Canadian Pacific 2816

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.

Revenue service
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 mi. It was subsequently used briefly as a stationary boiler at the St. Luc yards in Montreal.

Steamtown ownership
In the early 1960s, 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 (NYC). Since all NYC 4-6-4s were scrapped by that time, Blount improvised by purchasing No. 2816 from the CP 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 it worsened its condition 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, No. 2816 was deemed surplus in the collection, and Steamtown wanted to dispose of it.

Restoration
During the mid-late 1990s, the Canadian Pacific Railway's then-president and CEO, Robert Ritchie, reorganized the company and established the "Royal Canadian Pacific" excursion train to honor the railway's history, and he sought for CP to operate their own steam excursion program. In 1998, the CP purchased No. 2816 from Steamtown, and in exchange, the railway would move some equipment to Scranton. CP had heard of its availability via phone calls from BC Rail, who had been operating CP Royal Hudson No. 2860 as part of their own excursion program; the No. 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 No. 2816, and they pronounced that it was in good condition. In September 1998, the locomotive was coupled in a special consist led by CP GP38-2 No. 3069, FP7 No. 1400, and St. Lawrence and Hudson GP9u No. 8216, and it was ferried from Scranton to Montreal via Binghamton and Albany, New York, before traveling cross-country to the BC Rail steam workshop in North Vancouver, British Columbia. CP contracted the BC Rail steam shop crew, led by Al Broadfoot, to disassemble No. 2816 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 No. 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 CP 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 other things.

Contractors in the United States were hired to overhaul other major parts of No. 2816; the driving wheels were shipped to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the boiler was shipped to Doyle McCormack and his crews in Portland, Oregon. No. 2816's firebox was converted from coal to oil firing, and the tender received dual water intakes with Canadian and American threads. CP gained so much faith in the project that on April 19, 2000, the railway announced that No. 2816 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 took over two years and cost over $2 million to complete, making it one of the most expensive steam locomotive restoration projects in Canada.

CP excursion service and temporary hiatus
On August 15, 2001, No. 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 CP'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—No. 2816 pulled its first official inaugural excursion out of Port Moody, toured some of the CP mainlines for 672 mi over five days, and then it stopped at CP’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, No. 2816 toured the CP between Alberta and Ontario, and the purpose of the tour was to spread further public awareness of CP and to raise money for the children's "Breakfast for Learning" program. On September 27, No. 2816 visited the Kamloops Heritage Railway and took part in a doubleheader excursion with Canadian National 2-8-0 No. 2141. In May 2004, No. 2816 pulled the Royal Canadian Pacific consist while performing a 3,000 mi tour across the CP 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 CP 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, and then it traveled 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. No. 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. No. 2816 returned from Minnesota to Calgary with a charity train later that same month.

In August 2007, No. 2816 toured the CP from Calgary to Chicago, and then it pulled some public excursions within Illinois and Wisconsin, including another doubleheader with No. 261 on September 15 between Minneapolis and La Crosse, Wisconsin. The Empress returned to Calgary by the end of September. At the end of the 2008 operating season, the Canadian Pacific Railway put the steam program on hold—while still operating previously promised engagement runs—due to financial challenges created by the Great Recession. No. 2816 did not operate at all in 2009, but crews opted to take advantage of the down time to perform some extensive maintenance work on the Empress and its passenger car fleet.

No. 2816 returned to service again on June 6, 2010, when it pulled excursions to raise money for the Children's Wish Foundation. The locomotive was also filmed with IMAX cameras for the Rocky Mountain Express, a 2011 film that observes the Empress on a journey from Vancouver to Montreal while explaining the CP's history. On June 11, 2011, No. 2816 lead an excursion tour that promoted the Children’s Wish Foundation. The locomotive was scheduled to complete the tour on August 5 at Calgary, but as it was midway through the tour, No. 2816 suffered a mechanical problem, and it had to return to Calgary early for repairs.

In late 2012, Canadian Pacific CEO Fred Green—Rob Ritchie's successor—stepped down from the company, and E. Hunter Harrison succeeded him. Harrison was not interested in steam locomotive operations, and he wanted the CP to focus on improving their finances and operation tactics. As a result, the steam program was discontinued, forcing No. 2816's excursion operations to be halted, and the locomotive was kept in storage in Calgary. Despite Harrison's resignation from the railway in early 2017, with Keith Creel succeeding him, the locomotive still remained in storage afterward.

On November 13, 2020, No. 2816 was fired up for a steam test and moved around the Calgary Yard with a railroad representative stating the test was to assess the locomotive's mechanical condition with "no plans to operate the engine on the main lines." It was subsequently announced that the locomotive would make a run as part of filming of a Holiday Train video.

CPKC excursion service
In 2021, Creel announced that if the US Surface Transportation Board approved CP's merger with the Kansas City Southern, the railway would celebrate it by bringing No. 2816 back under steam to lead a tour from Calgary to Mexico City, making No. 2816 the first steam locomotive to run through Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The locomotive first received an overhaul by CP's steam crew, and in the process, it was equipped with positive train control.

In June 2023, the overhaul was completed, and the Empress began to perform a series of test runs, which included a July 11 shakedown run from Calgary to Carseland and return. Further shakedown runs and tests were performed in August, from Calgary to Coalhurst and return. In October 2023, two back-to-back test runs from Calgary to Edmonton and back then from Calgary to Medicine Hat and back, concluding No. 2816's test runs of 2023.

On April 24, 2024, No. 2816 began its Final Spike Steam Tour running from Calgary with whistle stops in Moose Jaw on April 28; Minot, North Dakota, on April 30; Saint Paul, Minnesota, on May 3; Franklin Park, Illinois, on May 8; Davenport, Iowa, on May 10; Kansas City, Missouri, on May 18; Shreveport, Louisiana, on May 24; Laredo, Texas, on May 28; Monterrey, Nuevo León, on May 31; and Mexico City on June 7. The train's journey in Mexico was not without incident, however. On June 4, just three days before arriving at Mexico City, No. 2816 passed through Nopala de Villagrán and fatally struck a 29-year-old woman, who attempted to take a selfie at an unsafe distance. After being seen by thousands in Mexico City, the locomotive departed for its return trip north on June 9, arriving in Laredo on June 11. On the return trip to Calgary, No. 2816 made two whistle stops at Silvis, Illinois, on June 29 and Winnipeg on July 6, before arriving back at Calgary on July 10.

Preservation and other remaining H1 Hudsons
Of the five surviving Canadian Pacific Hudsons out of the original 65 built between 1929 and 1940, No. 2816 is the only survivor of the non-streamlined H1a and H1b classes built in 1929 and 1930. The four other remaining sister engines to 2816 are the semi-streamlined Royal Hudsons (Nos. 2820–2864). The remaining four Royal Hudsons are Nos. 2839 (H1c), 2850 and 2858 (both H1d) and the 2860 (H1e). , No. 2816 is the only operating 4-6-4 Hudson in North America; no American 4-6-4 Hudsons are operational.