Designed by Henry Bowen and introduced in 1937, the semi-streamlined Hudson was selected to haul the 1939 Royal Train that carried King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their journey across Canada. No 2850 was chosen and was turned out in a spectacular Royal blue and stainless steel livery to match the 12-coach blue and silver train.

So impressive was 2850's performance on the 3224mile trip that Canadian Pacific applied to Buckingham Palace for permission to officially designate the class as Royal Hudsons, a request that was granted. Subsequently all 45 members of the class carried a cast Royal Crown on their front running board skirts. The Royal blue livery on 2850 only lasted for the seven months of the summer of 1939 and after exhibition at the New York World's Fair it was replaced by the standard passenger livery of maroon panels with grey boiler cladding and cylinder covers, which it has to be said is still a spectacular livery!

Although designed as express passenger engines and capable of over 90mph, the Royal Hudsons were also used extensively on freight duties, but it was on the prestigious passenger trains such as the daily Dominion that they made a name for themselves with 1250 mile runs between Calgary and Ft William (Thunder Bay). On the cross-country runs it was common to have several express reefers at the head end between the engine and baggage car.

The Royal Hudsons ran in service right upto the withdraw of steam by Canadian Pacific in the summer of 1960 when most of the class were scrapped. Happily four have survived to this day in preservation, including 2860 currently in steam in British Columbia.

Also 2850 is preserved in its Tuscan and grey livery and has pride of place at the Canadian Railway Museum at Delson just Outside Montreal.