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Photos & Videos Photo of the Day Big Four

Big Four

By Brian Schmidt | February 16, 2024

| Last updated on August 7, 2025

An HO scale scene of tank cars spotted at a loading rack, with storage tanks and an oil well nearby — The very first railroad dynamometer car – a car equipped with sensitive hydraulic instrumentation to measure locomotive drawbar pull – was built in 1898 by the University of Illinois and the Peoria & Eastern Ry., then a subsidiary of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis. Note the “Big Four” emblazoned on the dynamometer car and the tender of the 4-4-0. David P. Morgan Library collection

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