Caption: Big steam at St. Thomas: Canadian National 5700 and Reading 2100 pose next to each other on an Iron Horse day outside the former Michigan Central shop building at the Elgin County Railway Museum.

CNR 5700 is a K5a-class 4-6-4 "Hudson" built for CN in November of 1930 by MLW. While CP accumulated 65 Hudson type steam locomotives, CN only rostered 5: 5700-5704. They were used in passenger service out of Spadina Roundhouse in downtown Toronto until eventual retirement at the end of the steam era. When retired, two were donated to museums: 5702 to the Canadian Railway Museum/Exporail in Delson QC, and 5703 (as 5700) to the National Museum of Science and Technology (NMST). CN had the intent to preserve the "class" unit of the group like Northerns 6200 and 6400 were, but the original 5700 was inadvertently scrapped, so 5703 was renumbered as 5700 when donated to the NMST in November 1961. In 1988, "5700" went to the Elgin County Railway Museum where it resides today.

Reading 2100 is a Reading-built 4-8-4 Northern, at the time privately owned by Tom Payne and stored at ECRM with plans to put it into excursion service. It has since been sent back to the US, more details on 2100 can be found on the photo of it *here*.

For a photo of sister CNR Hudson 5702 in passenger service: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=14106