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Steamarama on the Soo Line Part 1 - The Glenwood Turn 9/8/2007

The Friends of 261 announced an excursion with Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 2816 on consecutive weekends. The first was from Canadian Pacific's Shoreham Yard in Minneapolis to Glenwood and return. The next day was a planned excursion to Dresser, Wisconsin. When I first decided to travel to Minnesota for this weekend, only the Dresser Turn would get me some new mileage. But since I was coming up here anyway, why not do the Glenwood Turn and just have a relaxing steam trip? As my friend and Amtrak Conductor Dave Arthur would say, "Been here and done that!"

The day came up fast and I was ready for this trip, packing the night before and printing my Northwest Airlines boarding pass.

I worked six periods at McFadden Intermediate and left school at the start of seventh. On Interstate 405, I had about three miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic before it opened the rest of the way to Los Angeles International Airport. I parked at Easy Park behind the Sheraton Hotel and the airport shuttle arrived within five minutes and dropped me off at Terminal 2. Security took less than five minutes and soon I was sitting in the Diner 66 LA Roundhouse for some buffalo chicken wings and a Coca-Cola. I relaxed the entire two hours before my flight boarded, buying the weekend edition of USA Today, which I read most of before I boarded at 5:00 PM.

For this flight I had Seat 12A on this A319 Aircraft. We departed the gate at 5:23 PM and took off eight minutes later. I did Sudoku puzzles for most of the trip and we touched down at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 10:24 PM CDT.

I made my way to the Alamo rental car counter and five minutes later, I was on my way toward Days Inn, but not the direct way, since that was closed by the Interstate 35W bridge collapse last month. I travelled way to Minnesota Highway 100 which I took north to Interstate 684 and was delayed by major road construction traffic before reaching Interstate 30 and the exit to the Days Inn at Roseville. I checked into my room and called home before calling it a night.

9/08/2007 After a quick continental breakfast, I drove west to Central Avenue, quickly found Shoreham Yard and my steam train waiting for today's ride.

Built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in December 1930, it is the only non-streamlined Hudson to be preserved. The locomotive was primarily used in pulling passenger trains in revenue service for thirty years before it was retired in May 1960. In 1963, it was sold to F. Nelson Blount, who added it to his Steamtown, U.S.A. collection in Bellows Falls, Vermont. After becoming surplus in the collection by the National Park Service, 2816 was reacquired by the Canadian Pacific in 1998 and crews from BC Rail were hired to extensively restore it to operating condition.

It was first assigned to premier passenger service between Winnipeg and Fort William, Ontario. Following the introduction of semi-streamlined Royal Hudson locomotives in 1937, it was re-assigned to secondary passenger service between Windsor, Ontario and Quebec City and during the 1950's, it pulled commuter trains between Montreal and Rigaud, Quebec. In 1957, 2816 received a minor overhaul, with its tender being replaced with one from Royal Hudson 2822. The locomotive was retired from revenue service on May 26, 1960, after accumulating 2,046,000 miles and was subsequently used briefly as a stationary boiler at the St. Luc yards in Montreal.

In the early 1960's, F. Nelson Blount wanted to expand his Steamtown, U.S.A. collection and one of the locomotives he initially wanted to preserve was a 4-6-4 from the New York Central Railroad. Since all NYC 4-6-4s were scrapped by that time, Blount improvised by purchasing 2816 from the Canadian Pacific in December 1963. The locomotive was removed from the scrap lines of Angus, Ontario, and it was put on static display at Steamtown's first location in Bellows Falls, Vermont. During No. 2816's time on static display, the locomotive deteriorated from the outdoor elements and its condition worsened for several years. In the winter of 1983-1984, it was moved along with the rest of the collection to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Steamtown was later reorganized as Steamtown National Historic Site under the ownership of the National Park Service. Following the reorganization, 2816 was deemed surplus in the collection and Steamtown wanted to dispose of it.

During the mid to late 1990's, the Canadian Pacific Railway's then-president and CEO, Robert Ritchie, reorganized the company and established the "Royal Canadian Pacific" excursion train to honour the railway's history and he sought for Canadian Pacific to operate their own steam excursion program. In 1998, the Canadian Pacific purchased 2816 from Steamtown and in exchange, the railway would move some equipment to Scranton. Canadian Pacific had heard of its availability via phone calls from BC Rail, who had been operating Canadian Pacific Royal Hudson 2860 as part of their own excursion program; the 2860 crews had been looking for replacement parts for the Royal Hudson and were offered to buy the entire locomotive by Steamtown.

