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Columbia River Belt Line 7, also known as Skookum, is a preserved 2-4-4-2 Mallet-type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1909. It was used to pull logging trains in the Pacific Northwest, until 1955, when the locomotive fell on its side, and it was abandoned. Several decades and ownership changes later, No. 7 was restored to operating condition in 2018. Presently, Skookum is owned by Chris Baldo, and it is being used to run on occasion for the Niles Canyon Railway.
In 1909, the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an order by Tennessee's Little River Railroad to construct a Mallet locomotive. [1] [2] The Little River Railroad's president, Colonel W. B. Townsend, wanted his company to experiment with a locomotive that would be light enough to negotiate light-weight rails and tight curves while being powerful enough to pull longer trains than an average steam engine of the time. [2] Baldwin subsequently came out with the first Mallet they would ever build for a logging company; No. 7 was built in June 1909, originally carrying the number 126 and without a name. [3] [4] It was a one-off design, having carried the unusual 2-4-4-2 wheel configuration, and it was capable of negotiating a 160-ft-radius curve. [3] It was originally ordered and built as a coal burner, but was converted to burn oil very shortly before delivery. [3]
After No. 126 was delivered, the Little River Railroad used it for some trial runs on their trackage. [1] In the process, the locomotive derailed on curves multiple times, and it was discovered that No. 126 was too heavy for the light-weight rails. [1] [2] Unsatisfied with its weight, the railroad sent the engine back to Baldwin less than one month after its delivery. [1] Baldwin subsequently built a smaller 2-4-4-2, No. 148, for the Little River Railroad's needs, and they offered No. 126 for sale to other companies. [5] [1] After sitting in Baldwin's factory yard for a short while, No. 126 was purchased in June 1910 by the Whitney Logging Company of Blind Slough, Oregon. [2] The locomotive was soon delivered to Blind Slough, where the company, whose practice was to give their engines names instead of numbers, removed the number 126 and added the name "Skookum" (where "skookum" is a Chinook term meaning "strong, powerful, reliable"). [1] [2] [4]
The Whitney Logging Company assigned Skookum to work for its rail subsidiary, the Columbia River Belt Line Railway. [4] Skookum quickly exceeded all expectations over its performance, as it successfully pulled trains without any problems. [1] [2] One factor to this might have been the CRBL's trackage having more support for the engine, compared to Little River's trackage. During 1911, Skookum's success was covered in several local newspapers. [2] The positive press led to Baldwin receiving additional orders for nearly 50 other Mallet engines for other logging companies in the coming years. [1] [2] Skookum continued in service the CRBL until 1920, when it was sold to the Larkin-Green Lumber Company, who was also in Blind Slough. [4]
They quickly sold the engine to the Carlisle-Pennell Lumber Company of Onalaska, Washington, who removed the name "Skookum" and added the number 7, before it was placed into service there. [4] During its time there, the locomotive was rebuilt with additional handrails on the pilot deck, and the air pump was relocated to the front of the smokebox door. [4] Beginning in 1924, No. 7 was transferred to Carlisle-Pennell's subsidiary, the Newaukum Valley Railroad. [4] From 1930 to 1931, at the start of the Great Depression, No. 7 was leased to the Mud Bay Logging Company to pull lumber trains between Mud Bay and Olympia. [4] After the lease, the engine was moved back to Carlisle-Pennell's property, but by 1933, the company had cleared out all of their timber lands. [4] With No. 7 no longer needed in Onalaska, it was sold again to the Deep River Logging Company of Deep River, Washington. [4]
DRLCo undid the modifications Carlisle-Pannell made to No. 7, and the locomotive was used to pull their heavier lumber trains. [4] It was commonly selected as the company's primary choice of motive power, due to its greater power and traction, compared to the rest of DRLCo's roster. [1] [2] Later, in the early 1950s, DRLCo began to consider discontinuing their rail operations, due to their decrease in traffic, and they subsequently decided to have all of their remaining locomotives scrapped and their remaining rails removed by the end of 1955. [1] On the afternoon of February 23, 1955, No. 7 was moving in reverse with a string of empty freight cars to pick up a heavy load. [6] [7] However, when it reached a small trestle near Grays Harbor, its tender hit a broken piece of rail, making it derail and hang halfway on the trestle, and the entire engine precariously leaned towards one side. [1] [6] [7] The crews dropped the fire, came off and examined the situation, and they felt the Mallet seemed stable enough to remain still, so they left it and waited until the next morning to re-rail it, using the company's ALCO 2-6-2 engine. [1] [6]
"[It was] as if an elephant had simply rolled over on its side to go to sleep."
