Caption: Here is a real historical piece!! This is a Fireless locomotive, one of only two of such locomotives left in Canada. It is a 30" gauge, and was used by Atlas Steel in Welland for many years. The idea of the 'fireless' is that it uses compressed air or steam, supplied by an external source. This is for when a loco is needed for use in confined areas, such as in buildings or mines, where fumes from a conventional engine might be too risky. Modern examples of such are now battery-operated electrics and most old fireless units of this type have been scrapped. From what I could find on-line, this unit was donated to Fort Erie Railway Museum in 1984, as delivered from Atlas. However, I shot this next to a open-ended brick building at CN Fort Erie shop in early 1983. From what I gather, the museum did not want it any more and it was going back to Welland but a deal with the fledgling Niagara Rail Museum resulted in it coming back to the location of NRM in the old CN diesel shop in 2014. It arrived painted black. Plans are to restore it and give it new paint.
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Nice Shot! I have seen that locomotive at the Fort Erie Railway Museum a few times.
The museum has already done a beautiful job so far on the restoration of it. Such a historic engine, and I learned even more about it here.