Built as a freight locomotive to operate service between downtown St. Louis and Central Illinois, #1595 has a four-truck articulated design which allowed safe weight distribution on bridges which enabled it to negotiate tight curves on city streets. The locomotive is 52 feet in length and weighs 160,000 pounds. It has eight General Electric motors which received 600-volt DC power through a trolley pole from overhead wires. Number 1595 is the sole surviving class C locomotive of the Illinois Terminal Railroad.