Trains.com

Will CPR's Empress steam program be scrapped?

45588 views
108 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Monday, November 16, 2020 4:31 PM

I can't see why this would have happened unless some bright bulb at CP didn't win the day with, "People need something to cheer them up this season.  Many are going into lockdown again.."  Although, who would come out to see it if people are being hard-pressed to stay home and to avoid others in public?  Dunno....

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, November 16, 2020 12:45 PM

I did see it was virtual.  Big bloody deal.  Virtual ain't real.  

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they're steaming it up, at least it's something, but if they want to really impress me, and I imagine quite a few other people, get it back on the main line.  If not this year than next year.  

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Monday, November 16, 2020 9:12 AM

Flintlock76
If enough people start asking "Why isn't it pulling the Christmas Train to begin with?" maybe, just maybe, it might lead to better things.

You didn't read the story.  This IS 'pulling the Christmas Train' this year.  It's a virtual train.

And they could have easily used CGI to produce it, instead of actually steaming the locomotive.  Read between the lines.  Someone was thinking.

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, November 16, 2020 7:47 AM

Steam around the yard is better than no steam at all.  Who knows?  If enough people start asking "Why isn't it pulling the Christmas Train to begin with?" maybe, just maybe, it might lead to better things.

 

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Sunday, November 15, 2020 8:13 PM

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 29 posts
Posted by PakunaMatata on Thursday, October 24, 2019 9:54 PM

SD70Dude

 

 
PakunaMatata

6711 is still owned by CP and listed in the Trackside guide.  It's house in the heritage fleet repair shop and is used by the heritage department, mainly for car shunting.

What I'd like to know is what it was doing to 2816.

SD70Dude, where was that little goat pushing that majestic steamer?  I can't seem to locate that area on Google maps - maybe the area's been relandscaped since the overhead photos were taken.

 

 

The current google maps shot was taken on August 31, 2017.  Well before that area was landscaped.

If you have downloaded the full Google Earth program you can view every shot of an area they have ever taken, by using the historical imagery feature (clock icon). 

2816's exact location in the photo is here, I used the warehouse in the background as a reference:

50.996537, -113.999453

 

 

Huh.  Wonder why they were moving her to the maintenance shed?

--- Michael Marquardt: Modeling the Canadian Pacific modern era since 1998
  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Sunday, October 13, 2019 11:20 AM

PakunaMatata

6711 is still owned by CP and listed in the Trackside guide.  It's house in the heritage fleet repair shop and is used by the heritage department, mainly for car shunting.

What I'd like to know is what it was doing to 2816.

SD70Dude, where was that little goat pushing that majestic steamer?  I can't seem to locate that area on Google maps - maybe the area's been relandscaped since the overhead photos were taken.

The current google maps shot was taken on August 31, 2017.  Well before that area was landscaped.

If you have downloaded the full Google Earth program you can view every shot of an area they have ever taken, by using the historical imagery feature (clock icon). 

2816's exact location in the photo is here, I used the warehouse in the background as a reference:

50.996537, -113.999453

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Sunday, October 13, 2019 11:16 AM

Overmod
PakunaMatata
SD70Dude, where was that little goat pushing that majestic steamer? 

Some of this question was addressed over on RyPN ... with a little controversy.  Best, probably, to say they knew what they were doing with it.

RYPN thread:

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34579&start=30

The controversy seems to have been about the future of 2860, not 2816. 

That story is truly deserving of its own thread, if and when stuff starts to be publicly announced.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Sunday, October 13, 2019 9:49 AM

PakunaMatata
SD70Dude, where was that little goat pushing that majestic steamer? 

Some of this question was addressed over on RyPN ... with a little controversy.  Best, probably, to say they knew what they were doing with it.

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 29 posts
Posted by PakunaMatata on Saturday, October 12, 2019 1:26 AM

6711 is still owned by CP and listed in the Trackside guide.  It's house in the heritage fleet repair shop and is used by the heritage department, mainly for car shunting.

What I'd like to know is what it was doing to 2816.

SD70Dude, where was that little goat pushing that majestic steamer?  I can't seem to locate that area on Google maps - maybe the area's been relandscaped since the overhead photos were taken.

--- Michael Marquardt: Modeling the Canadian Pacific modern era since 1998
  • Member since
    May 2013
  • 3,231 posts
Posted by NorthWest on Thursday, August 22, 2019 7:44 PM

I've gotten a 1200 and multiple 1300s and 1400s on the BNSF this summer. They used to be confined to coal trains, but I've mostly found them on manifests this year.

One of the times I did get them on a coal train, a 1400 led a 1300, which isn't supposed to happen because they're not PTC equipped.

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Thursday, August 22, 2019 6:24 PM

The 1500's are still running around on CN and we had some 1400's too, but I haven't seen one of them for a while. 

