Two for Tuesday: Getting CP Heritage, Sort of

Canadian Pacific’s maroon and gray heritage locomotives have been around a while but I’ve had no luck in seeing one, let alone photographing it. When it comes to CP heritage units, my luck has been so bad that I haven’t even had a near miss in getting one.

Everyone and their brother, it seems, has photographed a CP heritage unit, but I haven’t.

My luck changed dramatically last Sunday. I was standing on the platform of a railroad park by the former New York Central depot in Chesterton, Indiana, next to the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern.

An eastbound was approaching, which turned out to be the 34J, a manifest freight that comes off the Indiana Harbor Belt in Blue Island, Illinois, and runs to Elkhart, Indiana.

From a distance I could tell the lead unit was not a run of the mill NS locomotive.

It was a clean Canadian Pacific locomotive. That in and of itself is nothing out of the ordinary. But as the train bore down on me I suddenly noticed there was something different about the trailing unit. It wasn’t run of the mill CP.

It was maroon and gray with block lettering No. 7016. And with that my CP heritage drought abruptly ended. Well, sort of.

My find comes with a few caveats. The 7016 was trailing and not leading. That is at best a consolation prize.

Second, the weather was far from ideal for photography. It was a cloudy day with flat light. Many rail photographers would not have bothered to have gone out under such conditions.

Third, seeing my first CP heritage unit caught me off guard. I’m amazed I was able to get what I did of this unit. But, hey, I got it.

I just hope that I don’t have to wait several years to catch another CP heritage leading in better light and for which I am better prepared.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

Tags: Canadian Pacific heritage units, Canadian Pacific locomotives, Chesterton Indiana, CP heritage locomotives, CP locomotives, CP motive power, Norfolk Southern, NS Chicago Line