Canadian National 6060

Canadian National 6060 is a 4-8-2 "Mountain"-type steam locomotive built in 1944 by the Montreal Locomotive Works as the first of the U-1-f class for the Canadian National Railway (CN) in Canada. It was first assigned to haul passenger trains and eventually fast freight trains on the CN until its retirement in 1959. Three years later, CN engineer Harry R.J. Home purchased the locomotive for $1 and brought it to Jasper, Alberta, where No. 6060 was put on display near the Jasper station.

In 1973, CN reacquired the No. 6060 locomotive and restored it to operating condition for use in excursion service until it retired again in 1980. Six years later, No. 6060 was restored again by Home and the Rocky Mountain Rail Society in time for the Expo 86 event in Vancouver, British Columbia. After the event, it stayed in Vancouver, double heading with Canadian Pacific 2860 and 3716.

In 1988, No. 6060 was stored at the Alberta Railway Museum in Edmonton, Alberta, until a decade later, it was moved to the Alberta Prairie Railway, pulling excursions in Stettler, Alberta. In 2011, it was taken out of service for a thorough overhaul.

Design and revenue service
No. 6060 was constructed in October 1944 by the Montreal Locomotive Works in Montreal, Quebec, as the first of the Canadian National Railway's (CN) 20 class U-1-f 4-8-2 "Mountain" types. The U-1-f design was very different compared to the U-1-a design in mechanical and cosmetic details. Their 73 in driving wheels gave the U-1-fs balancing high-speed with no flaws. They were painted in CN's olive green livery around its running board skirt panels, cab, and tender. The U-1-fs' front smokebox had a bullet nose cone design mounted, which earned them the nickname Bullet-Nosed Bettys. The U-1-fs were the last new design of steam locomotives built for the CN.

No. 6060 was first assigned to pull short freight trains between Montreal, Quebec, and Brockville, Ontario for three round-trips before entering main line passenger service, pulling the Continental Limited and International Limited trains. In 1959, it was retired and sat in storage on a siding outside in Winnipeg, Manitoba, awaiting to be sent to the scrap yard. But three years later, No. 6060 was rescued for preservation by CN engineer Harry R.J. Home who purchased the locomotive for $1 and put it on static display at the Jasper station in his hometown of Jasper, Alberta.

Excursion service
CN reacquired No. 6060 in 1971, and they began restoring it to operating condition for excursion service, as a replacement for U-2-g Confederation No. 6218, and after being restored by CN in 1973, hauled excursions for their steam excursion program until 1980, when CN ended the program.

That same year, to commemorate the Province of Alberta's 75th anniversary, No. 6060 was presented to the people of Alberta as a gift. After more than five years of retirement, it was restored a second time with the help of Harry Home, the Province of Alberta and volunteers from the Rocky Mountain Rail Society (RMRS). No. 6060 travelled under her own power to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1986 to participate in the Steam Expo, part of the Expo 86 world's fair, alongside several other steam locomotives. After Expo 86 ended, No. 6060 and Canadian Pacific 2860 doubleheaded back to Alberta, though when they got there, No. 6060 developed a mechanical failure, forcing it to be taken off the excursion, while No. 2860 returned to Vancouver.

In November 1991, the government of Alberta announced that it could no longer afford to maintain and operate No. 6060, due to the state of the economy of that time, and the government considered relocating the locomotive to a park for permanent display. The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYS&W) of New York State caught wind of this announcement, and they quickly made an offer to the province to purchase No. 6060 for use in their steam excursion program, but negotiations were subsequently dropped. The RMRS was adamant for No. 6060 to continue operating while staying in Canada, and they quickly launched a campaign for the provincial government to reconsider the locomotive's future.

By February 1992, the Province of Alberta relinquished ownership of No. 6060 to the RMRS. No. 6060 was subsequently moved from a private siding in Calgary to the Alberta Railway Museum near Edmonton for storage and maintenance, and then in 1998, the locomotive was moved again to Stettler to operate regularly for Alberta Prairie Steam Tours (APST). More than a decade later, it continued to carry thousands of excursion passengers every summer, until it went out of service in early 2011. Several years later, the APST began performing an overhaul on the locomotive, and, the overhaul is still under way.