The Illinois Traction System built 20 Class C electric interurban freight locomotives at their Decatur , IL shops, using trucks, traction motors and control equipment from retired passenger cars. Later it became the Illinois Terminal Railroad. These were needed as freight trains became heavier. The Class C is 52' 5" long and weighs 160,000 lbs. The eight 75 HP traction motors used in its articulated four truck design could produce 1,500 HP for short periods of time. This design used two independent cast steel sub-frame that are each 20' 7" long and 9' 2 ½ " wide and are ballasted with scrap steel and concrete. This gives it a (B-B)-(B-B) classification; two unconnected frames, each with two swiveling trucks, and all axles are powered. The design made it very flexible, able to take 35' radius street track curves, and spreads out its weight, avoiding the need to replace light rail and existing bridges on the line. These locomotives could operate in multiple with each other as well as Class B locomotives. They ran on 600 volt DC power taken from an overhead wire via trolley poles. The columns at the end are sandboxes used when improve traction was needed. Considered one of the most successful electric "interurban" of the first half of the 20th century, the Illinois Terminal operated both passenger and freight service between downtown St. Louis and central Illinois . It crossed the Mississippi River on the McKinley Bridge . Number 1595 was donated in 1956 by the Illinois Terminal Railroad when the railroad ended both long-haul passenger and electrified freight service.