Chicago & North Western Steam Roster (Post 1900)

Published: October 20, 2026

The Chicago & North Western’s steam after 1900 is two lists, because the Omaha Road kept its own engines until 1972. George H. Drury’s parent table prints a quantity of 1,445, and four rows leave that cell blank. The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha table prints 241. Numbers 491 and 492 are in both tables. They are the same two engines, and the two sums are not added. The last steam-powered commuter train ran on May 10, 1956. A few small steam locomotives remained through the summer, and dieselization was complete by fall.

Chicago and North Western Class E-4 4-6-4 4006 at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1953

One of the Chicago & North Western’s streamlined 4-6-4s, 4006, Class E-4, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1953. These engines were very similar to the Milwaukee Road’s F-7s, and nearly as fast. Photographer unknown.

On this page: At a glance · Freight · Pacifics and the 400s · Hudsons and 4-8-4s · Switchers · Narrow gauge · The Omaha Road · Roster

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Chicago & North Western. Mark CNW. Company history
This table	Steam locomotives built since 1900, in Drury’s class order. The parent list and the Omaha Road list are separate. A renumber is the same engine
Parent quantity column	1,445. Four rows leave quantity blank: classes K, M-1, M-3, and M-4
Omaha Road quantity column	241. Every cell on that table is filled
491 and 492	In both tables. Baldwin 2-10-2s that became parent 0-10-2s. Counted in each column. Not added together
Last new steam	Class E-4, nine 4-6-4s, 4001–4009, Alco, 1938
Last steam	Commuter train, a 4-6-2, on May 10, 1956. Small steam through the summer of 1956. Dieselization complete by fall

Freight

Most of the railroad burned coal. Divisions west of the Missouri River burned oil, and the four Pacifics rebuilt for the early 400s were converted to oil as well. One group of light Pacifics had special grates for lignite.

The Consolidations the railroad called Zulus were class Z. The quantity is 250, Schenectady and Baldwin, 1909–1913, numbers 1455–1494 and 1700–1910. They weighed 238,000 pounds, on 61-inch drivers, with 25-by-32-inch cylinders, and they were superheated. Some had Walschaerts valve gear and some had Baker. The Omaha Road’s own class Z is a separate pair, 218 and 219.

The parent Mikados are 310 engines, the J class of 1913–1923, from Schenectady, Richmond, and Brooks. The table splits them. Numbers 2301–2600 are 300, built by Alco. Numbers 2701–2710 are 10, Brooks, 1923, the oil burners for Nebraska and Wyoming. They had 62-inch drivers, 27-by-32-inch cylinders, and weighed 304,500 pounds. The first 192 had Baker valve gear. The rest had Young. A group of 65 had cast trailing trucks instead of Cole trucks. Many were later given stokers, 64-inch Boxpok drivers, and larger tenders, and reclassed J-A. Omaha Road engines that received the same treatment also got exhaust-steam injectors. Engines that did not become J-A received stokers and were classed J-S. J-A and J-S are the same frames. They are not extra rows, and the 310 does not include the Omaha Road’s Mikados.

The Omaha Road received four heavy United States Railroad Administration 2-8-2s in 1919 and six more, slightly modified, in 1921. They are class J-2, numbers 422–431, quantity 10, retired from 1950 through 1954. Eight further heavy Mikados came in 1926, an improved heavy USRA 2-8-2, class J-3, numbers 432–439, retired from 1953 through 1956. Numbers 440 and 441 had been Chicago & North Western 2363 and 2371.

The Berkshires were a dozen, class J-4, numbers 2801–2812, Brooks, 1927. Drury gives them the same basic dimensions as Lima’s A-1, with a conventional firebox and cast trailing trucks. They worked coal trains from Nelson, Illinois, to Peoria, and the table retires them from 1950 through 1953.

The two 2-10-2s were Baldwin engines of 1917, built as helpers out of the St. Croix valley at Hudson, Wisconsin. In 1944 they moved to the parent company in exchange for a pair of 2-8-2s. The lead trucks derailed on the hump at Proviso and were taken off, and the engines finished as 0-10-2s. The Omaha table still lists 491 and 492 as 2-10-2s, class J-1, Baldwin, 1917, with the note “To C&NW.” The parent table lists the same numbers as 0-10-2s, class J-1, builder and date blank, retired in 1953 and 1949, in that order, with the note “Ex-2-10-2.”

