In 1942-43 the Illinois Central's Paducah Shops built twenty 4-8-2s in the 2600 class that were among the heaviest Mountain type locomotives ever built, weighing 423,893 pounds. They were the last steam locomotives built new for service on the Illinois Central. They shared the 70-inch driver diameter of the 2500 class, but had 28x30-inch cylinders and sustained a boiler pressure of 275 pounds resulting in 78,584 pounds of tractive effort. With a grate area of 88 square feet, they boasted 5195 square feet of evaporative heating surface and 1240 square feet of superheating surface, rendering them relatively high-horsepower engines eminently suitable for the Illinois Central's high-speed main line freight operations. This photo of No. 2614 at the Paducah Shops (notice the huge overhead crane behind the locomotive) reveals that she was numbered among the members of this class that sported disc drivers (some had web-spoke drivers). No. 2614, the locomotive, went to the torch in October 1960 and none of the 2600-series engines have been preserved. However, viewer William J. Manon, Jr. of Dixon, Illinois points out that 2614's tender, along with that of No. 2612, is still rusting away on a siding in Rockford, Illinois. Tom Rock of T.D.R. Productions provided this image, of unknown origin, for the Random Steam Collection.