Chicago & North Western 4-6-0 No. 1155 rests in the yard at Clinton, Iowa in November 1956. When I took this photo the Ten-Wheeler was out of service and destined for the salvager. However, because of her Stephenson valve gear she does not bear the telltale sign of so many steam engines that were headed for scrapping in the 1950s, the disconnected eccentric crank or severed piston. The Stephenson gear mechanism was internal, driven by a pair of offsets on the main driver axle — note the valve housing, above the cylinders, angled inward for easier access by the valve gear connections.

Baldwin Locomotive Works and the American Locomotive Company's Schenectady Works delivered 325 class R-1 Ten-Wheelers to the C&NW between 1901 and 1908. They had 63-inch diameter drivers, 21x26-inch cylinders and 200 p.s.i. of boiler pressure. Their locomotive weight was about 170,000 pounds and they developed 31,000 pounds of tractive effort. Many were reboilered with a grate area of 47 square feet, 1965 square feet of evaporative heating surface and 475 square feet of superheating surface, having originally been built to somewhat smaller dimensions. One of C&NW's class R-1 4-6-0s, No. 1385, is owned by the MidContinent Railway Museum; inoperable since 1998 after a career in excursion service, she is currently undergoing restoration work.