Steam train to Nelson

While walking along the Nelson waterfront yesterday, I met a train buff. We talked of the steam trains that plied the railway along the lakeshore prior to their replacement by diesel trains in 1953. In June 2008, we had each watched the Hudson (Engine #2816) pass along the south shore when it visited Nelson. I allowed that as lovely and evocative as it was, it did not look much like the engines of my memory.

The first picture shows the Hudson travelling along the lakeshore as it passes over an old stone trestle. Following this is an engine of memory.

The Hudson is a thoroughly grand engine, the sort of thing that was reserved for the main line—such engines would not have been seen on lesser lines such ours.

As a child, I spent the summer months at my grandparents’ log cottage by a beach opposite Troup. From there I watched steam trains across the lake and—as Troup was my playground—frequently stood beside the tracks and waved to the engineer. I was standing on the eastern edge of Troup with my cousin, Denis Daly, when he took this picture in 1949. (This scan is from a print his daughter sent me in 2009). This is the engine of my memory; it is distinctly smaller and simpler than the Hudson.

An enquiry to the CP Archives revealed the following: “Steam locomotive 5110 was out-shopped at Canadian Pacific’s Angus Shops in September 1912 as 2-8-2 P1a class engine 5010. She was renumbered to 5110 (P1d class) in September 1928 and scrapped in October 1958. Several of the 5100 and 5200 series locomotives were assigned at Penticton, Nelson and Lethbridge in the 1940s and 50s for both freight and passenger service.”

Aside 1: I have ridden the passenger line along the shore and over this very spot. (I have even travelled by steam train to Vancouver along the Kettle Valley Line).

Aside 2: Images of the steam traffic on the Lake—the sternwheelers—abound. Yet, it is not all that easy to find shots of steam engines beside the Lake.