Selkirk locomotive

Selkirk steam locomotive 2-10-4 built by Montreal Locomotive Works, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The first of these large engines with 2-10-4 wheel arrangement were built in July 1929. Altogehter twenty were constructed before the end of the year bearing numbers 5900 to 5919. The Canadian Pacific Railway's classification was T 1a. These locomotives weighed three hundred and seventy tons fully loaded. Montreal Locomotive Works built another ten of these successful mountain locomotives during November and December of 1939. The Canadian Pacific Railway assigned them T 1b class. They were numbered from 5920 to 5929. Modifications led the T 1bÃÂÃÂs to be twenty tons lighter while increasing steam pressure from 275 lbs. to 285 lbs. A further six Selkirks classed T 1c were built by the Montreal Locomotive Works shop in 1949. They were the last standard gauge steam locomotives built in Canada for a Canadian railroad They were the same as the T 1b except for a few refinements. They were equipped with two large Westinghouse air compressors instead of the single air pumps used in the earlier Selkirks. They were all built as oil burners to conserve weight. The tenders held twelve thousand gallons of water and over four thousand gallons of fuel oil. They had to be equipped with two pair of six wheel trucks because the total tender weight was one hundred and forty eight tons.

These last Selkirks were taken out of service in 1959. All but two were scraped. None of the earlier T1a's were preserved. Their heavier looking, non streamlined appearance, were better examples of the heavy mountain steam power look. The 5935 is preserved in Delson, Quebec while the 5931 (renumbered 5934) is in Calgary's Heritage Park. These later T 1's were semi-streamlined and were painted with CPR tuscan red panels along their running boards and on the tender sides with gold leaf border trim.

The locomotives were assigned to handle both freight and passenger trains westward between Calgary and Revelstoke. Due to their extreme weight they could not proceed to Vancouver. They were used for a few miles west of Revelstoke to assist freight and passenger trains up the steep grade to the Three Valley Gap at Clanwilliam.

When diesels began operation between Calgary and Revelstoke in the early 1950's the Selkirks were assigned to work the Brooks and Mapel Creek, Saskatchewan subdivisions between Calgary and Swift Current, Saskatchewan. They were also used to haul freight trains north of their new Alyth terminal as far as Edmonton, Alberta.