A team of inspectors performed a preliminary inspection on 2816, and they pronounced that it was in good condition. In September 1998, the locomotive was coupled in a special consist led by Canadian Pacific GP38-2 3069, FP7 1400 and St. Lawrence and Hudson GP9u 8216, and it was ferried from Scranton to Montreal via Binghamton and Albany, New York, before travelling cross-country to the BC Rail steam workshop in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Canadian Pacific contracted the BC Rail steam shop crew, led by Al Broadfoot, to disassemble the steam engine and evaluate its condition; if it were salvageable, then they would restore it to operating condition, but if it were deteriorated beyond salvaging, then they would give it a cosmetic restoration for static display purposes.

When 2816 was disassembled, it was revealed that it was mechanically worn out, despite the preliminary inspectors having stated otherwise, but Rob Ritchie decided to approve a complete rebuild of the locomotive, regardless. Broadfoot and his team were able to obtain multiple plans and vital information about Canadian Pacific H1b class locomotives, including a collection of over 800 technical drawings provided by the Canada Science and Technology Museum and they used them as references for the project. Hundreds of replacement parts had to be fabricated by contractors in Vancouver, such as the cab, the running boards, the rod brasses, the superheater manifold, among others.

Contractors in the United States were hired to overhaul other major parts of 2816; the driving wheels were shipped to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee and the boiler was shipped to Doyle McCormack and his crews in Portland, Oregon. 2816's firebox was converted from coal to oil firing and the tender received dual water intakes with Canadian and American threads. Canadian Pacific gained so much faith in the project that on April 19, 2000, the railway announced that it would be scheduled to return to service for their steam program by September of that year, but the deadline was pushed back, due to further challenges encountered in the restoration process. The project spanned more than two years and incurred costs between $3 million and $3.5 million.

On August 15, 2001, 2816 passed its federal boiler inspection, and the following day, the locomotive was fired up for the first time in forty years, performing a series of test runs over three days on Canadian Pacific's Cascade Subdivision between Coquitlam and Mission. From September 19 to 23, with Al Broadfoot as the fireman and with Bill Stettler and Doyle McCormack taking turns as the engineer, 2816 pulled its first official inaugural excursion out of Port Moody, toured some of the Canadian Pacific mainlines for 672 miles over five days and then it stopped at Canadian Pacific's headquarters in Calgary, Alberta. The locomotive began pulling additional public relations excursions for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and it quickly received the name "The Empress".

On May 16, 2002, the locomotive pulled two excursions for the West Coast Express. Between May 24 and July 8, 2003, 2816 toured the Canadian Pacific between Alberta and Ontario, and the purpose of the tour was to spread further public awareness of Canadian Pacific and to raise money for the children's "Breakfast for Learning" program. On September 27, 2816 visited the Kamloops Heritage Railway and took part in a doubleheader excursion with Canadian National 2-8-0 2141. In May 2004, 2816 pulled the Royal Canadian Pacific consist while performing a 3,000-mile tour across the Canadian Pacific between Vancouver and Montreal, and it marked the first time in fifty years that a single steam locomotive pulled a cross-country passenger train in Canada, but it was assisted by three Canadian Pacific heritage diesels.

In early June 2004, the Empress was ferried behind a Soo Line SD60 over the CSX mainline between Buffalo, New York and Chicago, Illinois, hen it travelled to the Twin Cities area in Minnesota to participate in the Grand Excursion 2004 event, which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad's celebration train of 1854. 2816 pulled multiple public excursions for the event between the Twin Cities and the Quad Cities area in Iowa, using passenger coaches owned by Friends of the 261 and the last train took place on July 3; a doubleheader with Milwaukee Road 261 from St. Paul to La Crescent and return. 2816 returned from Minnesota to Calgary with a charity train later that same month.

Milwaukee Road Skytop observation "Cedar Rapids" would bring up the rear.

Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 2816 on the point of our train for the trip to Glenwood and back today.

The front of our excursion train, which consisted of Canadian Pacific 2816, water car 35508, Canadian Pacific GP38-2 3094, tool car Canadian Pacific 29114, generator car Canadian Pacific 96, sleeper Canadian Pacific 110, PPCX 5534 "HR Bowen", NSR baggage 9107 (in Canadian Pacific colours), coaches Canadian Pacific 101 "Dominion", Canadian Pacific 102 "Ernest "Smoky" Smith", St. Paul Pass 800798, NSR 203 "Nokomis" and NSR 202 "Kenora, NSR baggage X2450, NSR 31 "Minnesota River", NSR 3103 "Wisconsin Valley" PPCX 800757, Milwaukee Road "Super Dome" PPCX 800862 and Skytop observation "Cedar Rapids" PPCX 800040.

