Chicago & Eastern Illinois Steam Roster (Post 1900)

Published: October 19, 2026

The Chicago & Eastern Illinois bought its modern steam locomotives for a coal and bridge railroad, and then kept them a long time. Between 1903 and 1913 it acquired 252 engines. The table below is George H. Drury’s list of locomotives built or rebuilt since 1900, 372 frames. A rebuild is the same frame. Consolidations are 146. Mikados are 60. Pacifics are 24. The last engine to run was Mikado 1944, at Vincennes, on May 5, 1950.

On this page: At a glance · Consolidations · Mikados · Passenger engines · Switchers · Roster

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Chicago & Eastern Illinois. Mark CEI. Company history
This table	Steam locomotives built or rebuilt since 1900, in Drury’s class order. A rebuild is the same frame
Consolidations	146. The 120 of 1903–1906 are H-2, H-3, H-5, and H-6. The 26 H-4s are the compounds
Mikados	60. N-4 25, built as N-1. N-2 15, the USRA light engines. N-3 20
Santa Fe type	14. Seven O-1s, sold to the Chesapeake & Ohio in 1945. Two USRA O-2s, transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Five ex-Evansville & Terre Haute
Passenger	26 Atlantics. 29 Ten-Wheelers. 24 Pacifics, eight K-1, ten K-2, and six K-3
Switchers	63 six-wheel switchers. 10 eight-wheel switchers. The eight-wheel engines are rebuilds of older 2-8-0s
Total	372
Last steam	Mikado 1944 at Vincennes, May 5, 1950. No Chicago & Eastern Illinois steam locomotive survives

Consolidations

The largest group bought under Frisco control was the 120 Consolidations of 1903–1906, classes H-2, H-3, H-5, and H-6, numbers 820–839 and 863–962. Drivers ran from 54 to 58 inches. Weight was about 175,000 pounds. They were larger than the Frisco’s own 2-8-0s. Drury’s reason is the traffic: Chicago & Eastern Illinois freight density, in tons per mile, was about four times the Frisco’s, and the average train was more than twice as heavy. Only 16 of the 2-8-0s ever received superheaters, which tells how little main-line work they still had once the Mikados arrived. The Frisco-era Consolidations lasted, on mine runs, transfer jobs, and switching.

Class H-4 is outside that 120. Schenectady built 26 compounds in 1901 and 1902, numbers 840–862 and 963–965, and the railroad simpled them in 1907 and 1908. The Consolidation total in the table is 146.

Mikados

The important freight engines were the 25 Brooks Mikados of 1912, numbers 1900–1924. They were built as class N-1. Drury’s table lists them as N-4, ex-N-1. They had 63-inch drivers, 28 by 30 cylinders, and weighed 308,000 pounds. Later years added stokers and power reverse gears. They were fast enough for the bridge trains, and they were the way the mechanical department did business: performance first.

In 1918 Baldwin delivered seven heavy 2-10-2s, class O-1, numbers 2000–2006, with 63-inch drivers and 30 by 32 cylinders. The railroad sold them to the Chesapeake & Ohio in 1945. The United States Railroad Administration assigned two light 2-10-2s, numbers 4000 and 4001, class O-2. They were lighter than the O-1s and still too heavy for the service the railroad had in mind. It refused them, and they were transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Five more 2-10-2s, 2007–2011, came from the Evansville & Terre Haute, Brooks engines of 1919. The 2-10-2s the railroad kept were Chicago transfer engines and southern Illinois coal engines. The Santa Fe types in this table are 14.

The railroad did take the Administration’s other freight engine. Fifteen USRA light Mikados, class N-2, numbers 1925–1939, came from Schenectady in 1918. After the war Alco built 20 more of the N-1 design. Brooks built 1940–1949 in 1922, and Schenectady built 1950–1959 in 1923. The table classes all 20 as N-3 and notes them as rebuilt from N-1sa. The Mikados are 60.

