005 group). Scrapped
3012	West Burlington (Baldwin boiler)	1935	S-4, shop-built. Scrapped (Apr. 1955 in photo-archive notes)
4001	West Burlington	1938	S-4A, new, second Aeolus. Scrapped

Exact scrap months for some sisters come from photo-archive captions, not a single official retirement circular on this desk. Survivor locations are current as of 2026. 4002 appears in some photo archives as ex-3009; Locobase assigns the unshrouded 1938 rebuilds as 4003–4005. 3001 was not rebuilt and never carried a 4000-series number.

The five that remain

Five CB&Q Hudsons survive. Four are as-built S-4s; one is the shrouded S-4A that began as 3002:

3001 — Ballingall Park, Ottumwa, Iowa (this page)
3003 — South Main Street, Burlington, Iowa
3006 — Galesburg Railroad Museum, Galesburg, Illinois
3007 — Illinois Railway Museum, Union, Illinois
4000 (ex-3002 Aeolus) — Copeland Park, La Crosse, Wisconsin

None is operational. Wes Barris’s steamlocomotive.com survivor search and the live 4-6-4 table are the running inventories; 3007 at Union is easy to miss on short lists. The type page still lists four U.S. CB&Q examples in places; this leaf counts five.

4-6-4 Hudson type — U.S. examples and survivors
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
Steam locomotives · Baldwin Locomotive Works
New York Central Hudsons — the wheel arrangement’s namesake fleet
Pioneer Zephyr · Streamliners
NYC Mohawk 3001 — different locomotive, same number

Sources

Corbin, Bernard G., and William F. Kerka. Steam Locomotives of the Burlington Route. 1960. S-4 success, 112 mph Cochrane–La Crosse class run, trains named, equipment (Elesco, Barco, Franklin booster, Type B stoker).
“4-6-4 and 4-8-4 Type Power for the CB&Q.” Railway Age 90, no. 10 (March 7, 1931): 499–500.
DeGolyer, Volume 81, pp. 329ff. Baldwin works numbers 61445–61446 (August 1930), 61500–61501 (September), 61525–61528 (October), 61555–61558 (November).
Llanso, Steve. Steamlocomotive.com Locobase 181, class S-4. Diagram weights, wheelbases, heating surfaces, 250 psi, 25×28 cylinders, 47,676 lb TE, 11,700 lb booster, 1953 CB&Q diagram via Allen Stanley / Rail Data Exchange.
City of Ottumwa / historical marker, Ballingall Park: donation August 1959, B&M centennial, display next to the depot. Plaque weights and horsepower are not used as diagram figures.
Amtrak / Great American Stations, Ottumwa (OTM): 1950 CB&Q depot; May 2026 ADA platform work. Engine remains in the park.
American-Rails.com: 4-6-4 survivors table (3001, Baldwin 61446, Ottumwa); CB&Q steam roster (S-4 3000–3011 Baldwin 1930; 3012 shop 1935; S-4A 4000/4001).

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