Achi news desk-
On April 14, 2023, CPKC drove a ceremonial final spike completing North America’s only trans-country rail network.
Now, the railway company is celebrating that anniversary with a steam journey.
CPKC is an amalgamation of two historic railroads – Canadian Pacific (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS).
It is a restored steam locomotive 2816, which will travel from Calgary to Mexico City and back again.
Adam Meeks, onboard train master and CPKC’s senior manager of heritage services, operations and corporate historian, says the locomotive will pull a full complement of cars for the trip.
“You have 1,600 feet of rail,” he said.
“We will have two of our heritage diesel locomotives … and we actually have a fleet of passenger cars. Some of them are nearly 100 years old.
“We also have some cars from the Kansas City Southern. They have an amazing fleet of business cars.”
It has taken almost two years for the team to restore Engine 2816 at the Ogden Yard and on April 24, it will head out on the historic journey.
“We haven’t checked it but it’s certainly in world record territory,” Meeks said.
“We know for sure that this will be the only steam passenger train to cover Canada, the United States and Mexico in one trip.”
Meeks expects that many people will come out to see the train when it stops in cities along the route.
“I think this will be the steam event of the decade – certainly this year,” he said.
“We have a series of public events planned where people will be able to come out and get close to the locomotive, take pictures, learn about the history of CP, KCS and the Mexican National Railways, because they are an important part of the story also.”
Jonathan Morris, operations manager and part of the restoration team, says the locomotive has a long Canadian history and was built in Montreal in 1930.
“It ran from the Toronto to London corridor, mainly Windsor in the early 30s,” he said.
“After working between Calgary and Winnipeg and this locomotive would leave – just to put it in perspective – Calgary 841 miles to Winnipeg, then turn it around and run it right back 841 miles every day, back and on, back and forth, tens of thousands of miles a month.”
Morris is confident the steam engine is working properly but says the team operating the train from Calgary to Mexico City must be prepared to make any repairs on the fly as there is no shops to buy new parts.
“After we leave here, we have to do everything ourselves,” he said.
“We actually have a tool car that comes with us. It has a lathe and a milling machine. We have spare materials, copper tubing, lots and lots of things we can do on the road to keep it going if have we any little.” little things that come up.”
Morris makes the journey as one of the train’s engineers.
He says 2816 was originally built as a coal burner and during the original restoration between 1998 and 2001 it was converted to burn diesel fuel.
“We can even burn biodiesel in this,” Morris said.
“So it’s a very environmentally friendly steam locomotive.”
Justin Tracy will make the long journey as the train’s fireman, ensuring that the flames used to create the steam are constant.
He was also on the recovery team.
“You know, the excitement level is building as we get closer to this event,” he said.
“We put a year and a half into preparation – it’s time to hit the road.”
Tracy says it’s not a fun ride for the crew because it takes a lot to run a steam engine.
“When we go, you’re constantly moving on one side or the other,” he said.
“You’re outside looking for signals, switches out there in front of you, then you’re automatically back in, scanning this steam pressure gauge, water glasses, what the engineer is do it and then straight back and it’s consistent, all day long.”
Tracy has a lot of respect for the crews that used to operate these steam engines on a regular basis because they had to know everything about the train, from running it to repairing it.
“You know everything in the modern world is controlled by a computer,” he said.
“(The engineer and the fireman were the) two computers sitting in the seats, doing all those functions for 12 to 16 hours a day.”
The train will leave Calgary next Friday but CPKC is holding a public event to view the steam locomotive on April 24 at 3 pm at CPKS headquarters (7550 Ogden Dale Road, SE).
You can learn more at https://www.cpkcr.com/en/community/final-spike-steam-train.
