Hello All!
Sorry this pertains to items back on Mar. 19th, but I just got around
to reading my back "onelists". First, Doug Rhodes says as the first of
the CP G3 class heavy Pacifics were built in 1919, the photo of the
"Chinese" train could have been taken in that year. The only thing is
both the early G3 and G4 classes were not built with feed water
heaters. They were applied almost ten years later.
Sorry Doug, but it sounds more and more like the now infamous photo is
not what it was supposed to be.
Now, a little "nit-picking" with Donald Scott who has stated that the
CPR "pioneered" the application of Elesco "Bundle" style Feed Water
Heaters around 1927/28. I assume this means applications in Canada. If
that is what you meant Donald, then you are away off base. I cannot say
when they were first applied in the USA, but on the CNR the first Elesco
FWH was installed on Mikado # 3498 in June 1920. Apparently this was
tested for a year or so as none were installed in 1921, but by 1922 CNR
began to apply them in earnest. Also, the tenders with the curved in
edges on the G5 class 1200s did not begin with the 1231, as stated. The
1231 was the last of the G5b class and had a straight edged tender. The
1232, the first of the G5c class was the first 1200 with a curved-top
tender. Don't be fooled by photos because in the mid-1950s, after they
began scrapping some of the 1200s, some of those with straight tenders
received curved ones, and vice versa. Not many, but a few. With regard
to the 3100 series 4-8-4s, the "elephant ears" smoke deflectors came off
a while before they were transferred out west. I have photos of them on
passenger trains in eastern Quebec and the maritimes, and the deflectors
were gone then. Of interest, they were not immediately converted to
burn oil but continued to operate out of several prairie terminals as
coal burners. At various times they were were assigned to such places
as Winnipeg, Moose Jaw, and Medicine Hat before being converted late in
1956. At this time they received the tenders from scrapped T1a class
2-10-4s Nos. 5906 and 5916. I think the conversions were done at Ogden
Shops in Calgary as I saw the former coal tenders there in 1957. Yes,
they were very rarely seen west of Medicine Hat, but I saw them both, as
coal and oil burners at Calgary.
Sorry for being so picky Donald, but there is one more item. In one of
your very interesting lists of locomotives you saw during your trips
across the country you stated that one of the engines you saw at port
Coquitlam (I think it was in 1953), you listed D10 No. 611. Sorry, that
engine was scrapped in May of 1949 at Winnipeg. I suggest the one you
saw was 911 which had come off Vancouver Island a few years previous,
and was often around Vancouver during the early 1950s.
Again, Doug and Donald, sorry to be pecking away at what appear to be
minor technicalities, but we have to keep the records straight.
Ray Matthews
