The New York Central Hudsons were a class of 4-6-4 "Hudson"-type steam locomotives built in several batches by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and the Lima Locomotive Works between 1927 and 1938.
The Hudson came into being because the existing 4-6-2 Pacific power was not able to keep up with the demands of longer, heavier trains and higher speeds. The existing 4-6-2 design was modified with a bigger boiler and firebox, and a modified Berkshire-type trailing truck, creating a revolutionary class of locomotive that inspired other railroads to build their own 'Hudsons'. Indeed, the Milwaukee Road was the first to design its 4-6-4's - known at first as the 'Milwaukee' type in the planning stages, but later known as the 'Baltic' type - but not the first to be built as the Milwaukee was still short on money. These engines are named after a river that was 315-miles long and flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York in the United States - the Hudson River. Locomotive No. 5200 was the very first Hudson built for the New York Central and took to the rails in 1927.
These engines are used for high-speed passenger train work, the Hudson locomotives were famously known for hauling the New York Central's crack passenger trains, such as the 20th Century Limited and the Empire State Express. When these services were being re-equipped, the train engines had to be given some changes. In Autumn 1941, two Hudsons - 5426 and 5429 - were streamlined by Dreyfuss specially for the Empire State Express and were painted black but mostly clad in silver. The newly streamlined train was launched, rather soberingly, on the same day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor - December the 7th, 1941. Soon afterwards, the US declared war on Japan, and joined World War Two.
In 1944, NYC received permission from the War Production Board to build a new, high-speed locomotive of the 4-8-4 type, combining all the advantages of the Hudson with those of the Mohawk.
All but 33 Hudsons were retired by the late 1950's with the onset of diesel locomotives in the mid-20th century though an engine of the same wheel arrangement, albeit with a design similar to that of the Union Pacific FEF-3 No. 844 - Nickel Plate Road No. 170 - survives.
In popular culture[]
- In Thomas & Friends, the character Connor, whom was introduced since the special King of the Railway, is based on a streamlined NYC class J-3a, although smaller, and his tender has eight wheels (both tender bogies having four wheels each).
- In the Courage The Cowardly Dog episode, "The Mask" there is a steam locomotive loosely based on a NYC Class J-3a Hudson, but it is painted red and black, pulling an express train resembling an Amtrak train, which destroys Mad Dog's car near the end of the episode, most likely in the episode is the Kitty, on the observation car.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants special episodes from the seventh season, "The Great Patty Caper", features a train called the "Oceanic Express". The locomotive appears to be based on a non-streamlined NYC J-1A Hudson but using Metallic Toilet Plunger, The engine is crashed into the wall of Far-Out-Ville Bank, as a result is badly damaged. In the episode "Night Patty", the engine reappears with a smaller tender.
- In the 1999 film The Iron Giant, a bizarre-looking locomotive resembles a streamlined NYC Class J-3a, minus the tender and with the N&W Class J livery. It has the whistle from Norfolk and Western No. 611 and is shown pulling hopper cars, where it crashed into the titular movie character when it was fixing the railroad tracks.
- In the Rugrats episode "Murmur on the Ornery Express", a locomotive pulling the Biendeltown Express is based off the streamlined NYC J-3a Hudson, painted red, blue grey and dark grey.
- The Chuggington character Speedy McAllister resembles a streamlined NYC Hudson. His streamlined design is mainly based on No. 5344, more specifically in its "Commodore Vanderbilt" streamlined casting.
- The Hudsons were featured in the 2006 computer-animated film Everyone's Hero.
Trivia[]
- There are three different Hudson classes: J-1, J-2 (for the Boston and Albany) and J-3. There are also five different sub-classes for the J-1 series: J-1a, J-1b, J-1c, J-1d, And J-1e.
- The Dreyfuss 'Century' Hudsons featured the nose of the smoke box that looked like a spaceship with the fin on it.
- Locomotive #5344 had streamlining briefly applied and named "Commodore Vanderbilt". The Commodore Vanderbilt was among the first streamlined steamers on the New York Central, if not the world. The streamlining was later replaced to match the last ten J-3a locomotives that had been built with streamlining designed by Henry Dreyfuss.
- A J-1d Hudson was once originally numbered 6615 and it was later renumbered 5390. It was built for the Big Four Railway, hence its original number.
- Two J-1 class Hudsons, numbers 5311 and 5313, were sold to the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway in 1948 and were renumbered 501 and 502 respectively. They were retired and scrapped in 1954.
- Although all Hudsons were sold for scrap, the tender from the 502 (formerly the 5313) was retained by the TH&B and converted to a steam generator car for use on passenger trains. The generator car still survives today and is part of the collection at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, PA. It is the largest extant single piece of a NYC Hudson.
- Also the headlight of Locomotive #5344 remains it's at Hill's Hobby at Park Ridge, Illinois.
- The J1e Hudson was the basis for model train manufacturer Lionel's Famed 700e Hudson, produced between 1937 and 1939. The same locomotive would later be used as the basis for the semi-scale 763 Hudson, and later the postwar 773, which was produced from 1950 and 1966.