The Chicago and North Western Class E-4 was a class of nine streamlined 4-6-4 "Hudson" steam locomotives built in 1937 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO).
The nine E-4's were almost identical in specification and purpose to the Milwaukee Road's six class F7 locomotives, and they were built by the same builder at the same time, yet their streamlined designs were different. The E-4's were built to haul the Chicago and North Western's (C&NW) famous "400" express passenger trains, but before they were even delivered, the railroad's management decided that streamlined steam was the wrong direction and instead placed orders with General MotorsElectro-Motive Division for new diesel locomotives.
The displaced E-4s instead pulled secondary passenger trains, until they were withdrawn from service between 1953 and 1956, and scrapping commenced on most of the fleet. one of the remaining E-4's (Nos. 4008) were kept in Escanaba, Michigan to thaw frozen ore with heat from their boilers (the other one (nos.4009 was used as a freight locomotive) .[2] In August 1961, Nos.4008 was replaced by a new infrared process, and since 4008 had been welded to the rails, C&NW crews had to scrap it on site. no 4009 ran till 1962 then was put into storage[2]
Chicago and North Western E Class 4-6-2 – Some converted to "ES" class with similar casing to the E-4. The ES engines succeeded Class D locomotives on the Minnesota 400.
Chicago and North Western E-2 Class 4-6-2 – Twelve locomotives, four of which were converted to "E-2-a" class and were the original locomotives for the Twin Cities to Chicago 400 before being replaced by EMD E3 diesel units. The remaining eight were converted to "E-2-b" locomotives.[3]
