The Minneapolis & St. Louis, which styled itself "The Peoria Gateway," used Mikados in pre-diesel days to speed its bridge traffic between eastern and western connections. No. 606, shown here in a photo acquired via eBay, belonged to the M&StL's first group of class M-1 2-8-2s built in 1915 by the American Locomotive Company. Under the leadership of M&StL president Lucian Sprague these "Mikes" were extensively rebuilt in the late 1930s and, apparently, reclassified M-46 at that time. Rebuilding for all, or some, included fitting with stokers, disc driver centers, Nicholson thermic siphons, and Worthington feedwater heaters. Two, including No. 606, even received stainless steel boiler jackets and skirting under the running boards. Specifications for this earlier group of the M-46 class were similar to those for No. 629 following, except that this group had a lower boiler pressure of 185 p.s.i., produced 46,056 pounds of tractive effort, and weighed less at 259,900 pounds. No information is forthcoming about the location, date, or photographer for this image.