The Northern Cross Railroad was a project of the State of Illinois beginning in the late 1830s. Its purpose was to create an east-west transportation link across the state to promote development; eventually most of it became part of the Wabash Railroad. Motive power for the initial strap-rail trackage of the Northern Cross was the Rogers, the first locomotive to operate west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio River. It was built in 1838 by Rogers, Grosvenor and Ketchumit of Newark, New Jersey and was delivered to Meredosia, Illinois by riverboat. The Wabash's Decatur shops built this rubber-tired parade replica of the Rogers and displayed it at the 1948 fair. The replica still exists at the Illinois Railway Museum, where a project to restore it is under way.