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CPKC Says Steam Locomotive 2816 to Run ‘This Summer’

The railroad previously said that Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 2816 would run from Canada to Mexico once the merger with Kansas City Southern was complete. Photo by Steve Barry.

CPKC Says Steam Locomotive 2816 to Run ‘This Summer’

By Justin Franz

Canadian Pacific Kansas City appears to be making good on a promise to bring its historic 4-6-4 steam locomotive to Mexico.

On Wednesday, CPKC announced on social media that Canadian Pacific 2816 would run “this summer” from Canada to Mexico to celebrate the recently completed merger of CP and Kansas City Southern. The railroad did not provide any specifics and as this story was published had not responded to a request for comment from Railfan & Railroad

The post showed an image of 2816 being lifted back onto its driving wheels inside the Ogden Shops in Calgary, where it has been under restoration for the last year. 

In 2021, CEO Keith Creel teased that the steam locomotive would return to service following a successful CP-KCS 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. 

CP has been tightlipped about the recent restoration, only sharing the occasional photo online in the recent months of the locomotive in the shop. However, moves have been made to prepare for a North American tour. Earlier this spring, an auxiliary tender from Southern Pacific 4-8-4 4449 was sent north to Alberta to be prepared for service with the Canadian locomotive. 

Southern Pacific 4449’s auxiliary tender being prepared in Portland, Ore., to head north earlier this spring. Photo by Joseph Zadeh.

This article was posted on: June 1, 2023