H&N No.1
General Electric "Steeplecab" Locomotive
HN locomotive 1 sm.JPG (109610 bytes)
- John Smatlak photo - click to enlarge -

Hutchinson & Northern No. 1 is an electric locomotive designed for pulling short freight trains. It was built in 1921 by General Electric as a “demonstrator” locomotive. To encourage purchase of GE locomotives, it was shipped to prospective customers so they could take a “test drive”. Its use a demonstrator probably explains the extra-large GE logo on the side of the cab.

In 1923, No. 1 was sold to the Hutchinson & Northern Railway, and operated there for 47 years. The H&N was a two-mile railway near Wichita , Kansas , built to connect a local salt mine with the Missouri Pacific interchange in Hutchinson . The H&N finally replaced their electric locomotives with Diesels in 1970, and donated number 1 to the Museum.

Number 1 is known as a “steeple cab” locomotive, so named because of the sloping ends and the cab that sticks up in the middle. It is considered to be a light-duty locomotive; in good weather it was capable of pulling only about ten of the relatively small freight cars of the time.                               

No. 1 was repainted into a Bicentennial livery in honor of the Nation's 200th birthday, but has since been returned to the orange livery it wore when it arrived in Perris.

Additional Photos:
HN1 black 1965 Appelman photo.jpg (39379 bytes) HN 1 1974 Testagrose photo.jpg (38420 bytes) HN.JPG (60385 bytes)
On the H&N in 1965, Jerry Appelman photo At Perris 1974, frame of Carhouse Two in background. Joe Testagrose Collection. In action 2004
DB HN1 Bicentenial.jpg (180747 bytes)
Bicentennial livery 1976
 

 

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Page updated 8/8/08