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Caption: With such warm weather here's a shot from a much cooler day, -8°C with the wind chill at London, ON International Airport. Seen during the first of two UCRS "Farewell to 6218" Excursions running the weekend of March 20 - 21, 1971, U-2-g 6218 passes Kelly's siding south of Belmont, ON on one of her two photo run-bys on this day. This trip would run Toronto - London via Guelph and return via the Dundas Sub. The following day would be the final UCRS trip with this engine, running Toronto - Guelph - Lynden - Paris Jct. - Caledonia - Hamilton - Toronto with a farewell banquet held in the James Street North station in Hamilton. Further information found in the April, 1971 issue of the UCRS newsletter.
Original Photographer Unknown, Jacob Patterson Collection Slide.
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She should have been shopped and held for further excursion service, right to the present day.
Our government(s) really blew it with their short sighted decisions leading to the demise of such impressive steam engines in this province. After all, even back then we knew tourism was going to be the driver of the future.
Nothing to do with the government, Canadian railroads won’t allow steam to run on their tracks. You can restore all the equipment you want (not that we have done) but what is the point if you can’t run it. All dressed up with nowhere to go? Take a look at the UK where steam excursions regularly run at track speed on mainlines.
I was thinking that it was a provincial government decision not to invest in 6060 to keep in running in Ontario. I was unaware that CN (and CP) had changed their policy regarding steam engines after those great tourist runs in the 1970s.