WATERLOO, Ontario — The Waterloo Central Railway has purchased former Canadian Pacific Railway G5c 4-6-2 No. 1238 and intends to restore the locomotive to operation, according to the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society, the nonprofit organization that operates the heritage railway.
The locomotive was purchased for $150,000 from Vintage Locomotive Society Inc. of Winnipeg, Manitoba, operators of the Prairie Dog Central Railway, according to a restoration society press release. It joins two other steam locomotives on the Waterloo Central.
Montreal Locomotive Works built No. 1238 in 1946 for CPR, which operated the locomotive — first in passenger service and later to power freight trains — until the end of steam operations in 1959. Rail historian George Hart bought No. 1238 for his Rail Tours Inc. in 1964, moved it to York, Pa., and returned it to service in 1966, hauling tourists over the fabled Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad and other northeastern railroads. Hart sold the locomotive to an equipment leasing company in 1968, and for a time, it continued to pull mainline excursions out of Baltimore.
Steam preservation pioneer Jack Showalter purchased No. 1238 and former CPR G5d Pacific No. 1286 in 1973. They went on to operate on a series of heritage railroads — the Alleghany Central, on the former Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Hot Springs Branch; the Allegheny Central, on the former Western Maryland Railway between Cumberland and Frostburg, Md.; and the Virginia Central, out of Staunton, Va. In the mid-1990s, rising insurance costs led Showalter to put the engines into storage, and after his death in 2014, his estate sold both locomotives to the Vintage Locomotive Society in 2015.
No. 1238 remained in storage at the Prairie Dog Central for eight years, until Waterloo Central completed its fundraising efforts and purchased the locomotive on Dec. 28, 2023. The new owner is now raising funds to restore the locomotive to operation. Donations are being accepted at this page on the Waterloo Central website.
