Canadian Pacific

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On May 5th-6th, 2024, ‪@chendersonrailproductions704‬, ‪@Viloco_Valve_Productions‬, ‪@DroppedSignal‬, & I headed out to chase Canadian Pacific #2816 returning to the Mainline in celebration of the CP & KCS Merger to create CPKC (‪@CPKCrail‬) We would chase from St. Paul, MN to Bensenville, IL (Chicago). This would be a cross-country tour would be called "The Final Spike Tour" going through 3 countries which were Canada, United States of America, & Mexico.

CPR #2816 was built by the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in 1930 with 10 other 4-6-4 "Hudson" Type Steam Locomotives. They were nicknamed the H-1B Class as the 1 stood for the design number with the B standing for the second production run. She ran in revenue service up until 1960. Shortly after F. Nelson Blount purchased the locomotive for display instead as he had high hopes of acquiring a NYC 4-6-4 but they had been scrapped before he could acquire one. It went to Steamtown in Vermont before being relocated in 1983 to the Steamtown we all know in Scranton PA. Most would've figured The Empress would stay a display piece at Steamtown for the rest of her life.

Well in 1998, CP took interest in the 2816 to potentially restore, so they sent crews down to do the necessary tests. She was believed to be a good candidate, so they moved 2816 back to Canada for restoration. As they tore the locomotive apart, they found her to be in worse shape than they thought but the CEO at the time approved the funds to restore her back to Operation, as she would've just been cosmetically restored if they chose not to operationally restore her. In 2001, she made her first test runs and then pulled excursions.

Now lot of us have been waiting for the day of having CP 2816 to return to the mainline as in 2012/2013 it was sidelined in put in storage due to the current CEO at the time (E. Hunter Harrison) not seeing a steam program to be necessary. All hope was lost until Keith Creel became CEO. He did show interest in the 2816 and there were talks of Keith being interested in getting The Empress back and running but nothing would come to fruition until the CP Holiday Train in 2020. They decided to minor mechanical work to be able to fire up the 2816 and pull the Holiday Train around the Yard in Calgary for a promotional video. They stated that this was a 1 time thing and there were no current plans to run the 2816 on the Mainline.

All disappointed with this news, all railfans hoped they would change their mind about not getting 2816 back on the Mainline. Well that would change as in Mid-2021, there were talks of a merger between CP & KCS. Keith Creel stated that if everything would go through that we would see 2816 back on the Mainline. It would take about 2 years to finalize the merger between CP & KCS to create CPKC. Just shy of 2 months after the Merger, CPKC would announce the next summer in celebration of 1 year of the merger, CP 2816 would go on a cross country tour throughout Canada, USA, & Mexico.

We wouldn't get an official schedule until late January 2024 with just the Event/Display Days. As this did help a little it still was a lot of speculation of when they would be running from place to place not having a detailed schedule. My crew and I planned to chase the St. Paul to Davenport run. Sadly as it got closer I had family obligations that would cause me only to chase to Chicago/Bensenville IL from St. Paul, MN. A Week before leaving Canada they finally released the schedule, where we did have to rearrange some hotels as we were a day off in our theories of when the St Paul to Bensenville run would be. We figured it would be split into two days, 1 day being St. Paul, MN to Portage, WI, then the next being Portage WI to Bensenville IL, which we ended up being correct. May 5th, 2024 they would run from St. Paul to Portage, with May 6th, 2024 being from Portage to Bensenville. We managed to catch a couple CPKC Freights in front of 2816 on both the 5th & 6th, as well as capture both Amtrak Empire Builders & Metra.

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