In 1942-43 the Illinois Central's Paducah Shops built twenty 4-8-2s in the 2600 class that were among the heaviest Mountain type locomotives ever built, weighing 423,893 pounds. They were the last steam locomotives built new for service on the Illinois Central. They shared the 70-inch driver diameter of the 2500 class, but had 28x30-inch cylinders and sustained a boiler pressure of 275 p.s.i. resulting in 78,584 pounds of tractive effort. My autumn, 1954 visit to Clinton, Illinois yielded this shot of No. 2603 resting near the roundhouse. While some members of the class featured disc drivers, No. 2603's drivers appear to be of the web-spoked type. This locomotive was sent to scrap in October 1960, as noted in Ray Breyer's all-time IC steam roster spreadsheet. "The Iron Horsemen" of Providence, Rhode Island, publisher of locomotive trading cards, has used this photo for its card of the IC 2600 class.