Pacifics and the 400s

Drury’s freight engines of the ordinary sort were the R-1 Ten-Wheelers, Schenectady and Baldwin, 1901–1908, evolved from the R class of 1897–1900. They had 63-inch drivers, inboard piston valves, and Stephenson valve gear. A few had outboard valves and Walschaerts. The table’s R-1 quantity is 325. The numbers begin 18…1042, with an ellipsis, because the low numbers were reused rather than blocked, and then run 1066–1079, 1125–1169, and 1323–1428. Class R itself is 857–886, 30 engines, Schenectady, 1900. Two Q classes sit beside them: ten Rhode Island engines of 1903, and thirty Rogers engines of 1906. The Omaha Road’s I-1 Ten-Wheelers, quantity 67, are marked “Same as C&NW R-1.” They are 4-6-0s. So is Omaha F-1 number 220, a single Schenectady engine of 1923.

The Atlantics are class D, 91 engines, Schenectady, 1900–1908. Photographs show random numbers between 152 and 1317, so the table writes 152…895 and then the later blocks. Ten built in 1908 had Young rotary valves and Walschaerts valve gear. The Omaha Road’s G-3, numbers 364–370, seven engines of 1906, is marked the same as class D.

Class L Pacifics were light engines for lignite. Schenectady built them in 1910. The table’s quantity is 21, numbers 9…1454, weight 181,500 pounds, drivers 63 inches, retired in 1935.

Class E was the main-line Pacific. The parent railroad had 168, numbers 1500–1667, Schenectady and Brooks, 1909–1923. The Omaha Road had 18, numbers 500–517, Schenectady, 1913–1916. Both groups had 75-inch drivers. Early members of the class had 23-by-28-inch cylinders and 200 pounds of pressure. Later members had 25-by-28-inch cylinders and 185 pounds. Baker valve gear replaced Walschaerts in 1913, and Young replaced Baker in 1921. The last 20, built in 1922 and 1923, had cast trailing trucks. The parent table retires the class from 1937 through 1956.

Between 1948 and 1953 the class E Pacifics dropped the leading 1, so the series read 500–667. Numbers 1600–1602 became 670–672, clear of the Omaha Road’s E-1s. Drury describes those Omaha engines as light Pacifics of 1910–1916, with 69-inch drivers, 22-by-26-inch cylinders, and a weight of 233,000 pounds, 16,000 pounds less than the class E. The Omaha table on this page lists 500–517 as class E, not E-1. The parent table’s own E-1 row is a separate group, 56…944 and 2201–2226, 41 engines, Schenectady, 1910–1916.

Two of the class E engines, 1617 and 1620, were streamlined in 1941 for the Minnesota 400. Jim Scribbins, in The 400 Story, places them on trains 418 and 419 between Mankato and Wyeville, with the engine changed at Winona, from January 1942. The casings followed the contour of the class E-4 Hudsons and were painted yellow and green. Crews called the pair Yellow Jackets. They were not the E-2s of the Twin Cities 400, and they were not the Hudsons in the photograph. The class-wide renumber made them 617 and 620 along with the rest of the Es. Number 617 was scrapped on July 6, 1956, and 620 in August 1956. By the last steam commuter train, 617 was already in the deadline at 40th Street. The scrap dates are not a last run. The diesel roster’s 1617 and 1620 are an RS-3 and an RSD-4 or RSD-5 of 1952, new locomotives that reused the numbers.

The E-2s were a different twelve. Numbers 2901–2912, Schenectady, 1923, had 75-inch drivers, 26-by-28-inch cylinders, and weighed 295,000 pounds. In 1934, numbers 2902, 2903, 2907, and 2908 were converted to oil, the pressure was raised from 210 pounds to 225, and they were classed E-2-A. The other eight received similar improvements in 1935, stayed on coal, and were classed E-2-B. In 1939 the oil burners went back to coal, and all twelve were reclassified E-2. These were the unshrouded Pacifics that opened the Twin Cities 400 on January 2, 1935. Electro-Motive E3s took that train in 1939. The table retires the twelve from 1954 through 1957. That is a retirement span. E-2-A and E-2-B are not extra rows.

