Here's a group I had not heard of, working on CNR 4-6-4T 46 in Quebec:

http://www.heritage46.com/

Bob;

One thing that struck me, especially in the "Hydrostatic" pic sequences, is the relative youth of the people involved. Not a lot of grey hair and beer bellies. So, they appear to be doing something right...

Good luck to them.

John Stewart
Ottawa.

49 is at Delson and 47 at Steamtown. Perhaps somebody with more steam expertise can answer this question. F.N. Blount operated 47 while Steamtown was in Vermont, early in the 1960's. Apparently she was afavorite locomotive due to her economy and such. A nasty turn came when it was revealed that her paperwork, certificates, history, etc., had been lost or destroyed sometime post CNR retirement. Blount was obliged to shut her down and leave her as a permanent display piece, which is a poor use for a serviceable steam locomotive.

Question: If 47 was examined by an FRA boiler inspector and retrofitted with upgrades, and assuming her boiler could be recommended as serviceable, what would prevent the 47 from being steamed again? Is there some rule I don't know about or perhaps some part of 47's history that has not come to my knowledge? If she was operable, I'd bet a lot of tourist lines would love to lease her from the NPS. 47 would be an ideal light rail tourist locomotive.

Ross Rowland or another experienced and active steam man, could you comment?

As I recall, the problem with CNR 47 was that it was not an "international" service locomotive, i.e., under joint ICC and Canadian govt inspections, but only had Canadian "paperwork". FNB ran the 47 on the common-carrier Claremont & Concord at Bradford, NH, and after 6 weeks, the regional ICC man showed up, noted the lack of an ICC form in the cab, and that was that-- 47 never operated again.

Conversely, CPR 1293 was also a "Canadian paperwork only" loco, and it did operate on the new Green Mountain Railway Corp. in 1964, just before GMRC became a common carrier and thus subject to ICC juristiction. I think it ran with a Vermont state boiler certificate. 1293 next operated in 1977 for the VT Bi-centennnial train. By then, it was the least-used of all the G-5s.

George Hart took great care to pick out "international service" (loco would be allowed to spend more that 24 hrs in the US) CPR locos when he bought 1238, 1286 and 972.