Morrissey, Fernie & Michel 2-8-0 Locomotives in Canada

Class 504 (Locobase 14169)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 49, p. 24. See also the Crow's Nest website at [] . Works numbers were 40279-40280 in July 1913.

The MF&M Railway operated in British Columbia and was opened in 1900 to link the mines at Coal Creek and at Morrissey with both the Canadian Pacific and Great Northern. The Morrissey-Fernie Coal Creek line covered about 6 miles (10 km). Baldwin's 1913 specs report that the maximum grade their small Consolidations would have to scale was 4% and curves were as tight as 12 degrees (478 foot/145.7 metre radii). The Morrissey Creek branch was built by Great Northern's Crow's Nest Southern in 1901 and operated only until the Carbonado mines played out in 1908.

The Coal Creek line, on the other hand, "was a busy one for many years," says the Crow's Nest account. Certainly the railway moved coal, but it was also the most convenient way for miners to move as well. "[F]ree passenger trains operated several times each day to provide transportation for the miners who lived in Fernie. Similarly, the line to Morrissey was a key link for the coal mines and the miners working at the mines. The two railways also brought in any freight or equipment needed at the mines."

The two 2-8-0s were retired in 1946 in favor of a single Baldwin DS4-4-600 diesel. The line closed in 1957.