News Wire top stories of 2024, No. 6: Canadian Pacific 2816 Tour

steam train by building — No. 2816 rolls west with the Final Spike Steam Tour special past a tied-down towboat in the causeway between Savanna, Ill., and Sabula, Iowa ,on the main channel of the Mississippi River at Sabula on May 9, 2024. Steve Smedley

Since 2019, Union Pacific has been in the steam spotlight with its restored 4-8-8-4 Big Boy No. 4014. In 2024, CPKC stole some of 4014’s thunder with its “Final Spike Tour” using Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 No. 2816. From April to July, No. 2816 operated from Canada through the central U.S. and through Mexico to Mexico City, the first time a North American steam excursion train has operated through three countries on the same railroad.

The operation was the brainchild of CPKC CEO Keith Creel. He had vowed to send the 1930 product of the Montreal Locomotive Works, known as the “Empress,” on a tour of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico if the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger was approved. The merger was consummated in April 2023, and a year later No. 2816, after an extensive overhaul and subsequent break-in, hit the road starting April 26 for a celebration of the merger. “We are excited to share this extraordinary experience with communities across our network as we mark the one-year anniversary of our CPKC journey,” Creel said in January when the tour schedule was first announced.

While the train made many stops in smaller cities, at “event” stops visitors could get up close to the locomotive and train. In the U.S., the train made event stops in Minot, N.D.; St. Paul, Minn.; Franklin Park, Ill.; Davenport, Iowa; Kansas City; Shreveport, La; and Laredo, Texas. Huge crowds greeted the train at virtually every stop.

No. 2816 crossed the International Railway Bridge into Mexico at Laredo on May 30 working to a display site in Mexico City on June 7. In Mexico, the crowds were even larger than in the U.S., but tragedy struck June 4 when a young woman stood too close to the tracks in the community of Aragón while attempting to take a selfie and was fatally struck. The train returned to the U.S. at Laredo June 11. There were no further incidents as the excursion train returned to Calgary, including an event stop in Winnipeg, arriving back in Calgary July 10 after 76 days on the road and nearly 10,000 miles.

It was an amazing trip for the historic locomotive, which served CP in passenger service for 30 years, before it was retired in May 1960. In 1963, it was sold to F. Nelson Blount who added it to his Steamtown USA Collection in Vermont. After the National Park Service took over the Steamtown Collection and it was moved to Pennsylvania, it was reacquired by CP in 1998. CP invested more than $2 million in a three-year rebuild and returned it to operating condition in 2001. After E. Hunter Harrison became president and CEO of CP, the steam program was discontinued and the locomotive stored in Calgary, although it emerged from storage a few times since Harrison pulled the plug on its steam program in 2012.

In 2022 Creel authorized work to get the locomotive in condition for the trip to Mexico that included a 15-year boiler inspection, extensive overhaul of the running gear, and installation of positive train control.

CPKC hasn’t made public any future plans for 2816 now that it’s back in Calgary. Union Pacific’s CEO Jim Vena told a shipper conference in May that he’d like to see his Big Boy and No. 2816 appear together. So perhaps the steam story of 2025 will see these two great steam locomotives on the same stage.