The Omaha Road’s E-3s, numbers 600–602, were three Schenectady Pacifics of 1930. They weighed 347,000 pounds, more than many 4-8-2s, and the starting tractive effort was 64,400 pounds with the booster cut in. They are not the 1938 Hudsons.

Hudsons and 4-8-4s

The last new steam was nine streamlined 4-6-4s, class E-4, numbers 4001–4009, from Alco in 1938. They had 84-inch drivers and 25-by-29-inch cylinders. Drury’s comparison with the Milwaukee Road F-7 is the cylinder: 25 by 29 inches here, 30 inches on the Milwaukee engines. The North Western painted them dark olive with gold striping and assigned them to conventional trains between Chicago and Omaha. They were converted to oil in 1947 and 1948. The table retires them from 1953 through 1956. The table’s note cell is blank. They were not the power of the 400s. Number 4006, above, was photographed at Council Bluffs in 1953.

The largest engines on the railroad were the 35 class H 4-8-4s, numbers 3001–3035, Baldwin, 1929. Traffic on the Chicago–Omaha line had reached the point of doubleheaded Pacifics and Mikados, and the railroad wanted one dual-service locomotive. The type was the Northern Pacific’s of 1927. A North Western H weighed 498,000 pounds, 72,000 pounds more than those first Northern Pacific 4-8-4s, on 76-inch drivers. After the pressure was raised from 250 pounds to 275, the tractive force was 71,800 pounds plus 12,400 with the booster, which Drury calls the most powerful 4-8-4 until the Norfolk & Western J. They were restricted to Chicago–Omaha. Only certain tracks in the Chicago passenger terminal could take them, and then only after the trainshed was altered. Bridges were later strengthened, and the engines were allowed as far as Altoona, Wisconsin, on the line to the Twin Cities, and from Clyman Junction to Fond du Lac.

About 1940 the class received lightweight rods, Boxpok drivers, and roller bearings on all axles. The weak point after the war was the frame behind the drivers, an outside cradle, the banjo frame also used on early Northern Pacific and Canadian National 4-8-4s. Number 3004 was the trial engine. It received a new cast nickel-steel frame, with cylinders, pilot beam, and air reservoirs cast in, plus a new firebox, and left 40th Street Shop on April 1, 1946, reclassified H-1. Twenty-four of the class were rebuilt from 1946 through 1949. H-1 is not an extra row. The table retires the thirty-five from 1950 through 1956.

Switchers

Two parent switcher classes leave the quantity blank because the numbers were scattered. Class K is a Rhode Island group of 1903, written 8…1172. Class M-1 is Alco and Baldwin, 1905–1917, written 1…1052 and then 574–583, 1297–1317, 1428–1442, 1495–1499, and 2000–2104. Class M is a filled row: 20 engines, 837–856, Schenectady, 1900, retired from 1928 through 1935. Class M-2 is 75, numbers 2111–2185, Schenectady and Brooks, 1916–1923.

The Chicago & North Western was assigned 35 USRA 0-6-0s, reportedly copies of the M-2. They are class M-3, numbers 2601–2635, Cooke and Schenectady, 1919. The quantity cell on that row is blank, and it stays blank. The Omaha Road’s eight are a different row, class M-3, numbers 75–82, Richmond, 1921, quantity 8. A second Omaha M-3 row, 83–86, is four Schenectady engines of 1919.

The parent railroad had only eight 0-8-0s. They are class M-4, numbers 2636–2643, Richmond, 1927, copies of the USRA 0-8-0 but somewhat heavier, with much longer tenders, and they were assigned to the Chicago yards. That quantity cell is also blank. The Omaha Road’s eight 0-8-0s are class M-5, numbers 60–67, Baldwin, 1928, and that cell is filled.