Pacifics and Mikados carried mechanical stokers and power reverse gears, and they did not carry feedwater heaters. By 1945 the fleet was worn out. A preliminary 4-8-4 design was dropped after three E7s arrived in 1946. F3s began arriving from La Grange in 1948. On May 5, 1950, Mikado 1944 was the last steam locomotive to operate, at Vincennes. The Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Historical Society dates the completed dieselization to May 1950.

Passenger engines

The first five years of the century brought a mixed lot of Ten-Wheelers, some simple and some cross-compound, with drivers from 63 to 78 inches. They were soon either too light or too slow for the passenger trains. The last Ten-Wheeler left in 1936. The table holds 29.

The Atlantics, except numbers 200 and 201, were a New York Central design, with inside piston valves and 79-inch drivers, built from 1903 to 1907. The two exceptions were Evansville & Terre Haute engines with 73-inch drivers, and they were considerably lighter. Most of the Atlantics were too light for steel passenger trains and were retired in the 1930s. Two lasted until 1947. The Atlantics in the table are 26. No Chicago & Eastern Illinois steam locomotive survives, but a set of drivers from one Atlantic is on operating display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

Pacifics 1000–1007, class K-1, came from Baldwin in 1910. They were relatively light, with 73-inch drivers. Numbers 1005–1007 had been Evansville & Terre Haute 535–537. Eight K-2s, 1008–1015, came from Baldwin in 1911 and 1912, and Schenectady added 1016 and 1017 in 1913. They kept the 73-inch drivers and used larger cylinders, 26½ by 28. They were about 15 to 20 tons heavier than the K-1s, a little heavier than a United States Railroad Administration light Pacific. In 1940 the railroad streamlined K-2 1008 for the Chicago–Miami Dixie Flagler.

The best-known engines were the six Lima K-3s, 1018–1023, built in 1923 on the lines of a United States Railroad Administration heavy Pacific, with cast trailing trucks and large tenders. Over the years the Pacifics gained cast pilots and disk drivers. The Pacifics are 24.

Switchers

Between 1903 and 1910 the railroad received 42 six-wheel switchers, classes B-2, B-3, and B-4, with 50- or 51-inch drivers and a weight from 132,000 to 160,000 pounds. They lasted from 18 to 40 years. Most were gone by the mid-1930s, replaced by 2-8-0s that the Mikados had themselves displaced. Five earlier M-1 Camelback compounds, built by Pittsburgh in 1900, were rebuilt by the railroad as 0-6-0s 1700–1704. Sixteen B-5s, 3660–3675, were rebuilt in 1916–1924 from class M-3 4-8-0s that Pittsburgh had built in 1897–1899. The six-wheel switchers are 63.

The eight-wheel switchers are rebuilds. Number 818 was a Chicago & Indiana Coal 2-8-0, Baldwin 1887, rebuilt in 1912. The six C-1s were H-1 2-8-0s, Schenectady 1891. The three C-2s, 1800–1802, were Baldwin engines of 1906 and the only 0-8-0s in the table that were not rebuilds of older road engines. The eight-wheel switchers are 10.

Roster

The quantity column sums to 372. Where the retirement cell in the photograph gives a span, that span is the cell below. A blank retirement cell is an em dash. The O-1s and the O-2s left by sale and transfer, and those facts are in the notes.

