W&ARMINNEHAHA

Windsor and Annapolis Railway Steam Locomotive "Minnehaha" (I)

• Wheel Arrangement: 4-4-0
• Built by: Messrs. Fox, Walker & Co.
• Date: 1868
• Builder No.:
• Cylinders: 16" x 22"
• Drivers: 61"
• Wheelbase length, (engine and tender): xx' yy"
• Length of Wheel base 20' 8" inches
• Do. to centre of Bogie 17' 9"
• Do. of Bogie 5' 0"
• Overall pilot to tender coupler length: xx' yy"
• Name Origin: Minnehaha was the lover of "Hiawatha" in Longfellow's popular 1855 poem "Song of Hiawatha".

"Minnehaha" was, along with "Hiawatha" and "Grand Pre" was one of the remaining 3 locomotives landed at Wolfville early on 1869 built by the Fox, Walker and Company of Bristol, England. They were the first new locomotives ordered by the Windsor and Annapolis Railway as the company moved to bolster a fleet of second hand locomotives used in construction with more powerful locomotives to provide service on the new line.

Minnehaha was described in a engineering book from the period:

"Mixed traffic engine constructed by Messrs. Fox, Walker & Co., Bristol, for the Windsor and Annapolis Railway, Nova Scotia. This engine is in general design in accordance with the prevailing American type of passenger engines having four coupled wheels and a bogie The resemblance ends there for the engine is entirely English in detail which appears to be much appreciated by the officials of lines on which the engine is at work The bogie is strongly constructed with plate framing and inside bearings and besides having the ordinary rotating movement on a pivot it may traverse laterally for a few inches A slight lateral movement has also been provided for in the axleboxes of the driving wheels There are 150 flue tubes 2 inches in diameter and as the barrel of the boiler is 4 feet 2 inches in diameter there is abundant space for the generation of steam and circulation of water The tender holds 2,000 gallons of water and is carried on two four wheel bogies."

This broad gauge "Minnehaha" was traded to the Canadian Government's Intercolonial Railway in 1875 when the Windsor & Annapolis changed to standard gauge. The W&AR received another locomotive, No. 9, which they also named Minnehaha. The use of the name twice has caused some confusion with photos of the first Minnehaha sometimes being labelled as the second Minnehaha, built by CLC in Kingston. The broad gauge "Minnehaha" was converted to standard gauge by the Intercolonial and sent to Manitoba to work on construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and was eventually renumbered as CPR 155.

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