Midwestern Empress: Chasing CP 2816 on the Final Spike Tour Across Missouri!

In April of 2023 the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Kansas City Southern merged to create the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroad, (CPKC) the first and only railroad to operate in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The railroad chose to celebrate the merger in a big way by bringing Canadian Pacific 2816 out of storage and returning it to operation to lead the "Final Spike Steam Tour" - a major tour of the CPKC system from the engine's hometown in Calgary, Alberta to Mexico City and return.
Known as "The Empress," 2816 is an H-1b class 4-6-4 Hudson built by the Montreal Locomotive works in December, 1930. It spent 30 years of revenue service hauling passenger trains for the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was followed by 38-years of the ownership by Steamtown U.S.A. and later the Steamtown NHS. Canadian Pacific retook ownership of the Empress in 1998 for their own steam program and returned the engine to operation in 2001 - it acquired the Empress name soon after. The Hudson remained an excursion star until 2012 when CP discontinued its steam program, and it sat in storage in Calgary, Alberta until CPKC reactivated it in 2023.
Given how big of a deal this was, I decided to carve out a few days to myself to see the Empress in action and I decided to catch it during its visit to Kansas City, Missouri. Come along as we see and chase the Empress across the great state of Missouri!
I first saw the 2816 on the morning of May 18 as it pulled into the Kansas City Union Station for its public display and while it repositioned onto the siding it would sit on for most of the day. Later that evening, after it had wrapped up its display, I filmed the engine leaving Union Station from the West Pennway Street overpass, which may not have been the best idea. The dang class 1s just kept photobombing us! I then chased the locomotive when it left Kansas City on May 21, first catching it at the impressive concrete arch bridge across Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, and then seeing it perform a runby at Cleveland, MO. I managed to get to Amsterdam, MO just in time to see the engine perform its scheduled service stop, but I then fell behind in chasing the engine and was not able to get ahead of it again until it performed another service stop in Pittsburg, Kansas. The engine ended up running way faster than I expected, so seeing it leave Pittsburg was the last time I was able to film it.

[@LouisianaRailProductions]

Man that stack at Union was unfortunate timing haha! Great video though man! It was nice meeting you!

[@Patrick_3751]

Which of the three stacks are you referring to? Hahaha!! Thanks dude! And likewise!

[@felixthetrainfan4819]

A CPKC unite whoa😮

[@Patrick_3751]

Indeed! It's the first engine to be painted in the CPKC livery!

[@kyleSD70MAC]

Goood catch there!

[@Patrick_3751]

Thanks Kyle!

[@wolfen216]

man you gotta use a tripod more its nauseating drunken pirate filming through most of this.

[@Patrick_3751]

The threads in my camera's tripod mount were stripped during my visit to Kansas City. Nothing much I can do about it ATM. And that shaking isn't THAT bad. 🙄