After being retired from revenue service, the locomotive was purchased in 1965 by F. Nelson Blount for excursion trains at his Steamtown, U.S.A. collection.

1278’s relatively lightweight construction and very sound design made the locomotives the perfect engines for light-rail, branch line duty on both CP’s passenger and freight trains.

[5] The engine worked most of its career hauling freight and passenger trains throughout the Canadian Pacific Railway until it was retired from revenue service in 1960.

1278 was purchased in mid-1965 by F. Nelson Blount, and it was moved to his Steamtown, U.S.A. collection in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

127 pulled some more excursion trains on the New Haven mainline between Boston, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island.

1238 and 1286 were originally planned to pull the trains, but their owner, George Hart, had put them on an emergency lease to the city of Reading, Pennsylvania to provide warmth to one of their power plants.

127 hauled the first excursion solo on the CNJ, Lehigh Valley (LV), and Penn Central (PC) mainlines from Newark, New Jersey to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, and then No.

1278 pulled its last excursion train for Steamtown in 1980, before it was removed from service when its flue time expired, and it was subsequently put on static display.

In June 1987, in an effort to have a second operable steam locomotive by their grand reopening of that year, Steamtown struck a deal with the Gettysburg Railroad to trade No.

1278 pulled its first train for the Gettysburg Railroad on July 3, 1988, when it carried passengers to the rededication ceremony of a Civil War veterans memorial.

[18] The locomotive was subsequently used to pull the railroad's tourist trains between Gettysburg, Biglerville, and Mount Holly Springs alongside Mississippian Railway 2-8-0 No.

1278 was pulling a six-car dinner excursion for the Gettysburg Railroad with 310 passengers, but at 7:20 pm near Gardners, the locomotive suffered a crownsheet failure, creating an explosion inside the firebox.

[19][20][21] At the moment of impact, one of the two fireman on board the locomotive that day was sticking a shovel through the firebox door, and it consequently released fire and steam into the cab.

[21] The two firemen jumped out of the cab, while the engineer, 48-year-old Jim Cornell, remained inside to bring No.

[19][21] The chief mechanical officer of the Valley Railroad, J. David Conrad, was brought in to help aid the NTSB’s evaluation of the Gettysburg’s operations.

[19][20][21] Due to Canadian Pacific’s policy of alternating the row design of the crown stays in their locomotives to intentionally control such a catastrophe, the firebox was the only part of No.

[19][20][22] Upon releasing its final report in 1996, the NTSB recommended the FRA to reinforce regulations for steam locomotive operations and maintenance in the United States.

1278 was indefinitely retired from excursion service after its boiler incident, and the railroad did not attempt any repairs to its damaged firebox.

1278 was moved inside the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio, safely out of the weather.