They pull as well as any other ES44AC and their cabs are better laid out than CN's units, with the microwave down in the nose and fully reclining seats.  And no inward-facing cameras.  I suspect they were built to Ferromex or BNSF specs, as they only had fridges (no microwave or hot plate) when CN started leasing them, and sometimes you have to use the "FXE" initials when setting up Distributed Power with them. 

They also have pass-through ECP cables. 

Because of the seats they are well liked by crews, and are my favourite units to run.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, August 22, 2019 6:16 PM

NDG
A Citirail Diesel went by on a drag the other day, too far away to get the number.

I have one in a coal-train consist that reliably shuttles through here.  It is helpfully #1211, from the 2012 series that I'd heard nobody was currently leasing.  Go figure!

NDG
  • Member since
    December 2013
  • 1,620 posts
Posted by NDG on Thursday, August 22, 2019 5:14 PM
More random thoughts than anything.
 
HAVE to love the Internet!
 
Wreck WM 1411.
 
 
 
Suppose it was NOT rebuilt?, Mais, stranger things have occurred?
 
I was not aware of this class of locomotive. Lovely!
 
 
Amazing what came off the Erecting Shop Floors during that final Decade 1946-1956.
 
This includes the coal-fired steam turbine electric creations a la C&O, N&W.
 
 
OF COURSE, NOTHING! can eclipse that Chain Drive British creation!!
 
NOTHING!!
 
 
Progress looking out the rear window?
 
Anyway.
 
NYC/P&LE 9401.  The Over Fire Jets Noisy in use. 
 
 
Ugly in a beautiful sort of way, Like a Niagara.
 
 
This engine received Diesel Control for Diesels behind to pull Museum Train on Vancouver Island as Royal Hudson CP 2860 too heavy re trestles. MU Controller then went on CN 2141 at Kamloops.
 
 
CN 2141.
 
 
 
Thanks to Mr. Overmod I now know MUCH more about the NYC Niagara than I did before, see how successful it was and the top of reciprocating steam locomotive construction at the end of the War.
 
Much data re their development and Mileages per month indicating Success!!
 
Would have bought the Book! But Shipping was outlandish.
 
Acquired ' Three Barrels of Steam ', then passed it on to a younger man for his elucidation.
 
 
MLW constructed three 3-cylinder engines for Mexico. Pacifics?
 
CNR rebuilt steam right up to the end, sending some for scrap, paint still wet.
 
 
Back to the Past.
 
Canadian Locomotive Strafed by War Birds.
 
In a Movie. In Jamaica. 4-8-0.
 
 
 
 
Look at it now. 
 
Look at it ALL, now.
 
 
A Citirail Diesel went by on a drag the other day, too far away to get the number.
 
 
A lifetime of change.
 
Time for Meds, A trip to Starbucks on my 4-8-2 bike, or a Nap?
 
Maybe all of them?
 
Blame it on Old Age.
 
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.
 
Starbucks won!
 
Thank You. 
 

 

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Thursday, August 22, 2019 4:00 PM

AgentKid

Somebodys monkeying around, the 6711 was a SW9, which became the Ogden Shop switcher, and is listed as retired. The newest picture on CPRDieselRoster.com is from 2015. It seems to have worked in Edmonton back in the day.

Bruce

I was able to identify the exact location of the photo at Ogden on Google Earth, using the warehouse in the background as a reference, and using their historical imagery feature I can also date certain features in the photo. 

The foreground of the photo (with the little trees) was landscaped between August and October 2018, but the grass strip between the two paved roadways does not appear in the 2018 shots. 

Therefore, the photo was taken during late spring or summer 2019.

2816's exact location in the photo is here:  50.996537, -113.999453

The current Google Maps shot (with the 3 F-units sitting outside the nearby shop building) was taken on August 31, 2017.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, August 22, 2019 12:26 PM

NDG
Must be a record for the Shortest-lived steam locomotives?

I'd propose the Western Maryland's amazing M-2 Potomacs as vying for that honor, at least for engines that had no perceived or operational defect.  Ordered and delivered after WM observed the Reading T-1s in action, in 1947, but all out of service by May 1954.  (And not scrapped until their equipment trusts hit 10 years ... but every one went then.)

Bet not one in a hundred railfans knows about them.  I wouldn't if not for the extensive footnotes in Riding The Locomotive Cabs.

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • From: Burbank IL (near Clearing)
  • 13,540 posts
Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, August 22, 2019 12:03 PM

The A-2's were Alco's last steam locomotives, so much so that Lima built the tenders.  P&LE management did not want the A-2's but the parent road forced them on P&LE.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
NDG
  • Member since
    December 2013
  • 1,620 posts
Posted by NDG on Thursday, August 22, 2019 10:34 AM
FYI.
 
