Comments on: Another interesting piece of equipment I found at Boston Bar was this old tender. The last digit in the number 52140 is hard to make out and I’m guessing it may be a zero. It is faded but it still has the green block Canadian National. It is a mystery to me what it was used for. Probably still had some water carrying ability but what is the little cabin at the back about? Thin exhaust stack out the roof and a couple of hefty cables at this end. At least it was enjoying a second life at this time. Had a quick look and found no info to help with some history. I cannot guess as to what type of steamer this little tender will have been attached to in the past.

By: Larry Parks

Larry Parks — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 13:50:21 +0000

I thought I had seen it the year before when taking my station photo. It is amazing how long it was assigned here. Now if I had only brought my weed eater for this photo and cleaned up around the trucks. LOL

When I worked at the city yard back in 77, they had a couple of tracks loaded with the old cars you’re mentioning Paul. It was fun to go poking through them to see what old tidbits you could find. I have a nice collection of glass lenses (not plastic) for the lanterns on top of the switches.

By: rsmith

rsmith — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 00:31:39 +0000

The photo I found is on Flickr dated 1968.

By: Paul O'Shell

Paul O'Shell — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 00:29:41 +0000

Larry, CN 52146 can be seen in a 1968 photo at Boston Bar, BC at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/37908073@N04/5992319088/in/photolist-a8wcGm-9H8rXZ
Once finished with their revenue service duties, many pieces of equipment and rolling stock went on to enjoy 2nd lives in CN’s OCS (on company service) fleet. Coaches, baggage cars, wood and steel boxcars, flatcars, gondolas and more all saw continued service in the Engineering equipment fleets across the system.

By: Larry Parks

Larry Parks — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 22:57:01 +0000

I see that photo is dated 2013 Paul, those tenders have had an amazingly long second life.

By: Larry Parks

Larry Parks — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 22:50:19 +0000

To rsmith, having another zoom on my photo and that last number could easily be a 6. I will go with your photo as I imagine they only had the one at Boston Bar. Just of interest, is your photo from a later date?

That is one of the Vanderbilt cars like I saw at Calder Paul, thanks for the link.

By: Paul O'Shell

Paul O'Shell — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 19:22:19 +0000

And sequentially numbered Fire Fighting Car CN 52147 can be viewed at: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3557366

By: rsmith

rsmith — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 19:10:36 +0000

Found a photo of CN 52146 that looks exactly like this car. The photo is of the opposite side which has a stencil “Boston Bar Fire Fighting Car”.

By: Larry Parks

Larry Parks — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 16:45:54 +0000

Thanks Joe, I never saw many converted tenders, which is why I photo’d this one. CN had 1 or 2 of the vanderbilt tenders at Calder yard as water cars in the 70 and 80′s. Yes, I snapped a few photo’s of the VIA train with F-units leading. I had about 15 minutes of sun to quickly run around and get my pictures.

Thanks Paul, good point on the shack. A little gas engine to pump the water totally makes sense for fires along the R/W or whatever. It is great having the O’Shell book of knowledge on this site.

By: Paul O'Shell

Paul O'Shell — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 15:13:23 +0000

I’m thinking it was likely used as a tender for a steam powered crane/pile driver after its life behind a locomotive, and then became a fire fighting tender in its final years. The hut may have contained pumping equipment.

By: Joe Harrison

Joe Harrison — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 13:37:41 +0000

Excellent photo Larry and a probably long lost piece of history to research as well. Did you get a shot of the VIA? Great backdrop! :0)