The Chicago and North Western Railway D Class was a class of 92 American 4-4-2 "Atlantic" locomotives. They were built by Schenectady Locomotive Works and by its corporate successor the American Locomotive Company between 1900 and 1908. In addition, the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway (Omaha Road) bought seven, classifying them as class G-3

Design The locomotives had a boiler pressurized to providing steam to two cylinders with a bore and a stroke. They were connected to driving wheels by a variety of valve gear: most had Stephenson valve gear and piston valves; No. 1026 was fitted up with Youngs rotary valves and valve gear in 1903, but later reverted to Stephensons valve gear. The 1908 batch had Walschaerts valve gear, the first five locomotives having piston valves and the last ten were delivered with Young rotary valves; these were replaced with piston valves when the locomotives were fitted with superheaters.

Construction All 92 locomotives were built by Schenectady Locomotive Works (SLW) and by the same works under its corporate successor, the American Locomotive Company (ALCO).

In September 1904, ALCO announced their introduction to steam locomotives with superheated boilers, following some successful test runs by a European locomotive at a St. Louis exhibition. The C&NW subsequently asked ALCO to construct one D class 4-4-2 (No. 1300) and one R-1 class 4-6-0 (No. 76) with superheated boilers. The railroad became unsatisfied with the performance of Nos. 1300 and 76, and no further D's or R-1's were built new with superheaters.

+ Table of orders and numbers Year Quantity Manufacturer Serial numbers C&NW numbers Notes 1900 6 Schenectady 5613–5618 1015–1020 1901 4 Schenectady 5840–5843 1021–1024 1901 6 Schenectady 6138–6142/44 1025–1030 1902 6 Alco (S) 25411–25416 1080–1085 1902 6 Alco (S) 26524–26529 1086–1091 1903 10 Alco (S) 27571–27580 1092–1101 1904 12 Alco (S) 29705–29716 113, 152, 464, 475, 482, 493, 895, 1303–1307 1905 6 Alco (S) 30294–30298 1297–1302 1905 4 Alco (S) 38509–38512 367–370 Omaha Road 1906 10 Alco (S) 39247–39256 1308–1317 1906 3 Alco (S) 39410–39412 364–366 Omaha Road 1907 10 Alco (S) 42200–42209 1443–1452 1908 15 Alco (S) 45697–45711 125–128, 158, 390–399

Service At the time of their introduction, wooden cars were the norm. The class D locomotives were quite capable of pulling a 10-car, 400-ton train on the 138-mile Chicago to Clinton route in 3 hours 25 minutes inclusive of eleven stops.

Unfortunately, steel cars came into use soon after, and the locomotives became outclassed. They were then downgraded to commuter service and locals.

On the Omaha Road, one of the later uses of their class G-3 was powering the Minneapolis to Ashland train The Namakagon substituting for the regular gas-electric car when it was in the shops or the load exceeded its two-car capacity.

Retirements started in 1931, and continued until the end of steam in 1956 when the last two were retired from Chicago commuter service.

+ Table of CNW pre-1948 scrappings Year Quantity inservice atstart of year Quantityscrapped Numbers Notes 1931 91 1 1087 1936 90 3 1306, 1314, 1443 1937 87 1 1302 1938 86 9 1018/90/91, 1100, 1300/05/09, 1448/52 1939 77 6 1019/21/84, 1101, 1447/49 1940 71 24 125/27, 390/92/93/96/98, 464, 895, 1024/27/30/82/85/89/92/93/99, 1303/04/10, 1444/46/51 1941 47 5 1025/28/81/94, 1445 1942 42 3 1026/86, 1313 1943 39 6 128, 391, 475, 1029/80/88 1944 33 4 152, 1095, 1301, 1315 1945 29 4 1308, 1311, 1312, 1317 1947 25 4 493, 1015, 1083, 1450

+ Table of Omaha retirements Year Quantity inservice atstart of year Quantityscrapped Numbers Notes 1945 7 3 366, 368, 370 1946 4 1 369 1949 3 1 367 1950 2 1 365 1952 1 0 364

One locomotive has been preserved: CNW 1015, the first locomotive built. It is on display at the National Museum of Transportation at Kirkwood, Missouri.

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