Canadian National No. 47 on display at Steamtown National Historic Site

See the Train Collection web page for more locomotives at Steamtown National Historic Site.

Note: Numbers used in this article, such as 4-5-4, are known as Whyte Notation. This is a system to classify steam locomotives that was created by Frederick Whyte in 1900. These numbers describe the arrangements of wheels. Most locomotives only have three numbers, with the first being the number of non-powered wheels used to support the front of the engine, the second being the number of powered wheels, and the third being the number of non-powered rear wheels. For locomotives with four or more numbers in their Whyte Notation, the first and last numbers are always the front and rear non-powered wheels, while all others are groups of powered wheels.

Canadian National No. 47 is a 4-5-4T locomotive built in 1914 by Montreal Locomotive Works for the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. The T in the Whyte Notation indicates that No. 47 is a tank locomotive. Instead of carting its water and fuel (coal) in a separate tender car, tank engines had water tanks and coal bins built onto the locomotive itself. Such engines were typically used around the railyard or on short trips since they did not carry enough water and fuel to travel long distances. No. 47 was used to provide commuter rail service in Montreal.

No. 47 operated until 1959. It was subsequently purchased by Nelson Blount, the founder of Steamtown USA. Blount used it on his Clarement and Concord Railroad excursions until the Interstate Commerce Commission ordered him to remove the locomotive from service due to a lack of records pertaining to the condition of its flues. The records had supposedly been lost in a fire at a Canadian National roundhouse.

Flues are pipes that help heat the water in the boiler by carrying smoke and hot gas from the firebox at the rear of the locomotive through the boiler to the smokebox at the front of the locomotive. Government regulations mandate a 4-year flue life which can possibly be extended a year upon inspection. With no maintenance records, Blount had to either replace the flues, a costly repair, or decommission the engine, which is what he chose to do.

Canadian National No. 47 is one of only three locomotives of its kind still in existence, and the only one in the United States (the other two are in Canada). Today it sits rusting away at Steamtown National Historic Site on the tracks near the southeastern end of the parking lot.