 |
| Original News Release |
|
| Original News Release |
The CP BC Spirit of 150 Train is the vintage CP 2816 Empress. Built by Montreal Locomotive Works in December 1930, the CP 2816 Empress is a class H1b Hudson-type steam locomotive. It is now the only surviving H1b Hudson and is one of only a handful of preserved and operating Canadian Pacific steam locomotives in North America.
Initially, the locomotive ran westward out of Winnipeg to Calgary and eastward to Fort William, Ontario (now part of Thunder Bay). Locomotive 2816 then moved into service on the Windsor-to-Quebec City corridor. Its last assignment was at the front of a Montreal-Rigaud commuter train, making its final revenue run on May 26, 1960. Having logged more than two million miles in active service, 2816’s fires were extinguished.
Rebuilding began in 1998 and the restoration of the CP 2816 Empress was completed in 2002.
The rebuild team consulted more than 800 engineering drawings of CP class H1b locomotives to rebuild the locomotive from the ground up in much of the same manner it was built in more than 75 years ago. The 2816 is the only survivor. These drawings show every nut, bolt and rivet – hand drawn to scale and accurately identified as to location, size and material specification.
Today, the CP 2816 Empress is restored to the original specifications with external details from the 1940s and ‘50s. The vintage steam locomotive and support cars are roving ambassadors for Canadian Pacific’s 16,000 employees in 900 communities across North America.
Canadian
Pacific is the official rail freight services provider for the Vancouver 2010
Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Visit www.cpr.ca
for more information on Canadian Pacific.
-30-
|
contact: |
Communications Director Office of the Premier 250 387-6605 |
Senior Manager – Media Relations Canadian Pacific 778 772-9636 |
|
|
||
|
For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca. |
||
