Illinois Central 2-8-0 No. 790 Steamtown's 1903 ALCO (American Locomotive Company) 2-8-0 Consolidation sits on display now moved from the entrance of the Museum's roundhouse, to the interior. She is flanked by the Museum's 2-8-4 Nickel Plate No. 759.
No. 759 was originally built for the Chicago Union Transfer Railway and numbered 100. It (and sisters 101–103) were sold to Illinois Central Railroad Company in 1904. This locomotive pulled heavy freight in Tennessee and was later rebuilt by the Illinois Central in 1918, modernizing it with a superheater, and possibly replacing the boiler and firebox.
After retirement from the IC, it was sold to Louis S. Keller of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1959 who had hoped to use it for excursions. It was used for "flood duty" in April 1965 at the Clinton Corn Processing Company "where it plowed through overflow from the Mississippi River." Later that year it was sold to David de Camp who planned to use it in the area of Lake Placid, New York, but these plans were not met. It became part of the Steamtown, U.S.A. collection in Bellows Falls, Vermont when it was sold to F. Nelson Blount in January 1966.
