4-4-0 American / 0-6-0 switcher (goat) / 2-8-0 Consolidation
2-6-0 Mogul / 4-4-4 jubilee / 4-6-0 10 Wheeler / 4-6-4 Hudson
4-6-2 Pacific / 2-8-2 Mikado / 2-8-4 Berkshire / 4-8-2 Mountain
4-8-4 Northern / 2-10-2 Sante Fe / 2-10-4 Selkirk / 0-4-0 switcher
2-6-2 Prairie / 2-6-6-2 Articulated ( converted to 2-10-2 or 4 by CP)

The bulk of the photos were taken from 1900 up to the late 50's, so there are very few colour photos, colour only came into use around the 40's or 50's, and not many people could get colour film back then. What you see here in colour, is usually from a special run by the company in the 50's and 60's, like CN, so that railfans could get photographs.
These are the names of the individual steam engines, each had a wheel arrangement, ie 2-8-2, and a name like Mikado because it was originally designed for Japan.
The names of US engines and Canadian engines were usually the same, however, Canadian engines were usually designated "light" as they were built a little lighter, due to the lighter rail used in Canada. I don't know why we went to a lighter rail, but maybe it had something to do with the terain. Canada was glaciated, and the soil was scrubbed off down to bedrock, this tended to hold water and produce muskeg or swampland, mountains were flattened and so on. We were left with a lot of muskeg or swampland in the northern areas. I have heard of track getting laid, an engine crossing it, and the rail sinking on one side, into the muskeg, tilting the engine until it fell into the muskeg and went out of site.
Passenger trains as such, were named , like the Canadian, but none of these ar depicted here, yet.
2-6-2 is for the wheel arrangment on the engine as follows oo O O O oo
the center bigger wheels are drivers, the smaller front and rear
wheels assist in steering, so a slow engine, or one used for switching, may lack the rear ones or both front and back..
When the engines got too big as in 2-10-2 , they started to become unstable as the speed increased. They were used by CN in the switch yard at Toronto, and as helper engines to assist less powewrful engines in climbing the hills East of the City, and by CP in the mountains on the west coast.
It has been said that steam engines died because companies wanted to sell the new diesel engines, and didn't care that they could not compete in pulling power, with big steam engines. One, the "big boy", a monster of a steam engine,(one has been restored in Steamtowm, in Pennsylvania), is claimed to be able to pull a string of freight cars, 5 miles long by itself!!!

The bulk of these photos were taken by people a long time ago, and they have long since passed on. Some, very few, are new, and show restored engines or models of certain engines.
I have no way of knowing where or when they were taken unless they are dated. However, some are obviously in and around Toronto, and others out West.
You must remember, big engines with big tenders were needed to cross over 3000 MILES. It took a lot of water and coal stops, but was still cheaper than oil. The water towers were rougly every 50 miles along the line.