#18 was built at Alco’s Schenectady, NY, works in 1922 as Studebaker Corporation # 1.
The engine worked in South Bend, IN, until 1948, when it was sold to the East St. Louis Junction Railroad Company in National City, IL, and renumbered #18. In 1955, it was sold to the Chicago Gravel Company to switch at their quarry in South Elgin, IL.
Edward David and Eugene G. Hammond started the Chicago Gravel Company in 1889 and began operating a stone crushing plant at gravel pits in 1903. Spurs running from the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad carried the product to the main lines. Chicago Gravel cosmetically restored #18 after it was retired, and donated it to the city of Bensenville IL, in 1961. It was placed on display at Bensenville's Veteran's Park, where it has remained ever since.
A coal burning 0-6-0, #18 weighs 130,000 lbs and has 51” drivers and 19” x 26” cylinders. Operating at a boiler pressure of 150 psi, it delivered 23,500 lbs tractive effort. It is on display with Milwaukee Road passenger carriage #5746, Mt. St. Helen and Rib Caboose #992114 built by the Milwaukee Road in 1951.
