1 August 2001
A Regal Entourage:
The Consist of the Inaugural Run of CPR Empress
The inaugural trip of CPR Empress returns locomotive 2816 to
Calgary - a city it first served 70 years ago, between 1931 and 1937.
The triumphant five-day, four-night run from Vancouver has CPR Empress pulling an interesting array of rail
cars.
The 1930 4-6-4 non-streamlined Hudson locomotive is paired with a tender from a semi-streamlined
Royal Hudson "cousin" locomotive built in 1937. Locomotives 2816 and 2822 switched tenders during regular maintenance in the
early 1950s.
Immediately following the locomotive and tender is the only remaining vestige of the steam motive power era from CPR's Delaware &
Hudson subsidiary. The 1940 tender from D&H 4-6-6-4 Challenger locomotive No. 1517 was converted to carry extra water
for CPR Empress.
Assisting the head-end steam power on steep mountain grades and through long tunnels is CPR heritage locomotive 3084 - a
1986 2,000-horsepower GP38-2 diesel-electric locomotive, painted in CPR's 1960s vintage
tuscan-and-grey paint scheme.
A tool car - CP 96 - follows, converted to look like one of CPR's famous baggage/express cars that ran on transcontinental trains and
often carried highly perishable silk from Vancouver to New York City.
CPR's two display cars - CP 80 and 81 - follow the tool car and will be open for viewing in Coquitlam, North Bend, Kamloops,
Revelstoke, and Calgary. CPR's display cars are converted horse express cars that entered service in 1949, ferrying show horses,
thoroughbreds, and saddle horses to and from exhibitions and stampedes in Western Canada.
CPR also leased a power car and some passenger cars to carry dignitaries between a variety of points on the inaugural run. Included in
the leased consist is ex-CP 598, one of the last three CPR open-observation cars, built in 1956, that ran on
the well-known CPR "Dominion" and CPR-Soo Line "The Mountaineer" passenger trains through
the Rockies.
Bringing up the rear are two cars from CPR's fleet of vintage business cars, regularly assigned to Royal Canadian Pacific luxury land
cruise service - Mount Royal and Assiniboine. These cars were built in CPR's Angus Shops in Montreal in the late 1920s and used by the
railway's senior executives, including assignments as the president's official car. Business car Mount Royal had the added distinction
of serving British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on two separate visits to North America in 1929 and 1943.
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