Paducah’s railroad heritage began with the first railroad line in 1855. Over the next 150 years, that 60-mile reach into Tennessee spread north, west, south, and east and came to involve three major railroad systems, a transcontinental connection created by construction of the Ohio River Bridge to Illinois in 1917, and the completion by the Illinois Central Railroad of the massive Paducah Locomotive Shops on Kentucky Avenue in 1929. Over the years, the Illinois Central Railroad evolved into the Canadian National Railway, alongside a regional railroad connecting Paducah to Louisville and a private company that rebuilds diesel locomotives with the latest technology for domestic use and export. A 2-8-2 Mikado, number 1518, a baggage-mail combination car, and a terminal caboose represent this history. The Mikado was built in 1923 by Lima Locomotives Works for the I.C.R.R., rebuilt in the Paducah shops in 1940 and 1951, donated to the city of Paducah in 1964, first placed in Barkley Park on the north riverfront, moved in 1984 to First and Broadway when the baggage-mail car and caboose were added, and moved again in 1999 to its present location.