Canadian Pacific 1278

The No. 1278 locomotive was built by Canadian Locomotive Company in 1948 and is a type 4-6-2 class G5d light weight "Pacific" locomotive.[2][3] The No. 1278 was one of thirty such G5d locomotives to be built. The No. 1278’s relatively lightweight construction and very sound design made the locomotives the perfect engines for light-rail, branch line duty on both CP’s passenger and freight trains. The development of this class of locomotive enabled the CP to retire many smaller, older and less powerful locomotives. [5]The engine worked most of its career hauling freight and passenger trains throughout the Canadian Pacific Railway until it was retired from revenue service in 1960.[2]

After sitting idle for five years, the locomotive was purchased by F. Nelson Blount for his Steamtown, U.S.A. collection in North Walpole, New Hampshire in May 1965, and it was renumbered to 127 the following year.[2] Blount had planned to renumber all three of the CPR G5 locomotives in his collection from 1246, 1278 and 1293 to 124, 127 and 129 respectively, but the No. 1278 was the only one of the three that underwent the change. The locomotive was also modified by installing an Elesco bundle-type feedwater heater mounted across the top of the smokebox. [6]The new number remained on the locomotive from 1966 until 1973, when its former number was restored. No. 1278 was leased to Ross Rowland, who used the locomotive to pull his very first High Iron Company (HICO) excursion between Jersey City and Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania on October 13, 1966.[2] In early February 1968, HICO sponsored a doubleheader excursion over the Central Railroad of New Jersey's mainline between Jersey City and Wilkes-Barre, pulled by fellow G5 locomotives 1238 and 1286, while leasing them from George Hart. However, the latter two locomotives were on loan to the city of Reading for emergency warmth after a steam generator broke down. Since tickets for the excursion had already been sold, and Rowland was unwilling to pull the HICO excursion with a diesel locomotive, he leased No. 1278. However, since No. 1278 lacked enough power to pull the train over the grades on the CNJ between Bethlehem and Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania unassisted, Rowland also leased Strasburg Rail Road's 2-10-0 No. 90 to assist No. 1278. The locomotive returned to Steamtown soon after the excursion ended.

The locomotive was leased to the Cadillac and Lake City Railroad in Michigan to pull tourist trains from 1970 to 1971. After some repair work, the locomotive was returned to Steamtown, U.S.A. in Bellows Falls, Vermont where it served on excursion runs. During the sesquicentennial of the Delaware and Hudson Railway, the 1278 was fitted with elephant-eared smoke deflectors to masquerade as D&H P-1 4-6-2 No. 653,[7] and it performed one doubleheader with Reading T-1 4-8-4 No. 2102, which masqueraded as D&H No. 302 at the time. No. 1278 pulled her last excursion train for Steamtown in 1976, before it was removed from service due to her flue time running out, and it was subsequently put back on static display and replaced by G3c 4-6-2 No. 2317 for Steamtown's active roster at the time.[8]

After Steamtown moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, Steamtown decided that their G5 locomotives were inadequate for service as they were deemed too light for the heavy grades and sharp curves of their Ex-Lackawanna line, hence why No. 1278 never operated in Scranton. In 1987, No. 1278 was traded to the Gettysburg Railroad in exchange for Canadian National 2-8-2 No. 3254 in order to meet the demand for a stronger locomotive to pull Steamtown's longer trains.[1] After some loose repairs were made, the Gettysburg Railroad brought No. 1278 back under steam by 1988, and the locomotive was subsequently used to pull the road's tourist trains between Gettysburg, Biglerville, and Mount Holly Springs alongside Mississippian Railway 2-8-0 No. 76, until 1995.[2][3]

On June 16, 1995, No. 1278 was pulling a six-car dinner excursion for the Gettysburg Railroad, but at 7:20 pm near Gardners, the locomotive suffered a crownsheet failure, creating an explosion inside the firebox.[9][10] At the moment of impact, one of the two fireman on board the locomotive that day was sticking a shovel through the firebox door, and it consequently released fire and steam into the cab.[10] The two firemen jumped out of the cab, while the engineer, 48-year-old Jim Cornell, remained inside to bring No. 1278 to a safe stop, before following suit.[10]

All three crew members sustained burns from the explosion, along with injuries from jumping out of the cab, and the two firemen were taken to area hospitals, while Cornell was taken to a burn center in Philadelphia.[9][10] While the railroad continued to run their excursions, using only diesel locomotives, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) launched an investigation to discover the cause of the explosion.[9][10] The chief mechanical officer of the Valley Railroad, J. David Conrad, was brought in to help aid the NTSB’s evaluation of the Gettysburg’s operations.[10]

The determined cause of the failure was from the crownsheet overheating, due to a lack of a sufficient water level being obtained, and the crownsheet softened and ripped away from the crown staybolts.[9][10] Due to Canadian Pacific’s policy of alternating the row design of the crown stays in their locomotives, the firebox was the only part of No. 1278 that received major damage from the explosion.[9] The NTSB also discovered that many of No. 1278’s components were not being maintained correctly; the water glass, which was intended to display the correct water level inside the boiler, was plugged with hard scale from not being cleaned out.[9]

The investigation also revealed that the workforces of the Gettysburg Railroad, including the two firemen on No. 1278, had insufficient training and knowledge of how to correctly maintain steam locomotives; the railroad’s training program was found to be incomprehensible for the workforces.[9] Upon releasing its final report, the NTSB requested the FRA to reinforce steam locomotive operation regulations; the FRA introduced the 1,472-day inspection process for every operable steam locomotive in the United States.[9][11]

After the incident, much of the equipment from the Gettysburg Railroad was auctioned off. The Gettysburg Railroad also stopped using steam locomotives for the excursions and only used diesel locomotives. No. 1278 was indefinitely retired from excursion service after its boiler incident, and it was subsequently purchased by Jerry Joe Jacobson at an auction in 1998.[2] Since 1999, it sat in an Ohio Central Railroad storage facility in Morgan Run, Ohio for several years.[2][1] In 2016, No. 1278 was moved inside the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio, safely out of the weather.[2] The damage from the firebox incident is repairable, and the engine could be restored to operation if desired,[3] however, the engine remains on static display within the roundhouse as of 2023.