Thank you for this tid-bit.

I was a bit interested in knowing if the other engine in the wreck (4-8-4 #6222) was also rebuilt. I found some photos on the internet of her working in the 1950's, so obviously the answer is; yes she was! Unfortunately, she was not as fortunate as 6069 and eventually met the scrappers torch and her repairs will be undocumented.

Les

It amazes me how much they could rebuild engines after serious wrecks. There were two Frisco engines involved in a nasty head on collision in Quincy,MS back in the late '30s, 4208 and 1520. 1520 was on a passenger train and swung around a curve to find 4208 and her freight train sitting on the main. The impact drove the whole freight train back a considerable distance and made a mess of both engines.
They both returned to service and worked until the end of steam.

With a few exceptions, and taking Dieselization into account, steam locomotives could survive almost any accident. Railroads owned their own foundries, huge machines for turning steel, and thousands of workers who lived for just that kind of work. Scratching something as elemental as a steam locomotive from the roster would take careful consideration.

Of course, CN, like all huge railways, had the shops and manpower to rebuild most anything. Writing off badly damaged power wasn't all that common.

The main exceptions would be smaller, older power that wasn't as valuable to CN as their Mountains and Northerns, or engines wrecked after diesel power started making major inroads into their numbers.

Steve Hunter