—Unnamed crew member at the time of No. 7's fall [6]
The fireman also chose to keep the crown sheet covered with water overnight, so the engine would be ready for service the next day, but as water was injected into the boiler, it affected the center of gravity for No. 7. [1] [6] When crews came back for No. 7, the center of gravity gave out, and the locomotive completely toppled onto its side off of the short trestle. [1] Despite the locomotive receiving minimal damage from hitting the soft ground and a muddy creek bed, the crews saw no easy way to move it upright onto the rails. [1] With DRLCo only having a few months left of operating time, and with the ALCO 2-6-2 still operable, it was decided to simply abandon No. 7 right where it sat. [1] When scrapping commenced on the company's remaining fleet, the scrappers opted not to torch No. 7, because it was too inconvenient to get the remains out of the remote area where the Mallet sat. [1]
In 1956, rail fan Charlie Morrow became aware of No. 7's abandoned status in the woods. [1] [4] He had known about No. 7's fame for its innovative design for years, and he decided to contact the scrappers with the possibility of buying it. [1] [8] He successfully managed to purchase the Mallet for its scrap value of $1,200. [4] [6] Morrow subsequently co-founded a group alongside other rail fans, called the Puget Sound Railway Historical Association, in dedication of bringing No. 7 back under steam. [4] [8] In the summer of 1960, the process of moving the locomotive out of the woods began, but since the rails had been ripped up years prior, and with roadways not being located close by, Morrow and his fellow PSRHA members had to disassemble No. 7 and move it in sections. [1] [8] No. 7's boiler and frame had been attached to each other since the 1909 construction date, and the PSRHA members struggled to have them separated with the rusty bolts locking them together. [1] As a last resort, they decided to blast them apart, using dynamite, and the boiler and frame were finally separated. [1]
Soon, the boiler, frame and tender were separately shipped to PARHA's location in Snoqualmie, Washington, where restoration work to get No. 7 running again was expected to quickly begin. [1] [4] For reasons unknown, the PARHA's plans to restore and run No. 7 had fallen through, and the Mallet instead sat, disassembled in PARHA's Niblock Yard for the next few decades with little activity done on it. [4] In 1978, Morrow passed away, and No. 7 fell under ownership of an estate company, who in turn sold it to a California-based logger, Rohan Coombs. [1] [4] [6] [7] Coombs kept No. 7 in Snoqualmie, while he explored options for the Mallet's future. [4] In 1996, Coombs had the pieces relocated to the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad in Mineral, Washington. [1] [4] The plan was to have the locomotive restored and eventually ran on Mount Rainier's trackage, but this also fell through. [1]
In 2004, Coombs began experiencing failing health, and he contacted another rail fan, Chris Baldo, about purchasing the engine before his passing. [6] Baldo agreed to purchase No. 7, and with the help of a young rail apprentice, Scott Wickert, No. 7's frame and running gear were moved to the recently-established Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad in Garibaldi, Oregon for repairs. [4] [6] The boiler and tender were moved to Chehalis, Washington to undergo an extensive rebuilding process. [7] Baldo also had an exact replica of No. 7's original wooden cab made from scratch. [7] During the restoration, it was decided to revert the engine to its CRBL livery with its "Skookum" name, but also having it retain its road-number 7. Years later, on December 15, 2014, the rebuilt boiler was moved to Garibaldi by truck, and the next day, it was lifted and reunited with the frame. [7] The tender was also moved to an Oregon Coast engine house in Tillamook for temporary storage. [9]
In January 2018, McCloud Railway locomotive 25 towed Skookum's tender from Tillamook to Garibaldi, and the following day, the tender was reunited with No. 7. [9] In October 2018, No. 7 was steamed up for the first time in nearly 69 years, and on behalf of Pete Lerro, it took part in a public photo charter alongside McCloud Railway 25 and Polson Logging Co. 2. [10] During the charter, however, Skookum was experiencing some timing issues with the engineer side low pressure steam chest, and this prevented the Mallet from traveling any further from the Garibaldi engine shed. [10] [11] Once the Pete Lerro charter ended, No. 7 was moved back inside the engine shed, and crews began examining the engine's running gear. [11] The discovered timing issue originated in the high pressure eccentric valves. [11] This was fixed with new keys being made and installed for the eccentric valves. [11] In December, Skookum was steamed up again for a test run, and it ran under its own power without incident. [11]
"Pretty much everyone thought that this project was impossible, but its the kind of project that takes the skills of a massive amount of people, and I'm happy to see most of those faces here tonight."
