The Canadian Pacific Ry built two 4-8-4's in 1928. With a change of motive power chiefs after their construction, it was decided to not build any more 4-8-4's, but rather to concentrate on 4-6-4's. But, these two 4-8-4's held down Montreal-Toronto (313 miles) trains 21 and 22 nightly, for 26 years. Without incident. In 1954, these trains were dieselized and the two 4-8-4's were shifted to the Montreal-St. John, NB run (The Atlantic Limited). Alas, the US Interstate Commerce Commission would not allow the locomotives to traverse the State of Maine, because they had nickle steel boilers. This limited their run to Montreal-(infamous) Megantic, which was too short to be practical. Why was this a concern? I seem to recall that nickle steel led to crystallization and boiler leaks. Can anyone further illuminate this issue?
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