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-6-0	M-1	1700–1704	5	C&EI	—	–1918	Rebuilt from M-1 Camelback compounds (Pittsburgh, 1900)
0-6-0	B-2	3612–3614	3	Cooke	1903	–1921
0-6-0	B-3	3615–3625	11	Baldwin	1906	1930–1946	3616 ex-Evansville & Terre Haute, renumbered A962
0-6-0	B-4	3626–3634	9	Schenectady	1903, 1905	1930–1934
0-6-0	B-4	3635–3653	19	Baldwin	1906, 1910	1934–1948
0-6-0	B-5	3660–3675	16	C&EI	1916–1924	1934	Rebuilt from M-3 4-8-0s (Pittsburgh, 1897–1899)
0-8-0		818	1	C&EI	1912	1921	Rebuilt from a Chicago & Indiana Coal 2-8-0 (Baldwin, 1887)
0-8-0	C-1	800–804	5	C&EI	—	1917–1921	Rebuilt from H-1 2-8-0s 800–804 (Schenectady, 1891)
0-8-0	C-1	808	1	C&EI	—	1921	Rebuilt from H-1 2-8-0 808 (Schenectady, 1891)
0-8-0	C-2	1800–1802	3	Baldwin	1906	1948–1949
2-8-0	H-2	820–834	15	Schenectady	1905	1928–1930
2-8-0	H-3	835–839	5	Baldwin	1903	1930	Ex-Evansville & Terre Haute. Pittsburgh works
2-8-0	H-4	840–862	23	Schenectady	1901–1902	1934–1938	Compound, simpled 1907–1908
2-8-0	H-4	963–965	3	Schenectady	1901–1902	1934–1949	Compound, simpled 1907–1908
2-8-0	H-5	869–878	10	Schenectady	1903	1934–1938
2-8-0	H-6	863–868	6	Baldwin	1906	1934–1944	Ex-Evansville & Terre Haute
2-8-0	H-6	879–962	84	Baldwin	1904–1906	1934–1950
2-8-2	N-4	1900–1924	25	Brooks	1912	1947–1950	Ex-N-1
2-8-2	N-2	1925–1939	15	Schenectady	1918	1940–1950	USRA light
2-8-2	N-3	1940–1959	20	Brooks, Schenectady	1922, 1923	1949–1950	Rebuilt from N-1sa
2-10-2	O-1	2000–2006	7	Baldwin	1918	—	Sold to the Chesapeake & Ohio, 1945
2-10-2	O-2	4000, 4001	2	Brooks	1917	—	USRA light. Refused, and transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad
2-10-2	O-2	2007–2011	5	Brooks	1919	—	Ex-Evansville & Terre Haute
4-4-2	E-1	200, 201	2	Brooks	1903	1930
4-4-2	E-2	202–215	14	Schenectady	1903–1905	1939–1941
4-4-2	E-2	216–225	10	Baldwin	1906–1907	1934–1947
4-6-0	G-3	611–615	5	Pittsburgh	1900	1929
4-6-0	G-3	616	1	Pittsburgh	1902	1924	Cross-compound, later simpled
4-6-0	G-6	621–625	5	Rhode Island	1902	1920–1924	Cross-compound
4-6-0	G-7	626–639	14	Schenectady	1904	1920–1936
4-6-0	G-4	617, 618	2	Baldwin	1905	1934	Compound
4-6-0	G-5	619, 620	2	Schenectady	1905	1924	Ex-Evansville & Terre Haute
4-6-2	K-1	1000–1007	8	Baldwin	1910	1941–1949	1005–1007 were Evansville & Terre Haute 535–537
4-6-2	K-2	1008–1015	8	Baldwin	1911–1912	1948–1950
4-6-2	K-2	1016, 1017	2	Schenectady	1913	1948
4-6-2	K-3	1018–1023	6	Lima	1923	1949–1950

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, the Chicago & Eastern Illinois chapter by Charles Kratz, pp. 113–114, and the table of steam locomotives built after 1900. The class grid above, including builders, dates, quantities, and notes. Dimensions for the Consolidations, the N-1 Mikados, the O-1 2-10-2s, the Atlantics, the Ten-Wheelers, and the K-1, K-2, and K-3 Pacifics. The 120 Consolidations of 1903–1906. The 42 six-wheel switchers of 1903–1910. Mikado 1944 at Vincennes on May 5, 1950. K-2 1008 streamlined in 1940 for the Dixie Flagler. No locomotive survives. Drivers from one Atlantic are at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Drury’s recommended contact is the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Historical Society, www.ceihs.org, which dates full dieselization to May 1950.
The company page holds the August 28, 1877 incorporation, the valuation mileage, the Frisco control of 1902–1913, and the merger of October 15, 1976.

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