New York Central and ALCO built the Hudson in 1927 to serve as a powerful and fast passenger engine along the railroad's famed "Water Level Route." The Hudson was such an immediate and enormous success that other railroads quickly copied its combination of large drivers and fireboxes to boost their own high-speed passenger service. Other railroads, such as the Santa Fe, which used a Hudson to pull a mail train the 2227 miles from Los Angeles to Chicago without changing engines, also found that the 4-6-4 arrangement made for a fast moving, long hauling engine. The Hudson was an unqualified success, heading up glamorous name passenger trains for railroads across the country.

The RailKing Hudson, available in the markings of six famous railroads each strong enough to pull your crack passenger trains or heavy freight loads as smoothly as the prototypes pulled theirs.

Did You Know?Although NYC gets the credit for the first Hudsons, it was actually the Milwaukee Road's designer C.H. Bilty that designed the first 4-6-4, which he called a "Baltic," in 1925. However, they delayed building the locomotive, and NYC got to claim the success.