—Chris Baldo [6]
On March 2, 2019, Skookum made its official first public run, and several years restoration work on the engine was finally completed. [6] Some days later, the engine participated in two public photo charters that were sponsored by Trains Magazine, and McCloud 25 and Polson Logging 2 also took part. [12] In April No. 7 steamed to Tillamook, its last operation on Oregon soil; [13] the engine and tender were subsequently loaded into separate heavy-haul trucks and transported south to the Niles Canyon Railway. [13] After arriving in the NCRY's location in Sunol, California, No. 7 spent the entirety of the 2019 summer months pulling excursion trains on NCRY's trackage alongside their own locomotives. [14] In March 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCRY closed to the public and No. 7 was left in storage. [15] In September 2020, the NCRY reopened to the public, with Skookum pulling several other excursions in the ensuing months, including a May 1, 2021 run to benefit the restoration of Southern Pacific 1744. [15] [16] No. 7 currently[ when? ] remains at the NCRY’s location, but it is unknown whether it will remain there or be moved to another railroad location.
The Shay locomotive is a geared steam locomotive that originated and was primarily used in North America. The locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who has been credited with the popularization of the concept of a geared steam locomotive. Although the design of Ephraim Shay's early locomotives differed from later ones, there is a clear line of development that joins all Shays. Shay locomotives were especially suited to logging, mining and industrial operations and could operate successfully on steep or poor quality track.
A Mallet locomotive is a type of compound articulated steam locomotive, invented by the Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet (1837–1919).
A tender or coal-car is a special rail vehicle hauled by a steam locomotive containing its fuel and water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared to the quantity of fuel, so their tenders are necessary to keep them running over long distances. A locomotive that pulls a tender is called a tender locomotive. Locomotives that do not have tenders and carry all their fuel and water on board the locomotive itself are called tank locomotives or tank engines.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, a 2-6-6-2 is a locomotive with one pair of unpowered leading wheels, followed by two sets of three pairs of powered driving wheels and one pair of trailing wheels. The wheel arrangement was principally used on Mallet-type articulated locomotives, although some tank locomotive examples were also built. A Garratt locomotive or Golwé locomotive with the same wheel arrangement is designated 2-6-0+0-6-2 since both engine units are pivoting.
In Whyte notation, 2-4-4-2 refers to a railroad steam locomotive that has two leading wheels followed by two sets of four coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 0-6-6-0 wheel arrangement refers to a locomotive with two engine units mounted under a rigid locomotive frame, with the front engine unit pivoting and each engine unit with six coupled driving wheels without any leading or trailing wheels. The wheel arrangement was mostly used to describe Mallet locomotive types and in some occasions, Double Fairlie locomotives.
The Portland and Western Railroad is a 516-mile (830 km) Class II railroad serving the U.S. state of Oregon, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of shortline and regional railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The PNWR includes a subsidiary, the Willamette and Pacific Railroad.
The Black Hills Central Railroad is a heritage railroad that operates in Keystone, South Dakota, United States. The railroad was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 5, 2003.
The McCloud Railway was a class III railroad operated around Mount Shasta, California. It began operations on July 1, 1992, when it took over operations from the McCloud River Railroad. The MCR was incorporated on April 21, 1992.
The Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway is an Oregon-based short line railroad that began near Eugene as the Oregon and Southeastern Railroad (O&SE) in 1904. O&SE's line ran 18 miles (29 km) along the Row River between the towns of Cottage Grove and Disston. The Oregon, Pacific & Eastern Railway Company incorporated in 1912, purchased the physical assets of the O&SE two years later, and shortened their total trackage to operate 16.6 miles (26.7 km) from an interchange yard with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Cottage Grove, east to a 528' x 156' turnaround loop at Culp Creek. The last of this track was closed and scrapped in 1994, and ownership of its abandoned right of way property was later reverted to the state of Oregon to become one of the first-ever Government/Private Sector cooperative partnership Rails to Trails programs in the US, forming the Row River National Recreation Trail. A successor corporation now operates a communications company and a narrow-gauge line at Wildlife Safari.
A triplex locomotive was a steam locomotive that divided the driving force on its wheels by using three pairs of cylinders to drive three sets of driving wheels. Any such locomotive will inevitably be articulated. All triplex locomotives built were of the Mallet type, but with an extra set of driving wheels under the tender. The concept was extended to locomotives with four, five or six sets of drive wheels. However, these locomotives were never built, except for one quadruplex locomotive in Belgium.
The Caspar, South Fork & Eastern Railroad provided transportation for the Caspar Lumber Company in Mendocino County, California. The railroad operated the first steam locomotive on the coast of Mendocino County in 1875. Caspar Lumber Company lands became Jackson Demonstration State Forest in 1955, named for Caspar Lumber Company founder, Jacob Green Jackson.
The Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad (SMRR) is a standard gauge railroad that circles the perimeter of Stone Mountain Park in a loop, and provides views of the mountain en route.
The Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad (OCSR) is a heritage railroad, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, operating in Oregon, US, primarily between Garibaldi and Rockaway Beach, with additional special trips to Wheeler, Nehalem River and into the Salmonberry River canyon. The railroad travels on tracks that pass along the edge of Tillamook Bay and the Oregon Coast, and through thick forest along the Nehalem River. The OCSR runs its collection of vintage rail equipment over 46 miles (74 km) of former Southern Pacific Transportation Company track under a lease from the Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad (POTB), an entity distinct from the OCSR. Garibaldi Station is the only station on the system equipped with a wheelchair lift.
Southern Pacific No. 1744 is a preserved American class "M-6" 2-6-0 "Mogul" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Southern Pacific Railroad in November 1901. Originally equipped with Vauclain compound cylinders, it was rebuilt with conventional cylinders in 1912. It operated for many years out of Oakland, California on the Southern Pacific's Western Division and in California's Central Valley where the locomotive and its classmates were fondly called “Valley Mallets” by their crews. The locomotive was made famous in later years by pulling some of the last steam excursions on the SP alongside other steam locomotives, including 4-8-4 4460. In 1959, No. 1744 was donated to the Sons of Utah Pioneers in Corinne, Utah where it remained on static display, until 1980. That year, it was restored by New London Railroad and Village Incorporated to operate on the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber City for the rest of the decade.
Buffalo Creek and Gauley Railroad No. 4 is a preserved 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive. It was constructed by Baldwin in 1926 as the only locomotive to be bought-new by the Buffalo Creek and Gauley Railroad. It served the railroad by pulling coal and lumber trains throughout Clay County, West Virginia until it was retired in 1965. No. 4 was restored to operating condition by the Quakertown and Eastern Railroad for excursion service in Pennsylvania, and it made its way to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in 1978. No. 4 was subsequently used to pull tourist trains across the museum's property in Spencer, North Carolina from when its multi-year overhaul was completed in 1986 to when its flue time expired in 2001. The locomotive spent fourteen years in storage, waiting for a rebuild that never came to fruition. In 2015, No. 4 was purchased by the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad, who moved it to their shops with the hopes of restoring it to run it on their trackage between Durbin and Cass, West Virginia.
The Caddo and Choctaw Railroad (C&CRR) was a shortline rail carrier in Arkansas between 1907 and 1924. It primarily served the timber industry.
Polson Logging Company 2 is a 2-8-2 “Mikado” steam locomotive built by Baldwin in 1912. It was originally built for the Saginaw Timber Company to pull logging trains. After that, it went through several ownership changes throughout both the steam era and the preservation era, before it was purchased by caretaker Skip Lichter in 1982. Lichter restored Polson Lumber 2 to operational condition and loaned it to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin. The engine was later removed from service in 2000 to undergo a federally-mandated rebuild. Disagreement over who should cover the restoration costs ultimately led to an arbiter finding in Lichter's favor.
Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad and Coal Co. 38 is a preserved 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive. It was built by Baldwin in April 1927 for use on the Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad and Coal Company in south central Pennsylvania in the United States, which commonly used the locomotive to pull short-distance freight trains, as well as occasional passenger trains, until the railroad shut down operations in 1954. The locomotive was subsequently acquired by the Rail City Historical Museum in Sandy Creek, New York for static display. In the late 1960s, No. 38 was sold to the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad in Lakeville, New York, who restored the locomotive to operating condition to pull their excursion trains. In 1977, the locomotive was sold again to the Gettysburg Railroad, which used the locomotive to pull their own tourist trains until 1986, when No. 38 was transferred to the Knox and Kane Railroad to be used there. The locomotive had been removed from service in 1989 for a long-term overhaul that was eventually completed, but it never returned to service for the Knox and Kane. After No. 38 fell victum to an arson-related roundhouse fire in 2008, it was sold at an auction to Alan Maples for the Everett Railroad. As of 2023, the Everett Railroad is restoring No. 38 to operating condition for use in excursion service alongside 2-6-0 No. 11.
Mount Emily Lumber Company No. 1 is a three-truck or 'Class C' Shay steam locomotive that was originally owned by the Mount Emily Lumber Company. It was built in 1923 by the Lima Locomotive Works and delivered to Lima's Seattle dealer, Hofius Steel and Equipment Company of Seattle, Washington. It was later sold to the Independence Logging Company of Independence, Washington, and then it was later sold to the Mount Emily Lumber Company of La Grande, Oregon. When it was retired in 1955, it was donated to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Three years later, in 1958, it was donated to the Oregon Historical Society of Portland, Oregon. The engine was operational at Cass Scenic Railroad and the City of Prineville Railroad for many years. It was announced in 2022 that the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation would be the new owners of No. 1.