Although Nickel Plate 4-6-4 No. 177 was the final locomotive in the series, it was chosen for the builder's photo of the L-1b class delivered by Lima in 1929. The photo reveals the clean lines of these Hudsons before the application of smoke deflectors. The short cab overhang beyond the rear wheel also suggests that a single-axle trailing truck would have been quite adequate to support the firebox with its 68 square feet of grate area, and why the 4-6-4 arrangement was chosen over the 4-6-2 is something of a puzzle. Perhaps it was because their 74-inch drivers, small for a Hudson type, shortened the coupled wheelbase under the boiler and required extra weight distribution at the rear. The L-1b class had 25x26-inch cylinders and 215 p.s.i. of boiler pressure. They exerted 40,150 pounds of tractive effort and weighed 315,900 pounds. With 4219 square feet of evaporative heating surface, they had 1055 square feet of superheating surface. The image comes from the 1951 edition of World Railways.