Canadian National 7470

History

The locomotive was built by the Grand Trunk Railway at Pointe-Saint-Charles in 1921. The Grand Trunk classified the switcher as F9 Class and numbered it as 1795. When the Canadian National Railway absorbed the Grand Trunk in 1923, they reclassified it as an O-18-a and renumbered it as 7470.

After retirement, 7470 was spared scrapping by being sold to Canada Dominion Sugar, where it spent some additional years as a switcher. In 1964, it was purchased by the Ontario government for a transportation museum that never came to fruition, and in 1968 it was sold to Dwight Smith.

Dwight Smith was working on founding the Conway Scenic Railroad, which opened in 1974. Locomotive 7470 was renumbered as Conway Scenic 47 and was the new railroad's only locomotive in its earliest years. The old number 7470 and Canadian National paint scheme were restored in 1988 according to Railfan & Railroad magazine.

Today, 7470 currently pulls the Conway Valley Train in the September, October and January seasons only, were it makes special event runs such as Railfan's Weekend in mid September, special fall events in mid October, and Steam in the Snow events in January were it is hosted by the Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts. It use too run during summer months as well, but ended in 2007, excluding special excursions. 7470 has also pulled the Notch Train on rare occasions for special events, once in 2007 and again in 2011.

In July 2014, It was announced that 7470 will be coming out of service due to a major federally mandated inspection. 7470 ran its last train on January 3, 2015 before its federally mandated inspection and it's overhaul work began the following day. It was out of service for the 2015 and the 2016 seasons. It is expected that 7470 will be returned to service again around early or late 2017 or the 2018 season.

In popular culture

7470 made it's first ever film appearance in the 1972 film A Separate Peace, lettered as Boston & Maine 47.