It was now boarding time and I chose a seat in my old and dear friend, the coach "Nokomis" then went to the concession car to buy the new 2816/261 T-shirt.

Canadian Pacific 2816 whistled off at 8:30 AM and we proceeded west to the wye along the BNSF, where we turned north, leaving Shoreham yard to get access to the Canadian Pacific Railway main line as the train slowly picked up a little speed. We curved to the west and entered the mainline at University Avenue.

Crossiver over the BNSF Northtown Yard on a long bridge.

We crossed the Mississippi River with a great view looking south towards downtown Minneapolis, then our train crossed Interstate 94 and we made our way west through the northwest suburbs.

Our train passed through Humboldt Yard then we crossed Twin Lake. At Crystal, we crossed the former Great Northern {BNSF} line that used to go to St. Cloud, but now goes only to Monticello.

Next we reached the former Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern, now operated by the Twin Cities and Western before rolling through Plymouth and onto Hamel, where we crossed over Minnesota Highway 55 that would follow our route into North Dakota. Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc. has their large plant west of town. We had now left urban Minneapolis behind and were out in the lands of farming and forests. We reached the town of Loreto with a 7,847 foot siding, the first since Humboldt Yard.

Lake Sarah was off to the south of the train, while on Highway 55, the pacers were providing plenty of entertainment. We steamed through Rockford and crossed high over the Crow River, followed by travelling across the green rolling countryside and the 9,200 foot siding at Dickinson.

Canadian Pacific 2816 steamed through Buffalo with the Soo Line station, built in 1954, still standing. We ran west into Maple Lake then steamed through Annadale and onto South Haven with its 8,477 foot siding. At a red signal, we stopped for a grease stop of the locomotive and soon learned that ahead was a broken rail, later learning it could be moved with one's foot. An estimated time of 1:00 PM was given to have the problem fixed, so there we sat.

Views from the window during our delay.

I looked down the train as the crew worked on servicing Canadian Pacific 2816. I bought the "Milwaukee Road Hiawatha" book by John Gruber and Brian Solomon and read about half of it.

The train chasers had to cool their wheels during our delay. We departed South Haven at 1:18 PM and the engine provided great sounds.

We crossed high over Willow Creek before slowing to cross the fixed broken rail.

The Canadian Pacific Railway track crew fixed the broken rail.

Canadian Pacific 2816 put on quite a show as it accelerated out of the slow order before whistling through the town of Kimball with the Kimball Rail Car repair facility west of town. Highway 55 crossed over to the south side of the tracks then we made our way through Wakens and later Eden Valley. A beautiful lake was off to the north and many more would be seen along our route, since Minnesota has 10,000 lakes! In the 7,651 foot siding at Paynesville, a Canadian Pacific Railway freight was waiting for us to go west. Highway 55 crossed over to the north side and under the bridge is where a former Great Northern line once crossed before we proceeded to Regal.

We crossed the North Fork of the Crow Rive then Highway 55 returned to the south side of the tracks as we steamed through Belgrade and onto Brooten then train rolled through Sedan, named for a city in France where a battle was fought on September 1st, 1870 which led to the establishment of France as a republic.

We arrived in Glenwood at 3:04 PM and were allowed to detrain but the engine was cut off and went to the turntable. As the rain began, I continued reading my new book as we waited for our engine to pull our train backwards to Shoreham Yard. An eastbound Canadian Pacific freight departed before Canadian Pacific 2816 returned to the point of our train.

We departed Glenwood at 5:10 PM and ran to Paynesville where we found that freight with 42 placard tank cars in the consist waiting for a westbound freight.

The view at Paynesville before things started to happen.

Canadian Pacific 9706 West came down the siding before we arrived.

The eastbound freight then reversed into the siding before clearing the switch at the east end. Once we cleared, the westbound departed for Glenwood.

We then passed Canadian Pacific 8776 East as we proceeded east. It became dark long before Dickenson Siding, which we entered to allow the westbound Canadian Pacific freight to continue onwards. We reversed onto the mainline and continued east. Later at the west end of Humboldt Yard, we waited for another Canadian Pacific freight before we reversed out again then crossed the Mississippi River and over the BNSF mainline before arriving back at Shoreham at 10:00 PM.

One last picture of Canadian Pacific 2816 before I returned to the Days Inn for the night.

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