This post card is part of a series produced by the same company that printed the picture in my previous blog post: Head-End Rail Prints located in White Rock, British Columbia. Because of this I won’t be showing the back side of the post card. This is a picture of another steam engine used by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The wheel arrangement is a 2-8-2, also known as the Mikado. It got the name Mikado because the Americans made engines of the same wheel arrangement and sold them to the Imperial Japanese Government. The title on the back of the card says, “C.P.R. 2-8-2 #5107 High-ball Freight Power”. The picture was taken in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Many wheel arrangements can be found on the old steam locomotives. The arrangements are the result of the evolution of the efforts to produce more powerful and faster engines. The designers were working under the constraints of maximum heights (going through tunnels) and widths (track size and tunnels). The only direction they could play with was the length of the engines. You will have to wait for my Union and Southern Pacific post cards to see the final results before diesels took over. As the demand for higher speeds became possible because of safer tracks and engineered roadbeds, longer boilers became a reality meet the need for speed. This wheel arrangement was designed to support the larger boiler, to lead the engine through curves and to support the firebox. The source of the following information comes from: http://members.shaw.ca/cprsteam/ Trailing trucks began to make their appearance under passenger engines on Canadian Pacific lines as early as 1905, but the large number of 2-8-0 type engines in freight service postponed development of a large-boilered freight locomotive until 1912. In that year the first 2-8-2 locomotives were produced (class P-1-a) and while they had the same tractive effort as N-2 class 2-8-0s then still being produced, their larger boilers meant faster steam generation and hence, higher speeds. The era of the fast freight train had come, and in spite of evolution toward a "super" locomotive which manifested itself in the 1920s and 1930s, the 2-8-2 remained the basic road freight locomotive to the end of the steam era, certainly on Canadian Pacific lines. In all, 334 2-8-2s served the Company. Canadian Pacific's units proved to be most reliable and versatile engines; the light P-1, was equally at home on passenger trains in hilly terrain. Between 1926 and 1930, the ninety-five P-ls were rebuilt with smaller diameter cylinders and higher boiler pressures; as each locomotive was converted, 100 was added to its road number. Thus, No. 5007 pictured in the post card above eventually became No. 5107. Numbers (1912 series): CP5100-CP5194 (Class P1b, 1912) CP5200-CP5254 (Class P1n, 1910-1913); Number of locos built in this class: 150; Builders: Canadian Pacific Railway, Angus. Montreal Locomotive Works; Type: Mikado Type 2-8-2; Cylinder size: 23x32 inch; Driving Wheel diameter: 63 in.; Total Weight: 457,500-509,000 lbs.