Milwaukee Road 261

Milwaukee Road 261 is a coal-fired S3 class 4-8-4 Northern type steam locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company at Schenectady, New York, in July 1944 for the Milwaukee Road. Weighing 460,000 pounds and rated at 4,500 horsepower and 100 miles per hour, it hauled heavy freight and passenger trains between Chicago and Omaha, and later between Chicago and Minneapolis, until the railroad dieselised and retired it in August 1956. Rather than being scrapped it was donated to the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where it arrived in 1958. Restored for excursion service in 1993, it is now owned, operated and maintained by the nonprofit Friends of the 261, which runs seasonal excursion trains and has logged more than 25,000 miles under its own power since.