CP 2816 Final Spike Tour - The Empress Mainline Steam ACTION in Minnesota!

Part three in MNRails's series on The Empress. In this 3rd video we are on the CPKC Paynesville and Detroit Lakes Subs as it heads north back to Canada.

Part 1:    • The Empress: CP 2816 - Final Spike An...  
Part 2:    • CP 2816 Final Spike Tour - The Empres...  
Canada in 2006:    • Canadian Pacific Railway Steam locomo...  

The Canadian Pacific 2816 "The Empress" on the CPKC Marquette and Rivers Subs in Minnesota on it's northbound journey back to Canada on the Final Spike Tour. We start in Reno on the Marguette Sub after waiting for CPKC 260 and we end the chase in Minnesota City as the sun went down.

Canadian Pacific 2816, also known as the "Empress", is a preserved class "H1b" 4-6-4 Hudson-type steam locomotive built by the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in December 1930 for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). It is the only non-streamlined H1 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, No. 2816 was reacquired by the CP in 1998, and crews from BC Rail were hired to extensively restore it to operating condition.

In 2001, the Empress returned to service, and it was used by the CP in occasional excursion service as part of their steam excursion program. In late 2012, the CP steam program was discontinued, and No. 2816 remained stored at the CP's headquarters in Calgary, Alberta. Following the CP's merger with the Kansas City Southern (KCS) to become the new Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) in 2023, No. 2816 returned to service again in 2024, embarking on a continental tour from April 24 to July 10.

No. 2816 was one of ten H1b-class (Nos. 2810-2819) (the "H" meant the 4-6-4 wheel configuration, the "1" was the design number and the "b" meant it was the second production run) 4-6-4 Hudson-types built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in December 1930, at a cost of $116,555 each. 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, No. 2816 was reassigned to secondary passenger service between Windsor, Ontario, and Quebec City, and during the 1950s, it pulled commuter trains between Montreal and Rigaud, Quebec. In 1957, No. 2816 received a minor overhaul, with its tender being replaced with one from Royal Hudson No. 2822. The locomotive was retired from revenue service on May 26, 1960, after accumulating 2,046,000 miles (3,293,000 kilometres). It was subsequently used briefly as a stationary boiler at the St. Luc yards in Montreal.

00:00 Open
00:10 Rockford
00:55 South Haven
02:56 Pacing the 2816
03:44 Paynesville
05:02 Parkers Prairie
07:19 Detroit Lakes
08:23 Callaway
09:06 Bejou

#mnrails​ #railfanning #2816 #cpr #steam

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