1913 locomotive to ride the rails once more for Canada 150

The 104-year-old Montreal Locomotive Works 1392 is packed up and ready to get back on the tracks for the first time in 62 years.

The 1913 locomotive, which was acquired by the Alberta Railway Museum in 1971 and served in the Edmonton area in the 1950s on work and weed trains, will soon be back in action as part of the Rails and Tales Canada 150 celebrations.

Along with the 1920 Baldwin 41 owned by Alberta Prairie Railway, the steam locomotive will operate several passenger trips between June 28 and July 5, running from Stettler to Big Valley.

The special journeys will include lunch and dinner trips, a morning cruise and a historical site-viewing trip.

But first, the locomotive has to make the two-hour trip down to Stettler, and the first part of that process happened on Wednesday, when it was loaded onto two lowboy trailers, one for the locomotive itself and the other for the tender which contains the fuel and water needed to run it.

After four hours, the 55-tonne locomotive was hoisted securely on the trailer, with a few bumps along the road.

When moving the locomotive out of its storage at the museum’s yard in the city’s northeast at 24215 34 Street, it took several attempts to keep it on the track at a switch. After several different tactics, a backhoe had to physically move the track to make the curve less sharp.

Terry Wolfe, in charge of the steam locomotives for the museum, said this wasn’t something they couldn’t overcome, even if it was a larger challenge than they were expecting.

“That’s the thing, actually, about railroaders,” he said. “You fix everything.”

Wolfe is one of three locomotive engineers who will be operating the trips and he said a lot of work went into getting the locomotive back into running shape, but he is confident about the train’s future.

Brad Rae, director of railway operations for the museum, said this passenger trip opportunity is a great way to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday because of how important railways were in the country and it is an experience that may never happen again.

“Steam and railways are what opened this country up,” he said. “Railways are integral to Canada. We’ve sort of forgotten that.”