By Justin Franz
British Columbia’s Kamloops Heritage Railway announced last week that it would resume steam excursions as early as 2026 following a six-year hiatus.
From 2002 until 2019, KHR operated excursions behind former Canadian National 2-8-0 2141. KHR offered a six-mile round-trip excursion out of Kamloops on CN trackage. Operations were suspended in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and then an increase in freight traffic in Kamloops on CN and Canadian Pacific prevented excursions from resuming. In the meantime, KHR maintained a small museum and put 2141 on display, its operational future far from certain.
But earlier this year, a new board of directors approached CN about resuming excursion service and since then staff and volunteers have been quietly working behind the scenes to get 2141 back on the main line, said Leader of Railway Development Jordan Popadynetz.
“It doesn’t do that locomotive any justice having it just sit in a museum,” Popadynetz told Railfan & Railroad. “Our goal is for it to run again.”
CN has offered to let KHR operate on 71 miles of the Okanagan Subdivision, between Campbell Creek and Vernon. Passengers will be bused from the KHR station in Kamloops to the train outside of town. Popadynetz said the group hopes to offer excursions of varying lengths, including overnight runs that will cover the entire line.
Popadynetz said staff and volunteers plan on spending 2025 getting the locomotive and its train back in operating condition. A boiler inspector has already looked at the locomotive and said little work would need to be done to get it back in service. If everything goes according to plan, locomotive 2141 will be back in service in 2026.
“For a 1912 locomotive, she’s in great shape,” Popadynetz said.
The M-3-d class locomotive was built by the Canadian Locomotive Co. in 1912 for CN predecessor Canadian Northern. The locomotive was used in Western Canada, including on Vancouver Island. It was acquired by the City of Kamloops in 1961 and put on display at a city park. In the 1990s, an effort was launched to put the locomotive back in service and in 2002 it ran for the first time since 1958.
For more information and to learn how to help the effort to put 2141 back on the main line, visit kamrail.com.
