| Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad #1 (Dixiana) | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 RC&BTNGRR #1 in Felton, California, in 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad No.1, also known as "Dixiana", is a Class B Shay steam locomotive built in 1912 by the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio. It was built for the W.M Ritter Lumber Company. The locomotive was retired in the mid-1950s and was purchased by F. Norman Clark for use on his Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad, where it still operates.
Dixiana was built on October 12, 1912, at the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio for the Alaculsy Lumber Company of Conasauga, Tennessee; it was their second locomotive to carry number 3. [2] It hauled lumber trains in the mountains of Southeastern Tennessee and Northern Georgia. In 1917, No. 3 was transferred to the Tennga Lumber Company, [2] the successor to Alaculsy, retaining its number. In March 1919, it was sold to the Southern Iron & Equipment Company, [2] and became their No. 1466. It hauled metal at their Atlanta, Georgia plant. In August of that year, it was sold to the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company in Proctor, North Carolina, and converted to from standard gauge to 3 ft (914 mm) gauge. It returned to its previous number, [2] becoming their second No. 3. The locomotive later moved to W.M. Ritter's McClure, Virginia operation. [2] In 1938, the locomotive was sold to Coal Processing Corporation and carried both the No. 3 and later No. 2593 in Dixiana, Virginia. [2]
By the mid-1950s, the locomotive was retired from service and left in Dixiana.
F. Norman Clark purchased Dixiana in 1958 for the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad which he was setting up in Felton, California. In 1962, with help from the Southern Railway, the locomotive was shipped to New Orleans, where the SP took over and shipped it on to Los Angeles on the Sunset Limited Route. From there it was taken to Watsonville Junction and transferred over the Santa Cruz Branch Line to Felton. It arrived on October 12, 1962, fifty years to the day after it was built. [3]
Dixiana was restored to operation and converted to burn bunker oil instead of coal to prevent trackside fires. [4] It was named "Dixiana" after its last industrial home. [4] A new H. Belfield & Co. 3-chime whistle was installed during the restoration.
The restoration was completed on April 6, 1963, when Dixiana pulled its first passenger train at Roaring Camp. [5]
Dixiana lacked a builder's plate until a replica was fitted in 2020.
A geared steam locomotive is a type of steam locomotive which uses gearing, usually reduction gearing, in the drivetrain, as opposed to the common directly driven design.
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 Climax locomotive is a type of geared steam locomotive built by the Climax Manufacturing Company, of Corry, Pennsylvania. These had two steam cylinders attached to a transmission located under the center of the boiler, which sent power to driveshafts running to the front and rear trucks. Some 1,000-1,100 were built in three classes between 1888 and 1928.
Lima Locomotive Works was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company took the most distinctive part of its name from its main shop's location in Lima, Ohio. The shops were located between the Erie Railroad main line, the Baltimore & Ohio's Cincinnati-Toledo main line and the Nickel Plate Road main line and shops.
The Harbor Springs Railway was a 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge railway built at Harbor Springs, Michigan on Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan. It was nicknamed the Hemlock Central because of the great numbers of hemlock trees growing in the area. The railway was chartered by Ephraim Shay, the inventor of the Shay locomotive, on February 2, 1902, but may have started construction as early as December 10, 1900.
The Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway is operated as a seasonal tourist attraction in Northern California, also referred to as the "Beach Train". Its partner line, the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad, is a heritage railroad.
The Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad is a 3 ft narrow-gauge tourist railroad in California that starts from the Roaring Camp depot in Felton, California and runs up steep grades through redwood forests to the top of nearby Bear Mountain, a distance of 3.25 miles.
Ephraim Shay was an American merchant, entrepreneur and self-taught railroad engineer who worked in the state of Michigan. He designed the first Shay locomotive and patented the type. He licensed it for manufacture through what became known as Lima Locomotive Works in Ohio; from 1882 to 1892 some 300 locomotives of this type were sold.
The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad (YMSPRR) is a historic 3 ft narrow gauge railway with two operating steam locomotives located near Fish Camp, California, in the Sierra National Forest near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. Rudy Stauffer organized the YMSPRR in 1961, utilizing historic railroad track, rolling stock and locomotives to construct a tourist line along the historic route of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company.
The Midwest Central Railroad is a 3 ft narrow gauge heritage railroad operating within the confines of Mount Pleasant, Iowa's McMillan Park, site of the Midwest Old Thresher's Reunion. The railroad is a registered, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The mainline track is a 1 mile loop with traffic moving in a clockwise direction regulated by an electrically signaled block system. The mainline loop features two stations: at the north end, the original Hillsboro, Iowa, depot along with a Milwaukee Road signal tower; and at the south end, a newer wood frame/metal sided building.
The Diamond and Caldor Railway was a common carrier 3 ft narrow gauge railroad operating in El Dorado County, California, in the United States. The 34-mile railroad was primarily a logging railroad but also operated some passenger service.
The Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad was an 8-mile (13 km) Class III short-line railroad operating in the Sierra Nevada in California, east of Sacramento. It was built primarily to haul lumber from the El Dorado National Forest. The standard gauge line ran west 8.05 miles (12.96 km) from a sawmill at Camino to a connection with the Placerville Branch of the Southern Pacific Company at Placerville. Loaded cars of lumber descended a 3.5 percent grade from 3,150 feet (960 m) at Camino to 1,900 feet (580 m) at Placerville.
The Hetch Hetchy Railroad (HHRR) was a 68-mile (109 km) standard gauge Class III railroad constructed by the City of San Francisco to support the construction and expansion of the O'Shaughnessy Dam across Hetch Hetchy Valley.
Standard gauge was favored for railway construction in the United States, although a fairly large narrow-gauge system developed in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah. Isolated narrow-gauge lines were built in many areas to minimize construction costs for industrial transport or resort access, and some of these lines offered common carrier service. Outside Colorado, these isolated lines evolved into regional narrow-gauge systems in Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Hawaii, and Alaska.
A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felled logs to sawmills or railway stations.
Glenbrook is a 2-6-0, Mogul type, narrow-gauge steam railway locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1875 for the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company's 3 ft Lake Tahoe narrow-gauge railroad.
The Hume-Bennett Lumber Company was a logging operation in the Sequoia National Forest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company and its predecessors were known for building the world's longest log flume and the first multiple-arch hydroelectric dam. However, the company also engaged in destructive clearcutting logging practices, cutting down 8,000 giant sequoias in Converse Basin in a decade-long event that has been described as "the greatest orgy of destructive lumbering in the history of the world."
The Michigan-California Lumber Company was an early 20th-century Ponderosa and Sugar pine logging operation in the Sierra Nevada. It is best remembered for the Shay locomotives used to move logs to the sawmill.
The Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Railroad (SCMB), or Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line (SCBRL), is a historic railway running through Santa Cruz County, California. It once ran operationally from Davenport to the Watsonville Junction where it connected to the Union Pacific Coast Line. Over the years it has had many splays and connections to other local railroads over, through, and around the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is still active today, including a connection with the Roaring Camp Railroads line that makes regular trips between Felton and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
The Madera Sugar Pine Company was a United States lumber company that operated in the Sierra Nevada region of California during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company distinguished itself through the use of innovative technologies, including the southern Sierra's first log flume and logging railroad, along with the early adoption of the Steam Donkey engine. Its significant regional impact led to the establishment of towns such as Madera, Fish Camp, and Sugar Pine, as well as the growth of Fresno Flats and the formation of Madera County.