Rocketing eastbound up the "Hornby Dip" at 80
miles an hour or more, the original 4-4-4 "Jubilee"
F2a No. 3000, is heading Train No. 630. It is a rather unusual sight
for the period as this power generally returned to Toronto on the head
end of Train No. 20 (see page 9). On this particular Saturday, June
25,1955, one of the RDC cars must have failed at London, so a small
train was assembled and No. 3000 was retained for power. The train consisted
of a 5800 series express refrigerator car, a 2100 series air-conditioned
coach and one of the Budd cars.
This train was probably one of the fastest that I ever photographed.
Using a 1/1000th of a second shutter setting, I shot it somewhat prematurely
to ensure a minimum of distortion, so common to the Graflex focal plane
shutter when shooting fast trains.
The F2a's were built by MLW in July 1936 and had 80" drivers. These
were the fastest engines in regular service that the CPR ever owned,
except possibly for the three 84" driver "Altantic"
4-4-2's at the turn of the century. Nos. 3000 and 3002 were John Street
engines for most of their lives and I worked on them many times during
my days with the boiler gang. One feature that I did not like was the
limited amount of standing room at the boiler front. There was very
little space on which to stand when removing the rim around the headlight,
which had to be unbolted to gain access to the smoke-box door. Design-wise,
they were beautiful locomotives with the stainless steel bands applied
to the streamlined pilot, and resplendent in their Tuscan Red, blue
grey and black livery, lined out in gold leaf. Yes, gold leaf! This
was standard on CPR passenger power up to 1949. The richness of gold
leaf trim had to be seen to be appreciated, its deep lustre literally
sparkling. At today's price of gold, such a luxury would be almost prohibitive
and the last engine that I saw with the gold leaf was No. 2928. When
she returned from an Angus shopping, she sported the new, standard,
yellow paint trim, so ending an era at John Street.
In the summer of 1946, No. 3000 made a brief debut as a Hollywood star,
when she and three of the lightweight steel coaches were selected for
several train sequences in the movie "Bush Pilot",
starring Rochelle Hudson and Jack La Rue. The sequences were shot around
the Cooksville area.
Nos. 3000 and 3002, when new in 1936, were assigned to Trains Nos. 37
and 38, the "Royal York", running between Toronto and
Detroit, reducing the schedule by forty minutes. Remaining in this service
until the war years, they were assigned to other runs as the trains
grew heavier. I remember them being on Trains Nos. 19 and 20 at the
end of the war and later on Nos. 629 and 630. In her final years, No.
3000 was assigned to London, running on Trains Nos. 635 and 634, from
London to Windsor. She finished her career near the end of 1957 and
was scrapped at Angus on February 19, 1958. W.H.N.Rossiter
