This photo of 4-6-2 No. 3328 (renumbered to 4728 in 1936) was reportedly taken in Butler, Indiana, in 1934. She was a member of class K3n, erected by the American Locomotive Company's Brooks works in 1918. With 79-inch drivers, 200 pounds of boiler pressure, and cylinders measuring 23½x26 inches, she exerted a tractive force of about 31,000 pounds. A penciled notation on the back of the photo (photographer unknown) claims that a booster added another 9700 pounds of tractive effort, although a 1940 New York Central roster does not mention a booster for this class. However, the original rivet-fabricated trailing truck has been replaced by the one-piece cast trailing truck, which provided a bed for a booster engine.

Before the advent of the famous Hudson type, Pacifics like No. 4728 headed the premier trains of the New York Central's passenger fleet, including the Twentieth Century Limited, and were featured in this role on calendars issued by the railroad. (For one of these calendar paintings by Walter L. Greene, click here.) Butler, a small city in rural northeast Indiana, was not a stop for the Central's faster long-distance trains, so this photo shows No. 3328 (4728) heading a westbound local — the type of service to which the Pacifics were assigned after the Hudsons usurped their position on the premier "varnish."