By Justin Franz

Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 2816 ran for the first time Saturday following an extensive overhaul in Calgary, just weeks before it is expected to lead an excursion to Mexico. 

On Saturday, CPKC shared a brief video online of the locomotive being fired up and the news that it had a successful stationary steam test. Then, on Sunday evening, videos of the locomotive began to appear on social media from the CPKC employees of it under steam and moving around Calgary’s Alyth Yard. 

In 2021, CEO Keith Creel teased that the steam locomotive would return to service following a successful CP-Kansas City Southern merger. CP first restored 2816 — a 1930-built H1b Hudson and a sister to the more famous “Royal Hudson” class — to operation in 2001 and ran it across the system for more than a decade. The locomotive last ran on the main line in 2013 and it has since been stored at CP headquarters in Calgary. In 2020, CP  fired up the locomotive for the railroad’s virtual Holiday Train event and ran it around the yard in Calgary. 

CPKC has not yet released a schedule for the planned excursion to Mexico.