17 October 2001
BC Rail Blows Off Steam
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Al Broadfoot, lead hand at BC Rail steam shop stands by Royal
Hudson 2860. The Hudson and steam locomotive 3716 will not be rebuilt. They will be stored in "static condition" in North
Vancouver .
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North Vancouver British Columbia - THE steam era at BC
Rail is over.
BC Rail has decided that Royal Hudson steam locomotive 2860 and steam locomotive 3716 will be placed in "static condition"
(ensuring their overall condition does not degrade), rather than be rebuilt.
The locomotives have been derailed by mechanical problems. The Royal Hudson has been out of service since its season ended in 1999. The
Crown corporation had planned to put the 3716 to work for this year's tourist steam excursion service, but a breakdown after a
chartered trip in May knocked it off the rails as well. An F-unit diesel engine, the ex-CPR 4069 provided the
"Royal Hudson" excursion service to Squamish.
BC Rail will also close down the North Vancouver-based Royal Hudson steam shop, a facility that has provided maintenance
to support the operation of the 2860 and 3716 steam locomotives. A Royal Hudson machinist, two steam mechanics, and one machinist
helper will be affected by the decision.
The steam locomotives are owned by the province. In an 11 Oct 2001 letter to a union business manager, BC Rail says it has
been told that the province will not provide the funding necessary to rebuild the engines. For its part, BC Rail cites a
"significant" drop in ridership and "current financial conditions" as the reasons it doesn't have the money to
return either of the locomotives to service.
According to BC Rail, the 2860 needs a new boiler and the 3716 requires a rebuilt firebox and boiler. In March last year, 2860 failed a
high-pressure boiler test. In May of this year, 3716 was removed from service after inspection revealed severe deformation
of its firebox.
Those close to the engine estimated last year that the 2860 had an immediate need for about $1 million worth of maintenance work.
According to Al Broadfoot, lead hand at BC Rail steam shop, "Both engines have two different problems, due to the fact that they
haven't been operated properly, due to the fact that the crews have not had extensive enough teaching on how to, not just run them, but
understand what's happening when they are running them".
According to a BC Rail report, Royal Hudson 2860 sustained considerable boiler damage in June 1998 after too much water was put into
the boiler. The incident occurred during a special excursion trip to Squamish with the 2860 and 3716 linked together.
An investigation concluded that the crew had not paid attention to the water level and did not take immediate notice of excessive steam
and water escaping from the locomotive.
Broadfoot said some damage to locomotive 3716 - burned (over-heated) steel sheets inside the firebox - has also been
caused by incorrect operation. "It happens over a period of time and it's from the crews over-firing the engine. If
you're working hard up a hill, and you come up on the safety valves, and you don't lower your fuel, and you continue adding water and
the sheets get too hot, they start to buckle. If you keep it up the boiler will let go, just like anything else", he said.
Three years ago investigators advised the railway to upgrade its steam training program for crews.
Said Broadfoot, "Although these guys have steam tickets, it does not mean they understand the working of the boilers. Therefore
their operating practices are no good. That's why the engines are the way they are. Between marketing and poor operation, we're in the
toilet. The railway does not have the ability to market these locomotives properly. They're a freight railway".
Broadfoot and the steam shop crew have rebuilt the 3716 and 2860 at the BC Rail steam shop over the last 25 years.
He estimates the main expense to get the 3716 rolling again is labour, with a total cost for the job at "far less than a
million". Broadfoot says the 2860 is in relatively good shape. "They had just spent a great deal of money on the firebox and
rebuilding the tender. Extensive work has been done on the Hudson and it's basically been kept right up mechanically. I took that out
of service because there are tubes inside the firebox that were leaking".
"When we were manufacturing the parts for the CPR 2816 we also duplicated the order and got the parts to get the Hudson going. We
have the parts and we have the tubes to fix the Royal Hudson, but now it's a case of they don't want to run it. It isn't the government
that doesn't want to run it, it's the railway that doesn't want to run it".
The BC Rail steam shop crew recently helped complete work to restore the Canadian Pacific Railway 2816 Hudson steam locomotive, now
based in Calgary. The CPR 2816 is the ninth steam engine Broadfoot has had a hand in rebuilding over his career. "CP has
recognized in order to promote what they want to promote, which is partly their heritage and safety, they know a steam engine attracts
people. They're going to set up a steam infrastructure to take care of that engine (in Calgary)", he said.
The Canadian Pacific Hudson is now the only Hudson-type locomotive in rail service anywhere. The others that avoided the
scrap heap are, as they say in the rail business, stuffed and mounted. There were close to 600 Hudson-type locomotives
built in North America.
The Royal Hudson 2860 is an ex-CPR Hudson type steam locomotive. The first Hudson type built for the CPR was produced in
1929 by the Montreal Locomotive Works in Montreal, Quebec. The Hudson type was continued until 1940.
The Royal Hudson 2860 spent 16 years working the rails between Vancouver and Revelstoke before it was retired. It was restored in 1964
for a proposed rail museum in Vancouver. The museum wasn't built and the province bought the locomotive in 1974. The 2860 made its
first run from North Vancouver to Squamish the same year.
The 3716, a 1912-vintage Consolidation, was donated to the province by Port Coquitlam in 1976. It was overhauled and
operated as a museum train throughout the province for a while.
At BC Rail, it filled in whenever the 2860 was out of commission. In 1981 the 3716 replaced the 2860 for almost an entire season when
the Royal Hudson broke down. In 1990 the 3716 again filled in when an overhaul to the Hudson took longer than anticipated.
The 3716 was used for most of the 1998 BC Rail steam season.
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