Narrow gauge

Two Moguls, class D-11, worked the narrow-gauge line from Fennimore through Woodman to Montford, in southwestern Wisconsin. Number 278 was a Cooke engine of 1915, retired in 1927. Number 279 was a Schenectady engine of 1912, sold in 1927. Both apparently replaced engines that had already carried those numbers. The twelve-wheelers were class G, numbers 477 and 933, Schenectady, 1902. They were renumbered in 1905 from 1301 and 1302, and they had begun as Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley 211 and 212, on the Deadwood–Lead line. The table retires them in 1928 and 1925, in that order. The earlier numbers are not extra rows.

The Omaha Road

The second table is the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, a subsidiary from November 1882 until 1972. Its quantity column sums to 241. The switchers not already named above are class F-6, nine Schenectady engines, 1901–1907; class F-10, two Baldwins of 1902; two M-1 rows, 16 and 5; and class M-2, nine Schenectady engines of 1917. The Consolidations are H-3, numbers 216 and 217, and the two class Z engines. The Mikados are the J, J-2, and J-3 rows already described, plus 440 and 441. The Ten-Wheelers beyond the I-1 and the single F-1 are class F-2, seven Schenectady engines of 1921–1924. The Pacifics beyond class E and the E-3s are class I-2, seventeen engines, and class K-2, numbers 388 and 389.

Where an Omaha note says “Same as C&NW class D” or “Same as C&NW R-1,” that is the cell. It does not move the engines into the parent quantity.

Roster

The parent quantity column sums to 1,445. The Omaha Road quantity column sums to 241. A blank photographed cell is an em dash below. An ellipsis means the numbers were not a continuous block. Drury used it because the railroad reused numbers of engines already gone. A comma between two years is the cell, in that order. Builder abbreviations in the photograph are written out here. BLW is Baldwin. Schen is Schenectady. Rich is Richmond. J-A, J-S, H-1, E-2-A, and E-2-B do not appear, because those letters were applied to engines already in the J, H, and E-2 rows.

Chicago & North Western

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-6-0	K	8…1172	—	Rhode Island	1903	—	—
0-6-0	M	837–856	20	Schenectady	1900	1928–1935	—
0-6-0	M-1	1…1052, 574–583, 1297–1317, 1428–1442, 1495–1499, 2000–2104	—	Alco, Baldwin	1905–1917	—	—
0-6-0	M-2	2111–2185	75	Schenectady, Brooks	1916–1923	—	—
0-6-0	M-3	2601–2635	—	Cooke, Schenectady	1919	—	USRA
0-8-0	M-4	2636–2643	—	Richmond	1927	—	—
0-10-2	J-1	491, 492	2	—	—	1953, 1949	Ex-2-10-2
2-6-0	D-11	278	1	Cooke	1915	1927	Narrow gauge
2-6-0	D-11	279	1	Schenectady	1912	Sold 1927	Narrow gauge
2-8-0	Z	1455–1494, 1700–1910	250	Baldwin, Schenectady	1909–1913	—	—
2-8-2	J	2301–2600	300	Alco	1913–1923	—	—
2-8-2	J	2701–2710	10	Brooks	1923	—	Oil burners
2-8-4	J-4	2801–2812	12	Brooks	1927	1950–1953	—
4-4-2	D	152…895, 390–399, 1015–1030, 1080–1101, 1297–1317	91	Schenectady	1900–1908	—	—
4-6-0	Q	1191–1200	10	Rhode Island	1903	1928–1931	—
4-6-0	Q	497–506, 556–565, 1323–1332	30	Rogers	1906	1928–1931	—
4-6-0	R	857–886	30	Schenectady	1900	1928–1937	—
4-6-0	R-1	18…1042, 1066–1079, 1125–1169, 1323–1428	325	Schenectady, Baldwin	1901–1908	—	—
4-6-2	E	1500–1667	168	Schenectady, Brooks	1909–1923	1937–1956	—
4-6-2	E-1	56…944, 2201–2226	41	Schenectady	1910–1916	—	—
4-6-2	E-2	2901–2912	12	Schenectady	1923	1954–1957	—
4-6-2	L	9…1454	21	Schenectady	1908–1910	1935	—
4-8-0	G	477, 933	2	Schenectady	1902	1928, 1925	Narrow gauge
4-6-4	E-4	4001–4009	9	Alco	1938	1953–1956	—
4-8-4	H	3001–3035	35	Baldwin	1929	1950–1956	—

Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-6-0	F-6	13–16, 24–28	9	Schenectady	1901–1907	—	—
0-6-0	F-10	22, 23	2	Baldwin	1902	—	—
0-6-0	M-1	3, 4, 9, 12, 18–21, 29–36	16	Schenectady	1909–1912	—	—
0-6-0	M-1	1, 17, 37, 43, 45	5	Baldwin	1913	—	—
0-6-0	M-2	46–54	9	Schenectady	1917	—	—
0-6-0	M-3	75–82	8	Richmond	1921	—	—
0-6-0	M-3	83–86	4	Schenectady	1919	—	—
0-8-0	M-5	60–67	8	Baldwin	1928	—	—
2-8-0	H-3	216, 217	2	Schenectady	1905	—	—
2-8-0	Z	218, 219	2	Schenectady	1913	—	—
2-8-2	J	390–421	32	Schenectady	1913–1916	—	—
2-8-2	J	440, 441	2	Schenectady	1916	—	Ex-C&NW 2363, 2371
2-8-2	J-2	422–431	10	Schenectady, Richmond	1919, 1921	1950–1954	USRA
2-8-2	J-3	432–439	8	Schenectady	1926	1953–1956	—
2-10-2	J-1	491, 492	2	Baldwin	1917	—	To C&NW
4-4-2	G-3	364–370	7	Schenectady	1906	—	Same as C&NW class D
4-6-0	F-1	220	1	Schenectady	1923	—	—
4-6-0	F-2	188, 195, 197, 199, 202, 212, 234	7	Schenectady	1921–1924	—	—
4-6-0	I-1	101–106, 222–225, 302–304, 308–363	67	Schenectady	1901–1910	—	Same as C&NW R-1
4-6-2	I-2	371–387	17	Schenectady	1903–1910	—	—
4-6-2	K-2	388, 389	2	Schenectady	1911	—	—
4-6-2	E	500–517	18	Schenectady	1913–1916	—	—
4-6-2	E-3	600–602	3	Schenectady	1930	—	—

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, the Chicago & North Western chapter. The two class grids above, including the blank quantity cells, the ellipses, and the retired cells printed with a comma. The Zulu dimensions, the 310 Mikados and the J-A and J-S rebuilds, the USRA Mikados, the dozen Berkshires, and the Hudson, Wisconsin, 2-10-2s that lost their lead trucks at Proviso. The R-1s, the 91 Atlantics, the lignite Pacifics, the 168 and 18 class E engines and the 1948–1953 renumber, the E-2 oil conversion and the return to coal in 1939, the E-3 weight and the 64,400-pound booster figure, the nine E-4s, and the 35 class H 4-8-4s, including 3004 and the April 1, 1946 shopping. The 35 assigned USRA 0-6-0s, the eight parent 0-8-0s, and the narrow-gauge engines. May 10, 1956, is Drury’s date for the last steam-powered commuter train.
Chicago & North Western Historical Society, cnwhs.org. Drury’s recommended reading: Locomotives of the Chicago and North Western Railway (Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, 1938, supplement 1948); Charles T. Knudsen, Chicago and North Western Railway Steam Power (Knudsen Publications, 1965).
Wallace W. Abbey, “Zeppelins they were called but Zeppelins they surely were not: an H of an engine,” Trains, October 1970, p. 20.
Rosters Drury cites: Railroad Magazine, December 1934, p. 87, and the August issue of 1948, whose page number is not legible in the copy used here. Omaha Road rosters in Railroad Magazine, March 1937, p. 72, and the April issue of 1955, p. 41. Railroad History, No. 154, p. 40. The 1955 magazine issue is a roster. It is not a closing date.
Jim Scribbins, The 400 Story. The Minnesota 400 assignment of 1617 and 1620, Mankato–Wyeville, the engine change at Winona, and January 1942. The Yellow Jacket name, the yellow and green paint, and the scrap dates of July 6, 1956, and August 1956, are the account already published for that pair. The 1952 diagram book did not give the shrouds a separate class letter.