2860 Royal Hudson

For those interested in steam a bit farther from home .Ex Cp - Royal Hudson #2860 passed her annual boiler inspection last week & it' s been announced that she will run special trains on 2nd & 3rd May 2009 from New Westminster to Cloverdale , BC & return over Southern Railway of BC tracks . For info please see the WCRA website www.wcra.org -- for those who maybe visiting the area the empty stock move is scheduled for 26th April from Squamish to New Westmister via CN , BNSF to the Southern Rail of BC yard .

 

That's a cracking engine you have there. Good luck!

 

Thanks for your support , will be great to get some mainline mileage under our belt again

cheers

 

I have travelled on this as my Wife,s Aunt lives in North Vancouver. An amazing experiance , never to be forgotten and particulally interesting was your carriage restoration at Squamish. There was one amazing survivor showing how the seats turned into bunks for long haulage, used I believe mostly for immagrants thus removing the need for separate day cars and sleepers.

Regards
Chris Willis

 

Your quite correct Chris , you are talking about the colonist car - which was specially designed to transport immagrants & families at the cheapest rate , although on board facilities were at a minimum .This car now is on display in our car shop and includes video explanation of it's role many years ago . It has friction bearings so does not go outside the park but worth a visit to look through.
2860' s consist will be a mixture of ex CPR , CNR day coaches , an ex CPR baggage car modified as a generator car & some more modern ex Via cars .also on board will be our open car 'Henry Pickering' that is leased out to Whistler Mountaineer .

cheers Richard

 

The empty stock move will be about 45 miles one way , the trips on the Saturday / Sunday are roughly 35miles round trip , although the Southern Railway track is a secondary route so speed will only be around 25/30 miles per hour . The line is steeply graded out of New Westminster up through the city of Surrey -- poss 1 in 50/60 for a while , so we should get some noise from the front on the gradient .

cheers Richard

 

An update for the file -- 2860 made a successful trip yesterday from Squamish to New Westminster .Lots of people out taking photo's and the general public giving support from their backyards . Trip left at 09.00 and arrived at destination at 17.15 - although we had periods of sitting for inspections , crew changes, water stops etc. Now some maintenance for a few leaks that showed up, then set for our trips next weekend .

 

next file update --- 2860 carried out 2 successful days of round trips on 2nd & 3rd of May from New Westminster to Cloverdale. On Saturdays trip some concern was felt as the back up diesel CP 4069 did not want to load, so 2860 had to tackle the grades unassisted , getting down to 7 mph at one time in the climb, on Sunday an extra SRY GP9 # 124 was put in the consist to assist on the hill .
Loco now to cleaned & prepared for it's return trip home to Squamish leading the Whistler Mountaineer on it's first trip of the season on May 12th .

 

Any photos or video at all for us here over the pond please?

 

Don't have a picture site myself - but some on You Tube & flickr last time I looked , hopefully more to come . also look at Railroadforum , they have a couple of sections with photo's .

cheers Richard

 

You are correct the drain cocks do blow out at an angle both front & rear, although I do not know particularly why they are different to Uk loco's - some investigation is in order I think -- will advise if I can figure it out . -- thanks for looking at the you tube video's of 2860 , it is the only mainline steam loco in western Canada now 2816 is back in the box .

 

Actually, you may have the distinction of being the Only Mainline Steam Loco in Canada period end of story in 2009. With 2816 put away and if 6060 isn't mainlining in Alberta, the only Ontario mainliner is Essex Terminal No.9 at the Waterloo Central and the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society, and they are not operating this year on maintenance and building their new shop building in St. Jacobs after leaving St. Thomas last year.

Glad to hear the weekend went well though. Keep up the good work in the west.

PS - How is the Roundhouse and Conf. Centre construction going? 2860's nice new warm home for the winters almost ready for her?

 

Thanks for your support from down east -- guess you are correct we are the only mainline steam loco so far this year -- 6060 is on it's own line .
You can view the roundhouse construction from its webcam - www.wcra.org -- click on roundhouse construction on the main page , half way down .
We are out again on Sunday with 2860 on a empty stock move from New Westminster to North Vancouver . To set us up for the trip back to Squamish on Tuesday with the first Whistler Mountaineer of the season -- should be fun.

 

So 2860 had a successful return from New Westminster to North Vancouver on Sunday 10th May -- minor glitch in CN Thornton yard when an air line connection broke when backing up around the balloon track - thanks to the local staff & our chief mechanic this was repaired , but we suffered a 2 hour delay .
Tuesday 12th we headed north to Squamish at the head of the inaugural Whistler Mountaineer train of the season hauling 3 loco's & 11 cars -- everything went according to plan , now she is back in the box till next time -- hopefully sooner than later .

 

Was the Whistler Mountaineer a "one off"?

Certainly a very challenging route out of Vancouver - well done to all involved.

Its also nice to hear that Squamish is hanging on to its railway roots, despite the demise of CP Rail and its Budd cars and any form of regular passenger workings along the route.

 

Yes -- Whistler Mountaineer was a 'one off' for now , a means to get 2860 back to Squamish after our excursion trips , however we have a good relationship with the Rocky Mountaineer group so hopefully things could change in the future, as always it does hinge on finances as well and the WCRA has charity status so fund raising is a challange .
Thanks for your support . --- An account of the May 2nd ,3rd weekend trips is on our website -- www.wcra.org

 

Drain Cocks

Prob blow side ways so as not to make the rail wet and greasey,there is nothing worse than climbing a steep grade and the engine starts primming ,cocks are opened ,engine strarts slipping,things get worse.

 

Sounds reasonable to me -- I did ask our engineer ( driver) about the point that was raised of having cocks that blow sideways & he did not see any reason to have it any other way -- Uk loco's must be odd!! -------
So the point is still open -- any other suggestions ? thanks for your input Peckett .