By Justin Franz
Canadian Pacific H1b 4-6-4 2816 is set to depart on its historic tri-nation tour on April 26, to celebrate the first anniversary of the CPKC Railway merger. On Wednesday, the railroad released a detailed schedule of the highly anticipated tour of the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The “Final Spike Steam Tour” will kick off with an event at CPKC headquarters in Calgary on April 24, before the train departs there on April 26. It will overnight in Medicine Hat, Alberta, the first night. Additional public events are scheduled for Moose Jaw, Sask. (April 28), Minot, N.D. (April 30), St. Paul, Minn. (May 3), Franklin Park, Ill. (May 8), Davenport, Iowa (May 10), Kansas City (May 18), Shreveport, La. (May 24) and Laredo, Tex. (May 28). The locomotive will continue to Mexico City afterward and be on display there in early June. The locomotive is then expected to return north to Calgary.
Locomotive 2816 was built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in 1930. It ran until 1960 and then was sold to preservationist F. Nelson Blount. In 1998, CP reacquired the locomotive and ran it for a decade beginning in 2001. In 2023, CP reactivated 2816 to celebrate its merger with Kansas City Southern.
