Esquimalt & Nanaimo Steam Snaps: 5, 30, 62

This helpful pamphlet will give you a quick overview of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway. 

From time to time, people have seriously/humourously raised the criticism that the Canadian Pacific was always understood to be a railway which reached Vancouver Island. This was to have been accomplished via a bridge, or a series of island-hopping bridges - probably built farther up the coast. 

And this continuous line of steel was to have reached its western terminus at Victoria. Anything less was a failure to live up to promises made to British Columbia when it agreed to join Canadian confederation in 1871. Apparently Sir John A Macdonald promised explicitly to build to the island in 1873. 

It must have been devastating for people to discover that politicians don't always honour their promises.

Nonetheless, a railway named the Esquimalt & Nanaimo was constructed between 1883 and 1886. Sir John A Macdonald drove its ceremonial last spike at Mile 25 of the main line where a cairn was erected. The Dunsmuir family, with coal interests on Vancouver Island (and other investors - farther afield), were behind its construction. The deal was sweetened with a generous grant of land - detailed on the map below.

And, as we might have expected, the CPR leased the railway for 999 years in 1912. 

The pamphlet is labelled 'facsimile' and according to archive.org it was a reprint of CP Bygones. Also at archive.org you can virtually 'borrow' Robert D Turner's fabulous book about the railway. 

And so ... here is my pokey little effort to show you three steam engine snapshots which I have from this railway ...

While my reference for supplemental information is 'Lavallee', 

I'm not quibbling with anything printed on the back of these photos.

This engine was scrapped in April 1934.

The one thing you'll notice about all three ... is that they were converted to oil firing.

Retrofitted with a turbo-generator, its headlight is now electrically powered.

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This engine was built by the CP New Shops (aka Delorimier) in June 1896.

It was CP 3130, but was renumbered as 30 when it was assigned to the E&N in February 1931.

It was scrapped in December 1934.

It seems the air pump and turbo-generator have been salvaged in anticipation of scrapping.

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This engine was numbered CP 2462 when it was built at Montreal Locomotive Works in January 1912.

Then renumbered: E&N 462 Sep 1930; E&N 62 Apr 1931; CP 462 Mar 1937.

Scrapped September 1939.

(After posting, below, Ken Perry noted that this is Train No 2. Thanks also to Jim Christie.)

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The following pages of line data come from: Altitudes in Canada; 1915; James White; Commission of Conservation Canada.

You can see that Mileage 25, the site of the last spike cairn, is noted.

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This description of the line is from: Across Canada, Annotated Guide etc; 1923; Canadian Pacific Railway.