# Canadian National 47

Canadian National 47 is a preserved class "X-10-a" 4-6-4T type tank locomotive located at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States. It is one of only three preserved CN 4-6-4Ts (No. 49 at the Canadian Railway Museum in Delson, Quebec, Canada, and CN No. 46 at Vallée-Jonction, Quebec) and is the only Baltic-type suburban tank locomotive remaining in the United States.

## History

CN No. 47 was originally built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in September 1914 for the Grand Trunk Railway as its No. 1542, class K2, but became a CN locomotive after the creation of the Canadian National Railway in 1923. Its CN classification was X-10-a. Along with its sister locomotives, No. 47 was based in Montreal and was used exclusively in commuter service. Following retirement in June 1959, No. 47 was sold to F. Nelson Blount for $2,000, and it became a part of his collection of steam locomotives in North Walpole, New Hampshire. No. 47 was the first locomotive to run excursions for Blount's Monadnock, Steamtown & Northern Railroad (MS&N), and it was intended to become the line's primary excursion locomotive. It had been given a fresh overhaul in 1958, and it was in good mechanical condition when acquired, as evidenced in tests performed by both the MS&N and the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company.
No. 47 entered service during the MS&N's first season in July 1961, operating on the tracks of the Claremont and Concord Railway (C&C) near New Hampshire's Lake Sunapee. No. 47 operated in tourist excursion service for barely five weeks when the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ordered for it to be removed from service, on August 26. The locomotive's maintenance records had been disposed of upon retirement by the Canadian National, resulting in several dates of past maintenance being absent on the MS&N's own inspection form. While Blount was maintaining No. 47 for intra-state hobbyist and tourist usage, the locomotive was operating on the C&C—a regulated common carrier that participated in interstate operations.
Complete copies of No. 47's maintenance records were eventually obtained from Canada's Board of Transit Commissioners in September (contrary to popular belief they were not lost in a fire), but the newfound records revealed that the locomotive had been due for boiler re-tubing when retired—work that was never completed by the Canadian National. Facing a costly re-tubing, Blount took the locomotive out of service, replacing it with a leased Claremont and Concord GE 70-ton switcher for seven days until the 1961 season came to a premature end on September 17. As a result of a lack of an operable steam locomotive, ridership of the MS&N declined before Rahway Valley 15 entered service to pull the excursion trains the following year.
No. 47 was put on static display in North Walpole after its final run, and it was later moved across the Connecticut River with the rest of the Steamtown, U.S.A. collection to Bellows Falls, Vermont. No. 47 was later moved with the rest of the collection in 1984 to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where it currently remains on static display in the yard of Steamtown National Historic Site.