This Big Lug is Very Useful

The huge locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an

ALCO Century-628 owned by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad (CNW). The CNW acquired a fleet of these locomotives from Norfolk & Western. This locomotive was employed for lugging heavy but slow ore trains. It is seen here at Proviso, Illinois in 1977. Here is a bit of history about the ALCO C-628, part of their Century Series of locomotives. This website is the apex of railroad information, in my opinion. I use Adam Burns’ site as a reference very often. https://www.american-rails.com/628.html By: Adam Burns The C628 was Alco's first in its line of six-axle, C-C road switchers. Overall these behemoths were as powerful as they appeared. The C628 would prove to be Alco's most successful six-axle Century, selling nearly 200 units. With the C628, “C” stood for Century series, “6” was the axle number, and the last two digits were the horsepower rating (2,800 h.p.). The C628 up to that time offered the most starting (85,750 pounds) and continuous tractive effort (79,500 pounds) of any locomotive in its class, which is a significant reason why some railroads really liked them. The Alco C628 debuted in late 1963 as a replacement for the builder's RSD-15 line.

Here is the back of the post card that was published by the ever elusive RAILCARDS.COM