Steam & Excursion > Two Foot gauge 4-8-4 in Oregon

About three months ago a friend at church asked if I had seen the small steam locomotive alongside Hwy. 238, south of Grants Pass. I said I had not, but would look for it the next time I was in the area. I figured it might be an industrial steam engine, or some mock steam locomotive. Today I found it and was greatly surprised.

I took out my measuring tape and found the total length of engine and tender is 46 ft. 5 in. The wheel base of the engine is 21'4"; the driver wheelbase is 104" and the height above rail is about 6'5".

It was built many years ago by Bert Beecher and his dad, beginning with an idea to model Espee GS-1 #4402. (Bert saw the 4402 run from San Francisco to Watsonville Jct many decades ago.) I asked Bert when he last ran it and he couldn't remember, but he said it's been on display there for about twenty years.

Nearby is a half completed cupola caboose, but Bert is now 73 and "too old to finish it now."

Bert also had an 18" 2-6-0 that he used to run annual at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Medford. The 2-6-0 now operates on private property at Deadwood, Oregon. Bert still has about 1,000 feet of 18" gauge rails stored near his 4-8-4 and yard full of old trucks, cranes, buildings and other stuff. - Tony J.

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Love to see a picture of that engine with a person alongside for perspective. I take it that one can get into the cab. But can two people?

We have a vintage SP show coming out this fall that has a single shot of 4402 on a freight at Fruitvale,CA. Was just checking the master and saw it yesterday. Several other 4-8-4's as well. Look for it in Oct-Nov.
Greg Scholl
http://www.gregschollvideo.com

Two people can sit in the cab, although it may be a bit crowded. Here's a shot on the backhead. Brt said some kids stole the gauges years ago, but amazingly, the water sight glass is still there. It was also a wood burner. A wood burning 4-8-4 does sound funny. - Tony J.

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Here's a closeup of the drivers. They're forged cast iron wheels (something Bert would change if he ever did it again). The engine is on two-foot gauge wheels, although it looks like thery're on wood in this photo.

Sorry I didn't have anyone around to stand next to it for scale. Like I said earlier, I estimated the height from rail head to the stop of the stack to be about 6'5". - Tony J.

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doubleheader Wrote:
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> We have a vintage SP show coming out this fall
> that has a single shot of 4402 on a freight at
> Fruitvale,CA. Was just checking the master and
> saw it yesterday. Several other 4-8-4's as well.
> Look for it in Oct-Nov.
> Greg Scholl
> http://www.gregschollvideo.com


Sounds great, Greg. I'll look for when it comes out. I've always like Espee's GS-1s with theri straight boilered look. - Tony J.

So Tony...have you figured out if she'll make the curve around the corner of your house?

Tom

How much?

Nitehostler Wrote:
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> So Tony...have you figured out if she'll make the
> curve around the corner of your house?
>
> Tom


Tom,
I know it won't, but Bert said he may donated it to our chapter for display inside our RR Park. Maybe if we can get the 18" gauge track we can do something with that as well.

Tony

Wow! That is REMARKABLE!!! Please keep us posted.

John

Is this Bert, on the right in the engineer's cap? I had the pleasure of riding with him at Ray Robinson's Deadwood, OR narrow gauge operation.

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nycman Wrote:
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> Is this Bert, on the right in the engineer's cap?
> I had the pleasure of riding with him at Ray
> Robinson's Deadwood, OR narrow gauge operation.


It looks like Bert, but I can't be sure from looking at the photo. Bert does go to Deadwood each year on the third Sunday in June. It was his 2-6-0 that used to operate at the Jackson County Fairgrounds until about 2003. He sold the 2-6-0 to the Deadwood operation. - Tony

TonyJ Wrote:
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> It looks like Bert, but I can't be sure from
> looking at the photo. Bert does go to Deadwood
> each year on the third Sunday in June. It was his
> 2-6-0 that used to operate at the Jackson County
> Fairgrounds until about 2003. He sold the 2-6-0 to
> the Deadwood operation. - Tony

This locomotive was one of about a half-dozen or so built by Oscar Coffman and Rodell James of Reseda, CA, sometime in the late '30s/early '40s. At least two of them operated at Stream-Land Park in Pico Rivera, CA, along with the ex-Venice Railway #1 into the early '50s. Another example operated in Coos Bay, OR as the "Snug Harbor Railroad", and was later sold to Frank Bayliss in East Alton, CA. Both Beecher's engine and the Snug Harbor locomotive were originally built with streamlined skirts and, in the case of the latter, a skyline casing (in Daylight paint).

Thanks for the additional background information on Beecher's engine. - Tony J.

More pictures and history of Burt's engine (which has NOT been purchased by the "Deadwood Organization"...Burt is still the owner) at
http://www.snowcrest.net/marnells/coffman-trains.htm

The Snug Harbor locomotive and Bert Beecher's are of the same manufacture but not one in the same. Beecher's locomotive was operating as the "Scenic Crest Shortline" in (I don't know Oregon too well) Albany, I believe, Oregon. The Snug Harbor locomotive left Frank Bayliss' property and was supposedly sold to a party in Healdsburg, and after that went elsewhere. A friend of Bert's shared some silent color video footage he took of the Snug Harbor locomotive running in Coos Bay, along with the ex-Venice Railway #2 at Billy Jones' ranch. A party in New York currently operating the Georgetown Loop also owns a highly-modified Coffman locomotive, since rebuilt into an ungainly rendition of a New York Central Hudson and re-gauged to 16".

12tonMack Wrote:
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> More pictures and history of Burt's engine (which
> has NOT been purchased by the "Deadwood
> Organization"...Burt is still the owner) at
> http://www.snowcrest.net/marnells/coffman-trains.h
> tm


Very interesting. Looks like a compacted T&NO SUNBEAM. - Tony J.

Look!! The 4-8-4 has Baker Valve Gear!!
Mr. Beecher was quite a builder.

Jim Baker
Whittier, CA