In the late twenties, the Bessemer & Lake Erie as a part of U.S. Steel needed more powerful locomotives to move their heavy ore trains from the Lake Erie port of Conneaut, Ohio to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania over grades of up to one percent. Since they didn't like articulated locomotives and wanted a proven non-articulated design, they ordered a 2-10-4 from Baldwin that was delivered in 1929.

This locomotive, numbered 601, was based on the Burlington class M-4 and was one of the heaviest and most powerful non-articulated locomotives of the time at a service weight of 502,630 pounds without a tender. It had drivers of 64 inches (1,626 mm) and cylinders of 31 by 32 inches. Together with its trailing truck booster, it developed a tractive effort of 115,206 pounds. Its boiler produced up to 4,690 hp. 

The prototype was designated class H-1a and was the first of a total of 47 locomotives. With several batches following in the years 1930, 1936, 1937 and 1941 to 1944, the subclasses H-1b to H-1g were created. With the exception of ten H-1d built by ALCO in 1937, all were built by Baldwin. Over time, they got heavier with the last batches weighing 524,440 pounds. The axle loading rose from 72,100 pounds, what was already high, to 75,984 pounds. Together with tender, they exceeded a total weight of 450 tons.

In Service, three locomotives each were used to haul 13,000 ton ore trains over the one percent grade. When the B&LE dieselized in the early fifties, 18 were sold to the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway, which was also a part of U.S. Steel. There they became classes E-4 to E-7 and were used until 1961. The B&LE already retired the others in 1952. The only one that survived is H-1g No. 643 that today is being stored at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.