Canadian National Railway MLW #5093

I am looking for any additional infor about this engine:



"Engine #5093 built in 1918 by Montreal Locomotive Works Ltd.. It is a Pacific type locomotive that is 75 feet long and weighs 287,500 lbs..
While operative, it hauled passenger trains to various parts of Western Canada including Regina. Steam engine #5093 rolled into Regina on April 25th, 1960 on its final trip from Sawn River Manitoba, hauling five cars and carrying 35 passengers. It was the last steam engine in Regina before railways switched to diesel. In 1964 the Regina Plains Museum received a grant from the Saskatchewan Diamond Jubilee and Canada Centennial Corporation to purchase the locomotive from the C.N.R..

Until Jul 1995 the engine was located at the Regina Exhibition grounds.
When the Regina Union Station was renovated to become Casino Regina, engine #5093 was moved to its present location.

The steam engine has been restored with a new coat of paint, replacement of the side cab windows and running boards. As well, the front facing windows have been re-lazed and painted, and new lit number boards on the front of the engine have been installed. The decals for the tender have also been installed. This work was made possible through an agreement with the Saskatchewan Gaming Commission whereby the Regina Plains Museum retains ownership of the steam engine as well as control over the interpretive information to be provided on signage related to the engine."

How many of them were built? Where were they mostly used? What is the significance and particular purpose of this type of 4-6-2 locomotive (I understand they were a forerunner of the 4-8-2 Mountain type)? Are any of them still runing?

More photos are posted here:

http://www.greatexcursions.com/blogs/explore_regina/

Thanks for any help readers can provide.[/img]

CNR 5093 was a member of class J-4-C, built by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1918. There were ten members of this class, 5090-5099, formerly Canadian Government Railways 468-477. They had 22x28-inch cylinders, 69-inch drivers, and a boiler pressure of 205 pounds per square inch. They weighed 249,000 pounds and exerted 34,000 pounds of tractive effort.

The photo shows that 5093 has an Elesco bundle-type feedwater heater, an all-weather or vestibule cab, and what appears to be an oil tank in the tender indicating the this was an oil burner. These features may have been installed after the locomotive was built. Many locomotives operating in western Canada were either built as oil burners or were converted later.

In 1937, the CNR system (including Grand Trunk) owned 317 4-6-2 or Pacific type locomotives in classes J and K. The CNR system did not order any new 4-6-2s after 1929, and none of them are operating today (though several former Canadian Pacific 4-6-2s are operable). While one can consider the 4-6-2 as in some ways a forerunner of the 4-8-2, it was also the forerunner of the 4-6-4 or Hudson, and 4-6-2s continued to be built (by Canadian Pacific, Reading, etc.) even after World War II.

Wow! Thank you so much. This is very useful information. Do I have your persmission to quote you on my blog and the curatorial statement I am preparing on this "artifact"?

I looked at your website. Your work is very impressive. I admit that I have very little knowledge about steam technology. My area of expertise is industrial archaeology. The City of Regina is a classic railway town created for the needs of the CPR. The CPR actually produced the town plan. During the course of my MA thesis, I created a Geographical Information System based on data digitally converted from 1913 Charles E. Goad fire insurance plans. This, in effect, gives me a 2-D virtual city of Regina with which to conduct spatial analyses. I looked at the morphology of the city in terms of its built environment and explored the relationship between railway activities in the city prior to WWI.

I now use this information to stage themed guided tours of various areas of the city: Back Alley Safaris, Warehouse District Tours, Anatomy of a Railway Town. This morning, I gave a tour of Regina for Bank of Canada themed around the banking industry which thrived after the arrival of the railway. My guests had a pleasant surprise for me. They brought me reproductions of bank notes from the defunct Bank of Saskatchewan that feature period locomotives quite similar to that one.

I also found a J-4-a class CNR 5080 in Prince Albert (SK) and a J-4-d class CNR 5114 at Melville (SK). I have been having a hard time finding anyone who knows about these engines until you responded to my query. Would you happen to know why only 10 models would be built of that particular J-4-c class? Were there design flaws? The J-4-a in Prince Albert also has that Elesco bundle-type feedwater heater, but the J-4-d doesn't. Would the builders have decided that particular feature was not that useful?

This locomotive belongs to a museum with limited resources, but it is displayed on the grounds of the most successful tourism attraction in the province: Casino Regina http://www.casinoregina.com/. You can see the engine to the right next to Union Station on the website's photo.

The museum http://www.reginaplainsmuseum.com and my company http://www.greatexcursions.com would like to create greater awaneness of the railway heritage of the city. I certainly do feel that the local identity of the population has been influenced by railway development in more ways than local inhabitants realize today. Similarly, I feel that the tourism image of our city to international audiences would be enhanced greatly if we tapped more effectively into some of the authentic character of this railway settlement.

We are exploring options at the moment. I am even considering the feasibility of restoring this magnificent element of our industrial heritage, with a view to developing its true potential for interpretation. Any thoughts or examples of successful restorations and tourism product creation around a steam locomotive like this would be much appreciated.

By the way, what source did you use to find out only 10 members of this class were built?

Thanks for visiting my site. A number of people have helped me add to it over the years, though it all began with steam engine photos I took in the 1950s. Very interesting what you are doing technically with the Regina urban environment. I have never been involved in restoring or exhibiting a locomotive, and my only thought is that efforts to do so should be as historically accurate as possible.

Regarding the J-4-c class, I am sure that design flaws were not any reason for the Canadian Government to order only ten of that class. Railroads often bought small numbers of engines at one time as their needs changed incrementally. All the J4s would have been similar and the "a," "b," "c" etc. subclass might only indicate subsequent purchases of the same design, perhaps with relatively minor variations. For example, the various subclasses might differ in weight or boiler pressure, or have different types of valve gear, feedwater heater or electric generator. But they would be unlikely to have major variations within a class, such as in cylinder dimensions or driving wheel diameter. Over time, with periodic shopping, locomotives of the same subclass might come to have many variations because most steam engines were not "cookie cutter" or "mail order" products. The shop men would fabricate and forge their own "fixes" which eventually led to variations between sister locomotives. If, however, a railroad made major changes or completely rebuilt a design into what was practically a new locomotive (this was not a rare thing) then the engines would probably be reclassified.

So, evidently, some of the J-4s had Elesco feedwater heaters and others had another type, such as the Worthington BL (mounted on the side) or Coffin (hidden in the smokebox) or perhaps none at all. I suspect these engines did not have feedwater heaters when built but were retrofitted later. Why one type of steam appliance might be chosen over another is something I am not expert enough to comment on, and it may only be that the motive power superintendent was taken to lunch by the salesman from a particular company just before he placed the order. Real "steam tech" guys will probably argue for the superiority of one fitting over another but I'm not prepared to do that. You can quote me if you like but I don't call myself an authority.

My sources for the number of J-4-c engines, etc. are a Canadian National roster published by Railroad Magazine in 1937 (which my father clipped out and saved) and George Drury's "Guide to North American Steam Locomotives" (Kalmbach, 1993). That book is a gold mine of information and it might repay you to acquire a copy.

If more information on these CN Pacifics is still required, contact the Alberta Railway Museum in Edmonton. They have extensive archives of historical documentation on a large population of western steamers.
The Melville and Prince Albert loco histories are well documented.