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Crab Orchard and Egyptian 17

preserved Canadian 2-8-0 locomotive

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ138545826 ↗
Source-derived summary

Crab Orchard and Egyptian 17 is a preserved 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive, built in 1940 by the Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC) for the Roberval and Saguenay Railway (RS). It was the final steam locomotive in the United States to be regularly and exclusively used for commercial freight service, with its final assignments occurring in 1986.

History

No. 17 was built in January 1940 by the Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC) for the Roberval and Saguenay Railway (RS), where it spent decades hauling aluminum ore material trains along with sister engine No. 16, making it the last 2-8-0 built for service in Canada. It served the RS for twenty-two years until 1962, when it was placed into standby service. In the early 1960s, No. 17 was retired from revenue service and was stored outside of the Canadian National Railways (CN) Jonquière, Quebec railyard for several years.

In May 1971, No. 17 was purchased by railfan John Thompson of Chicago, Illinois, who put it in storage at the Central Vermont Railway (CV) roundhouse in New London, Connecticut in July 1973.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Crab Orchard and Egyptian 17” as preserved Canadian 2-8-0 locomotive. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1940, 1986, 1962, 1971—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Crab, Orchard and Egyptian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as preserved Canadian 2-8-0 locomotive. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q138545826. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1940, 1986, 1962 and 1971.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Crab Orchard and Egyptian 17”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Crab Orchard and Egyptian 17 primary sources, Crab Orchard and Egyptian 17 archive and Crab research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Crab Orchard and Egyptian 17” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.