History and details about locomotive CP 2235 (and 3217), courtesy Ray Verdone of cprsteam.org
This locomotive was built by Canadian Pacific Railway Company, Angus Shops, Montreal, Quebec, June 1914. It was not given a builder's plate number. It entered CPR service as a brand new locomotive on that date (June 1914). CP2235 was changed March 1921: Cylinder dimensions were changed from 22.5x28 to 20x28 inches. The locomotive was reclassified from G1g to G1v. It was scrapped February 1960 after 45 years and 8 months of service. Locomotive CP2235 was of class G1g.
CPR stamped every bell with the locomotive number on which it was installed. One can often observe the renumbering history of locomotives reflected on the bell. In this case, at first glance, the history on the bell does not seem to correlate much with that of its locomotives.
From the description provided, the number 2235 is in the usual “font and size” of most other bells I have seen. I believe this is the loco this bell came from. Though the bell was built a long time ago (1914) it is likely that this bell stayed with the locomotive for its entire life until the locomotive was scrapped in February of 1960. The date of this locomotive’s “end of life” corresponds when CPR was in a heavy scrapping program and when the bells would have been one of the ones set aside for sale.
I am really not sure what is the relevance of the other number (3217). Maybe some sort of internal serial number when it was built or tracking number when the locomotive was modified in 1921? Perhaps someone else may be able to shed some light on that in the future.
CP did operated only 1 steam locomotive with the other number, 3217 between June 1913 and when it was scrapped in September 1930. I believe it is unlikely that a bell from that locomotive would have survived until the 1960’s.
