TRANSCRIPTIONS BY BRUCE CHAPMAN AND COLIN CHURCHER
OF ARTICLES
BY AUSTIN CROSS IN THE OTTAWA CITIZEN




Gets A Sound Scolding For Railroading 'Muff", Published 13 January 1959

‘I got scolded by a railroader who calls himself “T.A.”  He says I muffed things when I described the Canadian Pacific’s mountain climbing type,  The Selkirk 5920 series, as “by far the biggest ever to run in Canada”.
     ‘If you are not a railroader, skip the next paragraph.
     ‘T.A. chides me for calling these 5920’s 4-10-4’s types, when actually their wheel arrangement is o-0000-oo.  The Americans call them Texas Type.  Then he notes these 5920’s are the smallest of the Selkirks.  Actually, of course, the first 20 of these engines are the most rugged, but they are not as handsome as the 5920-5929 class.
     ‘Then my critical friend  asks what became of the 8000 class.  That, I am afraid, is a secret buried in the heart of President Buck Crump.  I well remember the whooping and hollering about their super locomotive and the CPR then built a wooden staircase up into her cab, as she stood proudly in Windsor Station.  But, alas, somewhere along the line, the big 8000 must have flopped.  For not only did they never build another, but they actually tore this one to pieces.  It is as if she never existed.
     ‘I am further told that somebody in the CPR also ordered destroyed all pictures of the 8000 class.  Thus does this Behemoth join the dead bones of the earlier 2900-2901 class and the 3100-3101 class, which were spectacular failures.  At least, the CPR never built any more of them.
     ‘It has always seemed to be strange that the Canadian Pacific could never develop a high-class engine with four wheels on both sides.  This despite the fact that the CPR’s Pacific’s (oo-000-o) and Hudson’s (oo-000-oo) were so successful.  Yet, the Canadian National rolled off hundreds of the 6000 to 6200 class with four wheels on each side, thus oo-0000-oo, as you find them on the 6200’s.
     ‘Thanks to any non-railroaders who stayed to the bottom of the column.

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Updated 12 May 2019