For Steam Sunday here is another from my 500 mile long two day chase of this historic trip. The special is seen headed west sweeping through a curve in the south Texas scrubland at about MP 93 on modern day CPKC's Laredo Sub, the former Texas-Mexican Railway mainline.
Running as CPKC train B40B, the tri-national Final Spike special is led by famed CP 2816, the 'Empress', an H1b class 4-6-4 Hudson built by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1930. Orignally retired in 1960 after there decades of pulling CP passenger trains the locomotive was purchased by F. Nelson Blount for preservation as part of his Steamtown collection in Vermont. It later moved with the rest of the collection to Scranton until CP purchased it back from the National Park Service in 1998. Returned to service in 2001 she operated until 2012 when E. Hunter Harrison took the reigns at CP. Eight years later Keith Creel (EHH's successor) reversed course and she was fired up for a test run and then a second restoration began which was completed in 2023.
As a way of celebrating the approval and consummation of the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railway merger on April 14, 2023 CPKC is running a tri-nation tour across the length of their newly combined network. The trip began in Calgary on April 24th and will conclude in Mexico City on June 7th before returning home for a total of three months on the road and 9000 miles round trip! To learn much more check out CPKC's official page for the tour here:
www.cpkcr.com/en/community/final-spike-steam-train
Just outside Benavides
Duval County, Texas
Monday May 27, 2024
