There was a program on tv last night called "Lost Car Rescue" with some young people with a light plane and a crane truck. They were in Rainy River, Ontario and were asked by the Rainy River Railway Museum to rescue a former CN-owned Dodge truck from an island on Lake of the Woods. During the show, there were a couple of views of 2-10-2 4008.
I last saw that engine over 30 years ago. It was in typical outdoor display then. Sadly, it had a noticeable lean! Well, it looks like the folks there are showing it some love, and it is well presented and now has a canopy. The museum seems to have some other equipment. Great to see a rare loco preserved and cared for.
The locomotive is the only survivor of the class T-1-a. It was built by Alco/Brooks with Montreal Locomotive Works boilers, for the Canadian Government Railways as No. 2008. it was retired in 1957 as CNR 4008 and donated to Rainy River. (data from Donald R. McQueen; Canadian National Steam Vol.6)
Anyway, the rescue team did find the truck, which was fairly tough, but with Canadian National lettering still showing on the doors. It was spruced up a bit and taken to the museum:

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/tbt-news-st ... ct-6864052

https://www.trainspotted.com/photo/1810 ... ive-2-10-2

https://images.ourontario.ca/gateway/56595/data

Thanks for posting this thread and links. Found it interesting and I too fell in love with the old school bus in the woods. Regards, John.

A rare loco indeed. To put things into a bit more perspective: Aside from being the only survivor of her class, she is one of two surviving CNR locomotives of that type—but more notably, only one of eight surviving 2-10-2's out of the 2,179 built for North-American railroads.

(Of course, there are the three expatriate Chinese QJ's in addition to that, but they're not quite the same...)

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One correction on Kelly's post. ExpoRail is located in Delson, a suburb of Montreal, Quebec.

However, to reinforce his comments, if you haven't crossed the northern border to see this museum, you are depriving yourself of an exquisite steam/Diesel experience. ExpoRail has a comprehensive collection of CNR, CPR, GT, and shortline locomotives, all well maintained and most kept under cover year round. Their CNR Hudson is one of the most elegant steam locomotives you'll ever see. The CPR Confederation 2-10-4 is massive. The last FM Trainmaster in existence resides there as well as the first FA1 in the Dominion, and an FPA4.
This summer, get yourself to ExpoRail.
If your vacation includes another three or four days, drive up to Ottawa - which is in Ontairo- and check out the locomotive collection in the Museum of Science and Technology. THere you'll find one of two surviving FM C-Liners, a streamlined CNR 4-8-4, and on of two CPR 4-8-4's.

Now, back to our regular thread.

Had a long chat with a retired CNR hogger many years ago in Palmerston, Ontario. During the war, he said he was on a 4100 from Toronto to Belleville. That must have been quite a rarity, but I believed his stories. He said they hung everything they could on her drawbar to keep things moving for the war effort. Those locomotives could pull, but were slow. The dispatchers would have hated them on the busy mainline with manifest freights and 90 mph passenger trains.
Anyway, he said it was a slow run but fine. However, when they tried to get off the main, they realized that with the unusually long train length, the van (caboose) was still not in the clear! Thankfully, no harm was done.
Around 1964, something like that happened at Copetown on the CNR Dundas Sub. I saw the aftermath of that so know it is for certain. A long westbound freight was to get in the clear. However, the van was still on the main. A westbound mail/express caught the wooden van and it was obliterated. It was a horrific sight. Sadly, the Conductor was killed. By then it was GP-9s and F-units.
I have a vague recollection of seeing a 2-10-2 westbound on the Dundas Sub with a heavy freight. when I was a kid. Not sure about that memory, but it could have been. However, seeing them out this way would have been unusual. It was more likely a 6100 Northern, although that should not have stood out in the memory banks, because we saw Northerns every day. Not sure if the 4200s worked into Toronto? They seemed to have been Montreal engines. The 4300s all worked in western Canada. Not sure if the 4000s ever got down this way often?
CNR had a good variety of power. In this area, we could see everything from 2-6-0s to streamlined Northerns on any given day, right up until the end of the 1950s.
I suppose the 4100 at Delson got saved because she had been working in Montreal at the end. Most up here went to London to the reclamation yard. I do recall seeing many locos heading west on that final trip.

I read that the 4100's were built for heavy transfer service. They are unusually large for a Canadian locomotive.

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The CPR 2-10-4s were Selkirks. The Confederation was, I think, a 4-8-4 (which is important because when Cantlie designed the amazing Chinese 4-8-4s he used the type 'Confederation" for them as the Whyte name, and the locomotives carried CF7 (in Roman letters!) as their class designation.

Northern Pacific and CN got their Northerns at about the same time, but NP crossed the finish line first and so named the type "Northerns", while CN tried for "Confederation".

The very first CNR Northern (6100) had plates on it saying "Confederation", but I guess CN relented, and eventually all the 6100s and 6200s had brass plates on the cylinders saying "Northern Type"

(And the U-1-f Mountains received similar plates saying "Mountain Type")

The truck is a 1931 Dodge, lettered for Canadian National Railways. If you google Railroad Heritage Museum & 4008 Steam Engine" there is a street view showing the whole layout, including the station.
Unfortunately, Rainy River is somewhat off the beaten track as far as roads are concerned. If you are travelling from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg, you would have to backtrack, or make a couple of border crossings. I was heading to Crookston, MN, so passed through there years ago. One thing for certain, be sure you leave Thunder Bay with a full tank of fuel!

That's a huge locomotive. The top of the stack is almost 2 and 1/2 Mussers from the rail head!

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Here is another class that we never saw in the east -- built by Canadian Locomotive Co. McQueen gives 57-inch drivers, 260# or 275#, 61,000 to 62,000 te. Some had booster engines adding over 10,000 lb. te. They saw dual service.
This picture came from my old friend Dick George and was taken at McBride, Alberta in 1935. I think Algoma Central bought two of these new from CLC.
CNR also had the 4200s that came up from the Boston & Albany. They looked quite nice with the CNR closed cab, and Elesco fwh. I think they stayed further east in Quebec.