Thought I would answer a few of the questions about Burlington RouteÂ’s S4 Hudsons..there was a little discussion going on in a thread below concerning the Illinois Railway Museum in Union.

The Q originally rostered Hudsons numbered 3000-3011, all built by Baldwin in 1930. The BurlingtonÂ’s West Burlington Shops built 3012 in 1935 from components furnished by Baldwin (boiler, etc). All were built as coal burners and intended primarily for passenger service.

In 1936, #3002 was removed from service and taken to West Burlington for rebuilding with a stainless steel streamlined shroud in order to allow the engine to serve as a protection engine for the expanding Burlington Zephyr service.

The engine emerged from the shops in 1937 as class S4A #4000. She was named “Aeolus”, after the keeper of the West Winds in Greek mythology. Shop forces instantly nicknamed her “Big Alice” after Alice the Goon in the Popeye cartoon series.

Later that year, construction commenced on a second Big Alice, S4A 4001. Again, the engine was built from kit form using parts supplied by Baldwin. With minor variations, the shrouding followed that of #4000 with the exception of the inclusion of an enclosed vestibule cab, a feature none of the other Hudsons had. Conventional wisdom has it that 4001Â’s cab was enclosed as West Burlington shops were busy building 4-8-4s in the O5 class that featured enclosed vestibule cabs.

World War Two saw the removal of the shrouds from 4001 & 4001 and they thereafter functioned as any other Hudson in the fleet.

3009, 3008 and 3011 were rebuilt and classed as S4a in 1938 and renumbered 4002, 4003 and 4004, respectively. 4002 and 4003 were rebuilt as oil burners for service on the Burlington Lines West in 1951 and reclassified as S4B as a result.

The Burlington Hudsons served into the late fifties, including service on the famous Burlington series of steam excursions.

Interestingly, 4001 was the last Hudson overhauled, receiving class repairs at the BurlingtonÂ’s Denver shops in 1954. She remained at Denver until being towed to Lincoln in 1955 where she was set up for service. 4001 went to scrap in 1960 having never turned a wheel in service since her overhaul!!!

Happily, several Hudsons have been preserved: 3001 in Ottumwa Iowa, 3003 in Burlington Iowa, 3006 in Galesburg Illinois, 3007 in Quincy Illinois (more on her in a second) and Big Alice herself, #4000 in LaCrosse Wisconsin. Neither of the oil burners were saved, unfortunately.

The years weren’t kind to 3007, and the city of Quincy sold her to Mr. J. L. Wade of Griggsville Illinois in April of 1980. My good friend John Jacobs and I were there the day she departed Quinsippi Island and moved over Q rails once again to West Quincy Missouri where she spent the night before moving to Griggsville over the Norfolk and Western. This is the only Burlington steam engine I have ever seen “in service” – don’t worry, 4960 is on my list!

3007 was sold by Wade and moved to Atlantic Iowa in 1988. 3007 was then sold to the folks at the Illinois Railway Museum and moved there in 1995. She is kept in the same barn with Q 2-8-2 #4963 and the 9911/Nebraska Zephyr set. Close by is Q 4-6-0 #637, and a host of other Burlington equipment to numerous to mention here.

3001 and 3003 are near the Burlington depots in their respective display cities. 3006 rests near the “new” Galesburg depot, complete with a Q RPO and waycar, along with a water column. 4000 is in a park, but not exhibited with any other Q equipment.

My all time favorite anecdote about the Burlington Hudsons comes from Railfan & Railroad’s Jim Boyd...his story went something along the line about how loud and powerful a Q Hudson was when accelerating from a standing stop. Said Boyd ‘a Q Hudson accelerating out of Aurora could eat a New York Central J3 for breakfast and burp tenders all the way to Galesburg!!!!’ (apologies to Mr. Boyd if I didn’t get the quote word for word)

Interested in reading more about the Burlington Hudsons? A definitive history was written by Mr. Hol Wagner and published by the Burlington Route Historical Society as their Burlington Bulletin #33. Check out the BRHS company store at the link below where you can pick up one of these great books!

IÂ’m proud to feature a HO scale model of 4001 on my layout -- sorry if this rattled on a little long, but as you might guess, I am a bit of a Burlington Route fan!

Regards & Everywhere West!
Burlington John



Burlington Route Historical Society
burlingtonjohn@trainorders.com

> Later that year, construction commenced on a
> second Big Alice, S4A 4001. //SNIPPAGE//
> Regards & Everywhere West!
> Burlington John

Great info John! I believe 4001 was named "Zephyrus", from two references I have on Q motive power. Were both shrouded engines referred to as "Big Alice"??

hi_plain@yahoo.com

> Great info John! I believe 4001 was named
> "Zephyrus", from two references I
> have on Q motive power. Were both shrouded
> engines referred to as "Big
> Alice"??

John,
I think he had the 4-6-4 burping 0-6-0s all the way to Galesburg after eating one of those NYC 4-6-4s.
Don C.


old_fxrs@msn.com

George,

Both 4000 and 4001 were named "Aeolus" and were nicknamed 'Big Alice', 'Big Alice the Goon' or just 'Alice'. Which nickname really depended on who you talked to, but I've heard all three.

Zephyrus was shovelnose #9905 (later classed as an EA by EMD) built in 1936 for service on the second 'Twin Zephyr'. It was converted at West Burlington in 1951 to run as a B unit and was scrapped in 1955.

Regards (from RYPN's local Burlington fan) and Everywhere West,

Burlington John


Burlington Route Historical Society
BurlingtonJohn@trainorders.com