D&H 1511
 
 
 
As it says here, the latest of the D&H Challengers were delivered in 1946, and scrapped in 1953.
 
 
Must be a record for the Shortest-lived steam locomotives? a la NYC/P&LE 9400s?
 
 
As an aside, Rumor was the D&H sent a Challenger to Montreal to 'Show it Off ' in CPR's Windsor Station, and to this end as the locomotive was much taller than the CPR Power then in use, the concrete walls of the smoke channels in the roof had to be chipped away to accommodate the top of the smoke stack.
 
Never seen a photo of a D&H Challenger in Montreal, and it might be an Urban Legend re Track and Bridges?
 
The Smoke Channels in Windsor Station WERE chipped away, tho', to increase clearance.
 
 
PA Windsor Station, Smoke Channel chipped away. Where channel extended over bumper at end of track, the original rounded contour was still visible, not chipped away.
 
 
 
FWIW.
 
Multi-Pressure 3 Cyl CP 8000 WAS exhibited in Windsor Station. Station Cropped out.
 
 
The TENDER from CP 8000 lasted into the Diesel Era behind another locomotive.
 
 
FWIW.
 
A CPR Baldwin.
 
 
Thank You.

 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, August 22, 2019 9:04 AM

If I remember correctly there are multiple D&H 4-6-6-4 tenders in preservation, although I don't know if as many as L&N 'Big Emma' tenders.  I'm sure someone who reads this will have exact numbers and perhaps an extended history.

(I'd happily contribute to an effort to build a replica Big Emma using one of the latter.  That was perhaps the best of the Berkshires: a full 4-8-4 designed slightly shorter to fit 'as much locomotive as possible' onto available turntables.)

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, August 22, 2019 9:03 AM

If I remember correctly there are multiple D&H 4-6-6-4 tenders in preservation, although I don't know if as many as L&N 'Big Emma' tenders.  I'm sure someone who reads this will have exact numbers and perhaps an extended history.

I'd happily contribute to an effort to build a replica Big Emma using one of the latter.  That was perhaps the best of the Berkshires: a full 4-8-4 designed slightly shorter to fit available turntables.

NDG
  • Member since
    December 2013
  • 1,620 posts
Posted by NDG on Thursday, August 22, 2019 8:32 AM
Et Viola?
 
 
There was a D&H Tender in the weeds @ Rouses Point, N.Y. Sixty 60 Years ago.
 
Thank You.

 

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • 2,678 posts
Posted by kgbw49 on Thursday, August 22, 2019 7:33 AM

If my memory serves me correctly, I think it is a conversion from a former articulated locomotive’s tender, perhaps even from a D&H 4-6-6-4. But I must admit I am a little foggy on that.

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • From: Burbank IL (near Clearing)
  • 13,540 posts
Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, August 22, 2019 6:53 AM

Where did CP come up with the design for the auxiliary tender?  It's absolutely hideous (and this is coming from a diesel fan).

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
  • Member since
    January 2015
  • 2,678 posts
Posted by kgbw49 on Thursday, August 22, 2019 12:22 AM

Well, here is one from days gone by...

https://railpictures.net/photo/653315/

  • Member since
    September 2013
  • 6,199 posts
Posted by Miningman on Thursday, August 22, 2019 12:04 AM

Ah ha .. duped? 

  • Member since
    August 2008
  • From: Calgary AB. Canada
  • 2,298 posts
Posted by AgentKid on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 11:58 PM

Somebodys monkeying around, the 6711 was a SW9, which became the Ogden Shop switcher, and is listed as retired. The newest picture on CPRDieselRoster.com is from 2015. It seems to have worked in Edmonton back in the day.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

  • Member since
    September 2013
  • 6,199 posts
Posted by Miningman on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 11:52 PM

Just like my home care nurses! Taking me out to stretch the old legs and get some air. Looking good! 

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 9:20 PM

Time for another bump.  2816 was spotted out and about Ogden recently, being towed by a diesel switcher:

Image may contain: train, sky and outdoor

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 29 posts
Posted by PakunaMatata on Monday, June 4, 2018 8:10 PM

That depends.  CP is self-insured.  Technically, 2816 wouldn't be allowed to operate at all in Canada, thanks to the way her tubes were installed in Oregon, if it were a museum locomotive.  However, because no third party is insuring the locomotive, she is granted exemption.

Or so I am told.

--- Michael Marquardt: Modeling the Canadian Pacific modern era since 1998
  • Member since
    August 2010
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 8,955 posts
Posted by Firelock76 on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 5:15 PM

That's true.  Here in the US there are instances of steam-powered equipment such as locomotives, stationary steam engines, steam tractors, and portable steam engines (they're like the steam tractors but not self-propelled) operating under state inspection only.

Where the "split" is between state and Federal regs and what does or doesn't apply when and where I don't know.  Possibly one of our "Forumites" can tell us.

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy