CN 7470, a Cinderella story. The Conway Scenic Railroad's only steam locomotive, the former Canadian National Switcher #7470 drifts toward the concrete tunnel under Highway 302, known as Cook's Crossing, with the 2015 edition of the annual "Steam in the Snow" excursion.
The story of the 7470 is very much a Cinderella tale. Here, you see her hauling a passenger consist with 150 fans on board, and being chased by a caravan of railfans as she struts her stuff on a chilly winter day, but it wasn't always that way. Built in 1921 in the former Grand Trunk Railway's Point St. Charles Shop, this engine lived a very unglamorous life as a lowly yard goat. One RP viewer recently informed me that she was the Mimico Yard Engine in her later years at a railyard near Toronto. Never traveling very far from the roundhouse, this gal shunted cars and put together freight trains. The legacy photos of her show her looking dirty and sooty...hardly anything to get excited about. After she was retired, she changed hands a couple of times, but finally ended up in the hands of Dwight Smith, one of the founders of the Conway Scenic Railroad. Today, her life in retirement could not be more different than her working years. Now, she's the engine house queen. Kept immaculately clean and nicely painted in CN livery, she gets to stretch her legs on miles and miles of old B&M and Maine Central tracks, hauling passengers. Yes, the filthy dirty Cinderella is now the princess, and the star attraction up in North Conway.
Beautiful mountain scenery has made this small state a draw for rail buffs to ride the Mount Washington Cog Railway and the Conway Scenic, among others.
