Double Heading Steam
When one locomotive couldn't handle the job, two joined forces to increase speed or conquer steep grades with heavy loads. Witness spectacular plumes of smoke as double-headed engines roar at maximum effort!
Triple Heading to the Spiral Tunnels
Triple Heading to the Spiral Tunnels
Dozens of the mighty 2-10-4 Selkirks steam uphill toward the tunnels always double and often triple headed as the spectacular peaks of the Canadian Rockies rise up in the background
Summer and winter journeys are covered in dramatic footage of the Spiral Tunnels: summer in the 1950s and in the winter of 1978, a single Hudson makes the great climb.
Steam in the Canadian Rockies
Summer: In the fifties Will Whittaker dropped off a local at Yoho, mid-way between the upper and lower Spiral Tunnels to capture a steam display that could only be equaled at Horseshoe Curve. In one four hour period in Summer as many as ten sections of Canadian Pacific Transcontinental trains tackled Field Hill. Hiking across the face of Cathedral Peak, he shot Mikados, Santa Fes (2-10-2s), and dozens of the mighty 2-10-4 Selkirks, always double and often triple headed. Glimpses of Fraser Canyon, Revelstoke and the twice weekly mixed to Arrowhead.
Winter: Then, in winter 1978, a single Hudson is photographed from Golden, through the Spiral Tunnels, to Calgary with a 1950s matched maroon, semi-streamlined consist. Closes with Royal Hudson 2860 captured on film as she makes her famous run along the cliff-ringed shore of Howe Sound.
27 minutes