Kamloops Heritage Railway

Locomotive 2141 is one of a group of 25 engines (numbered 2130 to 2154) built by the Canadian Locomotive Company in Kingston, Ontario for the Canadian Northern Railway (later Canadian National Railway). Her classification is "light consolidation" because of her 2-8-0 wheel configuration. She is "light alxe loading" - 114 tons in working order. Her official class is M-3-d. She is the only survivor of this type. She has 57" drivers, 23" x 25" cylinders, and her boiler is rated at 180 psi. She has a haulage rating of 35%, which means she can pull 30 loaded old-time cars, or about 9 loaded modern coal cars. The engine weighs about 190,000 lbs or 95 tons and originally burned coal. She was converted to burn oil in 1948. The tender carries 6,000 gallons of water and 3,000 gallons of fuel. When working hard, 2141 can go about 50 miles between water fill-ups and 125 miles before needing more fuel.

From 1913 to 1919 she carried passengers between Calgary and Saskatoon for the Canadian Northern Railway. From 1918 - 1948 she carried a mix of freight and passengers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta for the Canadian National Railway. From 1948 - 1950 she operated with freight in BC near Smithers. In 1950 she was moved to Vancouver Island to finish her working days hauling logs and other freight between Victoria, the sawmill at Youbou, and Cowichan Bay. Her last trip was July 4, 1958 from Cowichan Bay to Victoria; where she was subsequently replaced by a diesel locomotive. She was slated for demolition, as were most of the steam locomotives of the day.

Mayor Jack Fitzwater of Kamloops had other ideas. It took him three years to persuade City Council and the CNR that selling the locomotive to Kamloops was a better choice. On October 28, 1961, after payment of $2,000.00, CN operations manager T.A. Mainprize presented the engine to Mayor Fitzwater and the City of Kamloops. 2141, which had been refurbished in the CNR Port Mann Yards, became a static display in Riverside Park in Kamloops.

The locomotive sat on display in the park for 33 years and was maintained by the City of Kamloops. She became the darling and plaything of generations of Kamloops youngsters. In 1993, the City was approached by a private enterprise seeking to restore and operate a steam locomotive to pull a tourist train in Alberta. At this point 2141 had begun to deteriorate from time and vandalism, and had been, for safety's sake, surrounded by a chain link fence. When news of a possible sale was circulated to special interest groups associated with railroading, an emergency meeting was held to explore ways to keep the engine in Kamloops.

Enough interest was shown that the City of Kamloops decided to keep the Locomoitve, and asked that the group of interested citizens find a way of maintaining the locomotive at it's static display location. During discussions at subsequent meetings, the talk of restoring 2141 to operating condition was posed. Subsequent inspection of the boiler revealed that it was in remarkably good condition and was sutiable for restoration and operation.

The 2141 Steam Restoration Society (as it was called then) formed on February 11, 1994. It comprised of dedicated visionaries and railway people who brought forward a proposal to restore the engine and operate her on behalf of the City of Kamloops. This group later evolved into the Kamloops Heritage Railway Society.

The restoration took 8 years and 80,000 hours of volunteer labour. 2141 was moved (in pieces) from Riverside Park in 1994 to a city owned building on River Street. In the fall of 2001, she was rolled out of the old River street shop onto a temporary track, and again blew her whistle, silent for so long. Many individuals and businesses in Kamloops and surrounding area played a part in her resurrection.

On January 15, 2002, under steam and her own power for the first time since 1958, engine 2141, the "Spirit of Kamloops", was moved (with a CPR diesel escort) to her new home at 600 Lorne Street, under the Red Bridge. On the way, she picked up ex-CN coach 406 (Pioneer Park). The City of Kamloops had provided a new 5000 square foot building to house and maintain the steam locomotive. At the same time, over 2,000 feet of track and switches were built to connect the new Backshop to the CN Okanagan Subdivision at mile 3.0.

On June 26th, 2002, the Kamloops Heritage Railway carried the first passengers on the Spirit of Kamloops Railtour. 2141 has never looked back. Since that day we have carried over 77,000 passengers on 446 runs and traveled over 9,400 Kilometers. Our Railtour Program has expanded over the years to include, not only the Spirit of Kamloops in July and August, Canada Day Fireworks Train, the Ghost Train in October, the Spirit of Christmas in December as well as a new Theme train in June 2010 called the Iron Horse Mystery. Since 2004 we have carried over 3,300 students grades 3 - 6 for the Heritage Fair projects that these students take part in every year. We have had many Charters over the years, everything from weddings, anniversary parties, corporate parties, conventions, International Tours and many more.