The Nickel Plate's eight 4-6-4 or Hudson type engines were among the lightest of their type in North America. They were delivered in two groups; class L-1a came from American Locomotive Company in 1927 and class L-1b from Lima Locomotive Works in 1929. The latter group, to which No. 174 shown here belonged, weighed 315,900 pounds without tender. The "elephant ear" smoke lifters were a later addition that gave the locomotives an appearance of greater size despite their 74-inch drivers, small for a Hudson type. The L-1b class had 25x26-inch cylinders and 215 pounds per square inch of boiler pressure, and exerted 40,150 pounds of tractive effort. Their grate area measured 68 square feet, with 4220 square feet of evaporative heating surface and 1100 square feet of superheating surface.

After being displaced by Alco PA diesels on the Nickel Plate's long-distance passenger trains the 4-6-4s continued, for a time, to handle them between Chicago's LaSalle Street Station and the diesel servicing facility, and they also worked occasionally in freight service. One of these Hudsons can be seen in both capacities in John Szwajkart's video The Chicago Collection. Robert Leffingwell captured No. 174 on a transparency at Englewood Station, Chicago, in the mid-1950s with a passenger train — probably not one of the Nickel Plate's scheduled trains but a railfan special, judging by the lack of head-end equipment (baggage and express cars).