I doubt that very many water tanks are working nowadays... and I'd guess the water has a lot of lime in it. No doubt the Empress's entourage has a feedwater test lab with them, and a variety of boiler chemicals, especially anti-foam.

I bet the oil in Mexico is pretty good !!! Nice, thick, refined, made for steamships. She ought to fire herself once she gets a bunker full of THAT.

Thank you to Stationary Engineer and to Sammy King for the responses.
A winter job, that never got done, was to go through and sort my old slides. They include a couple of trips, in the late '70s/early '80s, to Bellows Falls, Vermont for the Steamtown fall weekends. Among them should be pics of No. 2816.

I was finally able to see some videos of the 2816 and train as it went by and was very surprised to note that it had a 40' steel boxcar in the consist! The car is CP 29114 and still has its roof walk and, although a special paint job for the train and a door cut in one end, looks like a typical steam era boxcar. The built date appeared to be 7-37. I'm assuming it carries parts for 2816 and other equipment in the train. A tip of my hat to CP for this very nice inclusion.

Les

This is how you do public relations right.

https://youtu.be/JXNyiMgNAV8?si=VPVT4lToEeUhhjSJ

There are plenty of videos out there now of No. 2816. Some are great, some are, well.... However, they are all a good thing!
No. 2816 looks amazing, and sounds equally so. Occasionally, one can hear a little rod noise, but that is probably when she is getting on in the grease "cycle"? She has been running along at mainline speeds, so is doing extremely well.
She obviously has a first class crew.
Again, congratulations to companies like Canadian Pacific and Union Pacific for daring to keep steam alive.

I understand 2816 has a "full" PTC system, not the LEAP system that UP has been using where the trailing diesel hosts the actual system. While they don't expect to, this system would allow the steam locomotive to run without the hosting (diesel) locomotive. Their does appear to be some antenna and other boxes mounted on the tender.

Apparently this system didn't require as much FRA oversight as the LEAP system. Apparently both 3751 and 2926 are adopting this new system.

My source is a Facebook posting, so take at face value.

Anyone here have more authoritative information?

I would encourage you to check out the April 2024 edition of Railfan & Railroad Magazine for the cover story about CP 2816's return to the main line (Here's a preview of that piece: https://railfan.com/cp-2816-empress-returns/). But yes, the PTC system used on 2816 means it can run solo on the main line. It was developed after CP's steam crew realized the LeaPTC system would not be compatible with the FP9s that usually join 2816 on trips. The PTC system has been tastefully installed inside 2816; there's a computer monitor behind the engineer's seat in a cabinet that can be hidden away when not needed and the rest of the hardware is tucked away in the tender. Besides a few exterior additions (ditch lights when running in Canada and a small radio antenna on the cab roof) 2816 doesn't look that different than she did when she left MLW in 1930.

Justin Franz

The 2926 was actually equipped with LeaPTC but will be going full PTC. I believe they realized that getting ahold of a PTC-equipped diesel to trail it anytime it went out for a run was going to be a difficult proposition.

Sammy,
The following is totally irrelevant to this thread, But? What the heck.
Saw a documentary recently on World War II. It mentioned that the Imperial Japanese Navy used bunker oil to fire the boilers in its warships. They got it, when they could, from the Dutch East Indies/Borneo, which they had conquered. However, Later in the war when their production and transport had been bombed and torpedoed to hell, they burned Borneo crude oil, which must have been a light crude.
I can't find much information. They evidently had issues with solids messing up pumps and other accessories, but that seems like a good filtration system would help. Also, the variable nature of the crude, containing various volatiles, caused problems in the furnaces, tubes, and super heaters in the ships' boilers.
The volatile crude was also a problem when they were under attack. For the aircraft carriers, that was the least of the worries, because they also carried tons of high octane aviation gasoline. Poor management of the gasoline led to severe explosions from the fluid and the vapours, and the loss of some major vessels and thousands of crewmen.
And speaking of water, one forgets the need for tons of clean, fresh water on those ships for crew needs and for boiler feedwater, etc.
Beyond that, I assume 2816 is burning diesel. Also, is Big Boy burning diesel? They might have better access to bunker C out there? I guess bunker C is still available in the east? The steel plants around here used to use some. Stelco Steel has a plant just south of here on Lake Erie. There is a Shell refinery right next door to them, so they must have bunker oils.
For water, one assumes CP did its research for the water they would have to use, and the treatment components to take along. It is all good fun!

I don't know what The Empress is burning, but the Big Boy uses processed recycled oil. Both engines could use anything from diesel to Bunker C with no problem, but crude might not work so well. I only have been around the very crudest oil, asphalt, being used on the MdelP (see RyPN articles).

In Mexico, PEMEX supplies Bunker C for various industries and harbors throughout the republic. I bet the CPKC crews know where to get the good stuff to burn, and how to avoid boiling the worst of the bad stuff.

CP actually stationed a number of tank cars full of pre-treated water along the route.

https://railfan.com/canadian-pacific-28 ... ur-begins/

Justin

Thank you for the information Justin.

Does anyone know when 2816 will depart Nahant for Kansas City on May 11th, and what time they intend to arrive?

Also, are they going to go directly to Union Station or tying up at a yard for the few days before the public event on May 18th?

For anybody in South Texas or Northern Mexico, CPKC has announced a public event in Laredo, Texas, USA, on May 28. There is poster for it available as a download:

https://www.cpkcr.com/content/dam/cpkc/ ... Laredo.pdf .

The only public viewing in Mexico will be on June 7th in Mexico City:

https://www.cpkcr.com/content/dam/cpkc/ ... coCity.pdf

So far no schedule for any intermediate stops in Mexico, or for the return trip to the US border has been announced.

Just in case any of you guys are still wondering where you've seen CPKC's new lettering font before... LOL