The Waterfront Friends of North Bay Waterfront Friends of North Bay, Ontario Canada in conjunction with The Heritage Railway and Carousel Co. The Heritage Railway and Carousel Co. had a vision to create a public transportation system within the expanding waterfront park area. The plan was to design and develop a fleet of replica steam locomotives that had historical significance to the North Bay area.

At the time, the Heritage Railway had two live steamers in operation. It was becoming a burden to train enough volunteers to safely run the locomotives and the cost of keeping the locomotives in good mechanical condition for the half days of operation they could manage was becoming troublesome. In consideration of these factors, the motivation for a new form of locomotive power was born. All of the historically significant locomotives identified to be recreated were steam powered, and an alternate means of power that lent itself to the desired presentation of those locomotives was needed. After consultation with a local manufacturer of mining and tunneling locomotives, it was decided that battery power would be the best approach to the project.

A dream is born….the Lucy Dalton Story – the first 15 gauge battery-powered locomotive

Within the Waterfront Friend’s vision, the Lucy Dalton which was the first locomotive to service the North Bay and area, was to be re-born as a scaled replica built on 15" gauge. She would need to be designed to operate commercially over an 11 hour shift for 7 days a week. From a professional standpoint, meeting the operating requirements using battery power was certainly an engineering challenge. From an artistic point of view, the scope of the project struck a chord.

In May 2006, the battery – powered replica of the Lucy Dalton rolled down the tracks at the Heritage Railway and Carousel Company. Shown above in a picture taken in 1881, the original American style 4-4-0 Lucy Dalton can be compared to a photograph of the scaled Lucy Dalton taken 125 years later. In addition to capturing the essence of the original locomotive, the performance of the battery drive has exceeded all expectations. Lucy, in her first year of operation, proved to be a major attraction for in excess of 100,000 visitors to the Heritage Railway and Carousel Company. Hundreds from Canada, the U.S. and other countries, had their photos taken with the Lucy. Her authentic look, synchronized chuff and whistle sounds replicates the original Lucy Dalton to a tee.

Three other historically significant locomotives had to be considered while designing the Lucy Dalton. The final design allowed virtually any wheel arrangement to be achieved with only the cosmetics needing to be tailored to any specific locomotive. In addition to the American style Lucy Dalton, also under consideration for the park are a Pacific 4-6-2, a Hudson 4-6-4 and a replica of a Consolidated 2-8-0, all of which can be manufactured by Scaled Plus. The original Consolidated 2-8-0 shown below is being restored and will be put on display in the completed park.