Power type Steam Total produced 37 UIC class 2′D1′ h2 | Build date 1923–1924 | |
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The CN U-1-a and U-1-b class locomotives were two subclasses of thirty-seven 4-8-2 Mountain-type steam locomotives built for the Canadian National Railways between 1923 and 1924. They were retired between 1951 and 1962.
Contents
Construction history
The locomotives were equipped with steam heating and air signal lines for working passenger trains. They were coal fired, although some U-1-a locomotives were later converted to oil firing.
Retirement
The first to be retired was 6004, which was severely damaged a head-on collision with S-2-a 3538 at Canoe River, British Columbia, in November 1950. It was scrapped in June 1951 (as was the 3538). There was a gap of four years before the next U-1-a or U-1-b went: two were scrapped in 1955, four in 1957, six in 1958, six in 1959, eight in 1960, seven in 1961, and the last two, 6000 and 6001 in 1962.
In art
U-1-a 6004 was the subject of a 1924 publicity poster by C. Norwich. It depicts the locomotive speeding along in the foreground, while in the background is a pine-covered, snow-capped mountain peak. Across the top is the "Canadian National Railways" logotype; across the bottom are the words, "Across Canada", and in the lower left, above the artist name and date is "The Continental Limited in the Canadian Rockies"
Preservation
One locomotive has been preserved: