Century-old Cochrane steam locomotive makes Capreol home

The Northern Ontario Railroad Museum in Sudbury will be adding to its collection this week.

The site in Capreol is preparing for the arrival of century-old steam locomotive No. 219 from Cochrane.

That locomotive was bought by the museum in 2012 for slightly more than $5,000.

Museum operations manager Cody Cacciotti said No. 219 is the oldest surviving locomotive from the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway.

"Whenever you have the opportunity as an organization to preserve such a unique piece of rail history especially one that's so significant to northern Ontario it was a no-brainer for us to pursue this, he said.

The real cost will come from transportation and restoration, Cacciotti said. Transporting the locomotive from Cochrane will cost close to $40,000.

"We had never done anything like this in terms of moving a piece of historic rail equipment across the province, he said.

We started looking at trucking companies and ways of potentially bringing it down here by rail. We've had four rail companies working together to help us move this locomotive."

The locomotive is expected to arrive in the Capreol train yards in the next few days. It will then be taken to the museum on the back of a flatbed truck. Staff will then assess its condition to see what specific restorations need to be made.