A picture of this locomotive on the Alyth shop track was published in the WCRA News Dec. 2001 issue, but here is an other one of the same engine taken of the fireman’s side and this time the location is in front of the boiler room of the roundhouse at Field B.C. with part of Mount Dennis in the background. Montreal Locomotive Works built the 5917 in Sept. 1929 and classed them all "T1’s". They were called "Selkirk’s" after the mountain range between Field and Revelstoke where they were designed to work. These very powerful machines were good for a top speed of 65 miles per hour and were used on both freight and passenger trains west of Calgary Alberta. My guess is that at the time of the photo this engine was assigned to Revelstoke, being short of pusher power, the shop foreman has just borrowed it for a quick push up the "Big Hill" to Stephen. The engine crew is ready to leave the shop track to go and couple on to the train as soon as the photographer is finished. This locomotive will be back down the hill in about two hours and after being refuelled, watered and lubricated will be ready for the 136 mile run west on either freight or passenger.

The sun is just low enough to show up the 63-inch driving wheels, the rod motion and 25-1/2 main cylinders plus the heavy alligator style crosshead, the mechanical lubricator, air reservoir, air compressor and feed water pump. The engine crew seem to be very pleased to have been called for this large oil burning locomotive instead of having to work on a smaller "S2" 5800 Santa Fe or even a coal burning "P2" Mikado. The heavier the locomotive the higher the pay for both the engineer and the fireman and, on this class of power, received a higher pate of pay then the conductor which didn’t make the boss of the train too happy.

This is a photograph of one of twenty small, light "F1a" Jubilee’ class that the CPR had built in 1937 and 1938. These semi-streamlined locomotives were not designed to haul the heavier main line trains but instead were meant for use on smaller light passenger trains on branchline or secondary main line high-speed runs. Their wheel arrangement was 4-4-4 and they had 2 sets of 75-inch driving wheels which and rode very smoothly because of these wheels having such a short wheel base (7-1/2 feet on centres).

The 2916 pictured is either brand-new or has just been overhauled and painted shiny black with "Tuscan Red" side panels on both engine and tender. The engine crew seem to be very proud of their brightly polished charge.

I made only one trip on one of these high speed little gems as was described earlier in my story about "double heading". I also fired the CPR’s "Jubilee" class number 3001 and which worked in Alberta on high-speed passenger trains between Calgary and Edmonton. This locomotive was named the "Chinook" and it had eighty-inch diameter driving wheels and was an oil burner at that time. Both the 2900’s and the 3000’s were very snappy and fast runners on account of carrying 300 pounds boiler pressure and having such large drivers.

This is the type of engine class "P2" Mikado 2-8-2, wheel arrangement that I was firing west from Medicine Hat to Alyth when the front cylinder head blew off (the one on this, the Fireman`s side).

The first locomotive in this picture is a Pacific 4-6-2. This is the same class of engine that we were doubled behind on the westward run from Medicine Hat. The second engine (the 5361) was built in Kingston Ontario in September 1926 and was equipped with a "HT" mechanical stoker. The stoker engine is located behind the small door on this side at the front of the tender. That same tender held 18 tons of coal and 10 thousand gallons of water. The total locomotive length was 84 feet and it weighed 223 tons. With 63-inch driving wheels it was good for 65 miles per hour if the track would take that speed. These early P2.s had short cabs because originally they were hand fired and the head end brakeman had to sit in front of the fireman squeezed between the cab wall and the boiler, which was not too good on a hot day even with the window wide open. When these 53 hundreds were stoker equipped a jump seat was provided for the brakeman beside the cab door which had an upper panel that opened downwards, note the arm-rest which folded in when the panel was open.

I am glad that all of these large locomotives were equipped with mechanical stokers by the time that I became a Fireman because they burned around a ton of coal every ten miles when working hard and even more on heavy grades like when climbing Field Hill. The large pipe running forward beside the fire-box carries water from the tender to the "Elesco" feed water pump which is located under the running board behind the air compressor. From the water pump a high pressure pipe carries the cold water forward and curves up and into a heat exchanger in which it makes four passes through numerous small copper tubes that are surrounded by exhaust steam that comes from the main cylinders as well as both the air and water pumps. This hot water then passes back, through another high-pressure pipe, to enter the boiler at the top check valve located just ahead of the large sand dome.

That heavy steam pipe that runs back along above the running board then curves up to pass above the air compressor and water pump to enter the cab near the top of the boiler carries high pressure, super-heated steam to be used for the stoker engine, the firing jets, plus the air compressor and feed water pump and blower valve.