The age of the steam locomotive has turned full cycle. "Old 374" and the regal "2860" depict the beginning of an era and its inevitable end.

Whether the ghost of Sir William Van Horne, railroad builder extraordinary from Illinois who came to Canada to build the Canadian Pacific Railway, likes it or not, the era of steam railroading in his adopted land has gone.

And to commemorate the romantic era of steam in this country there are soon to be enshrined in a new railway museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, two of the most historic and illustrious railway locomotives ever to grace the Canadian railway scene.

The first one is number 374, the ancient C.P.R. 4-4-0 wood-burner which drew the first transcontinental passenger train from Montreal into Vancouver on 23 May 1887.

It was the year after the completion of the C.P.R. to the tidal waters of the Pacific, in the golden-spike era of railroad building, when this sturdy little engine belched its path through the forest and around the shore of Burrard Inlet into the newly-incorporated city of Vancouver.

Drawing behind it a baggage car, colonist sleeper, a first class pullman and a drawing-room car, and featuring open-window air-conditioning, its arrival signalled a new age for Canada. Its appearance was to make Vancouver a convenient point of embarkation as well as a major import and export centre linking the commerce of the interior of Canada with the Orient.

The other proud reminder is C.P.R. locomotive 2860.

It was exactly 70 years later when, unsung, unwept, and unnoticed that this proud, high-stepping iron horse, the 458,500-pound, 4-6-4 Royal Hudson, one of the last steam locomotives to be used by the C.P.R. in B.C., drew its final passenger train out of Vancouver.

It was a day in April, 1957, when a casualty of the new diesel age, 2860 drew its final gasp.

Resplendent in a gleaming new coat of paint and trimmed with Tuscan red and gold leaf, and bearing a royal crown, it is one of the renowned series which drew the royal train carrying King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their nationwide tour in 1939.

Turned out by Montreal Locomotive Works and equipped with 75-inch drivers it is considered by railroad buffs as one of the finest steam locomotives ever built. It has recently been acquired by the Vancouver Railway Museum Association for permanent exhibit, thus to take its place in the romantic annals of steam railroading along with other celebrated iron horses which made history as they built this continent when the frontier was frisky, brash, and booming.

The proposed building to house the two relics, and it is hoped they will only be the nucleus of a much greater exhibit in years to come, is one of the big abandoned R.C.A.F. supply depot warehouses situated on a scenic, grassy tract in the Kitsilano area which the City of Vancouver is at present endeavoring to acquire for park purposes.

This, it is hoped, will be a fitting monument to the debt owed by this country to the sturdy railway steam engine, without which this land known as Canada could not have been.

The project will also rescue Old 374 from its inevitable fate, sitting out of doors at Kitsilano beach, at the mercy of the elements.

Prime mover behind the acquisition of 2860, the preservation for posterity of remnants of our railroad past and facilities, and the Railway Museum Association, is Alderman Bert Emery, affectionately dubbed the mayor of Kitsilano because of his endeavors.

The establishment of such a museum comes none too soon, as it is already too late to obtain many of the renowned old locomotives which were the work horses and the sleek challengers of Canada's great transcontinental systems. Already, there are many thousands of youngsters who have never seen a real live steam engine hauling endless freights over rugged mountain passes, such as the mighty 5900 Selkirk series.

Nor heard a melancholy steam whistle wailing its call of adventure in the night.

At a ceremony in Vancouver on 30 Oct 1964 last year, retired locomotive 2860 was officially turned over by the C.P.R. to the Railway Museum Association.

"I will put this memento in a place of honour," promised Mayor W.G. Rathie as he accepted the engraved, polished, brake-valve handle which once graced the cab of the highballer.

Observed George Ingram, retired veteran steam engineer with 50 years service with the C.P.R. as the ceremonies ended, "They had just reached the apex of the steam engine, when they threw them out..."

However, old 374 and 2860 will be seen again soon, and future generations will pause and ponder at what was another phase the world, and small boys and giants of men, passed through. Δ

This Canadian Pacific Spanner article is copyright 1965 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.