Locomotive No. 73 helped build our province
Think of steam Locomotive No. 73 as Edmonton’s very own version of the Little Engine That Could. It’s the ultimate survivor, a train that has cheated fate.
Locomotive No. 73 was built in 1926 in Kingston, Ont. It’s a 2-8-0 Consolidation locomotive — famed in train lore for its ability to handle “impressive loads at unimpressive speeds.”
It was a workhorse, one of 17 steam locomotives operated by Northern Alberta Railways, which served northern Alberta and B.C. between 1929 and 1981.
The NAR was formed from four earlier pioneer railways — the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway, founded in 1907; the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway, founded in 1909; the Central Canadian Railway, founded in 1913; and the Pembina Valley Railway, started in 1926.
When those four little regional lines ran into financial troubles, the Alberta government of the day stepped in to buy them and consolidate them into one rail company. Later, the province sold the NAR to a new company, owned jointly by Canadian Pacific Rail and Canadian National.
The NAR linked Edmonton to Lac La Biche and Fort McMurray on its eastern line, and to Grande Prairie and Dawson Creek on its western leg. For decades, the railway served as a lifeline, linking tiny First Nations, Métis and settler communities across the north. Later, in the 1940s, the NAR played an essential role in transporting people and equipment to build the Alaska Highway.
But in 1960, with the advent of diesel, all the NAR steam locomotives were decommissioned and sent to Stelco — now AltaSteel — to be melted down.
Only Locomotive No. 73 survived — saved from the scrap heap at the last minute by Stelco, which donated it to the Canadian Railroad Historical Association.
Now, more than 50 years later, the historical association has donated it to the Alberta Railway Museum.
The museum, in northeast Edmonton, takes official possession of its newest artifact at a ceremony next Monday.
“This steam locomotive was instrumental in the building of Alberta,” said Stephen Yakimets, the Alberta Railway Museum’s president.
“Northern Alberta Railways 73 would have hauled out farm equipment to the Peace Country. It would have hauled tractors and combines and plows. And on its return, it would have brought in grain cars, it would have brought in lumber,” he said.
“It was also ran on the line through Boyle and Lac La Biche and up to Fort McMurray, so it was instrumental also in opening up the fisheries for Lac La Biche, and also, the start of the oilsands in the Fort McMurray area. It even hauled uranium during the Second World War — so you can think of it not only a big part of settlement, but as contributing to the war effort.”
Locomotive No. 73 has been stored at the museum site for decades. But now the museum’s volunteers will have the opportunity to take true ownership.
Yakimets estimates it will take volunteers two years and $30,000 to restore the locomotive cosmetically. That means re-cladding the huge steam boiler, replacing torn seats and cleaning and painting the exterior.
But returning the engine to operating condition could cost anywhere from $800,000 to $1 million. The small, volunteer-run museum only has an annual operating budget of $80,000. Yakimets says raising $1 million to finish the job is just too daunting a task right now.
Still, for museum volunteers John Fraser and Andy Johnson, just climbing inside No. 73 brings back rich memories. Fraser was a master mechanic who serviced this locomotive and its peers for decades. Johnson was a brakeman and conductor who often worked on trains pulled by this very locomotive.
“It was slow going,” Johnson said. “Those were long days, long trips.”
On the run to Fort McMurray, the old steam train would take 12 hours to travel to Lac La Biche from Edmonton — stopping every 48 to 64 kilometres to refill its water reserves to boil up more steam. They’d stop for the night in Lac La Biche, then head north again in the morning.
The locomotive wasn’t daunted by snow or cold, Fraser said — “even when it was -50 C.”
“But in the end, it got harder and harder to maintain,” he said. “There were fewer and fewer parts.”
In 1981, the NAR came to the end of its line. Passenger service for the small communities it served came to a halt, while the rest of the NAR services were folded into CN’s operations.
And we’re left with this last mighty steam locomotive that once pushed through the forest, muskeg and snow, carrying a lifetime of stories that even Thomas the Tank Engine or the Hogwarts Express might envy.