BC 150 Years

2008 marks a very special anniversary for the Province of BC. It has been 150 years since the founding of the Crown Colony of British Columbia in 1858. BC 150 is a yearlong celebration marking this anniversary.From June 12 to July 6, the CP Spirit of 150 Rail Tour is visiting BC communities along the Canadian Pacific rail line. Last Wednesday night the vintage CP 2816 Empress steam train rolled into our community.

The following are pictures that I took of the steam train as it sat on the tracks near our house.

The train came complete with a conductor.

These ladies looked like they were waiting for the train to leave the station as they would have years ago.

The train brought along its own live entertainment.

This engine is not quite as old as the steam engine that led the train but we suspected that it may have been along to provide some extra power for the Empress.

This is the back of our yard/house (our house is on the left with the black roof). This picture was taken as we walked across the baseball diamond between our yard and where the train was parked. The view of Mt. Cheam was breathtaking on Wednesday night.

The following information appears on CP's website and further describes the Empress.

About the CP Empress
CP's 2816 is a class H1b Hudson type locomotive built by Montreal Locomotive Works in December 1930. The CP Empress is now the only surviving H1b Hudson and is one of only a handful of preserved and operating CPR steam locomotives in North America.

Initially the locomotive ran westward out of Winnipeg to Calgary and eastward to Fort William, Ontario (now part of Thunder Bay). Locomotive 2816 then moved into service on the Windsor-to-Quebec City corridor. Its last assignment was at the front of a Montreal-Rigaud commuter train, making its final revenue run on May 26, 1960. Having logged more than two million miles in active service, 2816's fires were extinguished.

Today, after a complete three-year rebuild, 2816 is restored to the original specifications with external details from the 1940/50s.