Steam & Excursion > Santa Cruz Portland Cement Co #2

A little known project at the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad is more of a personal project of our Chief Mechanical Officer, Stathi Pappas. This little gem of comes in the form of an 0-4-0T from the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company #2. She has had a fairly rough life but was in surprising good condition as Stathi and his group piled on working on her with some hit and miss items that needed to be addressed. The majority of the work has been done by only 3 to 4 people with some minor help from some of our guys during the very little down time on the #70.

There is only a few items remaining on the frame before she is pretty much stripped to the bone before the cleaning and reassembly of the locomotive begins.

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Brian, you and all of the volunteers at MRSR are to be commended for the terrific work that you do. Not only Stathi's 0-4-0T, but the Polson 70 featured in the next thread. Looks like all she needs is her main rods and some jacketing. For all of you northwest railfans, if you haven't visited the Mt. Rainier Scenic, you are really missing something. Let's see, next summer maybe four locos operational? 10, 91, 2, and 70?

There is still plenty of work that is to be done on the engine with the majority of it being machining. As Stathi says, rebuilding your own engine gives a wonderful insight into how cheap the work can be done, if one has the proper tools, the patience, and most importantly, the funds.

Right now, there is no estimated time for this to be finished as it is done in-between the usual grind of finishing the Polson Logging # 70, though he doesn't seem to mind the extra hours he puts in after hours. With the test runs of the #70 coming up next month, there is still some estimated timeframe for when it too will have a fire in its belly but he is hoping for some time this year but however as soon as the #70 is completed, the Hammond Logging Co. #17's work will begin in earnest. It is one thing to note about this engine that she will have the biggest drivers and will be the oldest engine on the property!

Here are some specs of the locomotive!

0-4-0T
saddle tank with seperate oil bunker
46" drivers
15 x 24" cylinders
175 Boiler Pressure
87,000 lbs in running order
18,500 Tractive Effort
4.9 factor of adhesion

Built August 1909
Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company, Davenport CA
1924 Bechtel Kaiser Rock, Oroville CA
Out of service by 1960
1967 Sold to Pollardville Amusement Center and Chicken Kitchen Restaurant
2006 Sold to Efstathios I. Pappas
2009 Boiler moved to WA
2010 Running gear moved to WA

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nycman Wrote:
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> Brian, you and all of the volunteers at MRSR are
> to be commended for the terrific work that you do.
> Not only Stathi's 0-4-0T, but the Polson 70
> featured in the next thread. Looks like all she
> needs is her main rods and some jacketing. For
> all of you northwest railfans, if you haven't
> visited the Mt. Rainier Scenic, you are really
> missing something. Let's see, next summer maybe
> four locos operational? 10, 91, 2, and 70?


Well we should have the following this year;

Hillcrest #10, West Fork #91, Rayonier #2, Polson # 70

And if things go well on the Hammond #17, maybe her as well, along with the Santa Cruz #2. After the #17 is done, work will begin on the Pacific Coast Shay # 11...

This is of course all depending on how things go throughout the rebuild of the #17...

For those of you who want to see what the engine did look like in one piece and WILL look like when she is back together... Here she is in 1955 in Oroville, CA as Kaiser Gravel Co. #2.

Martin

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What a neat original photo from 1955!

Mt. Rainier has long been on my list to visit but now it's moved up several notches! I hope 2011 is the year for me.

Very impressive work you guys are doing!

Thanks,

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> For those of you who want to see what the engine
> did look like in one piece and WILL look like when
> she is back together... Here she is in 1955 in
> Oroville, CA as Kaiser Gravel Co. #2.
>
> Martin


Martin, is there a picture you don't have!? Amazing picture from back in her heyday! You wouldn't happen to have a full res picture of that would you? I'm working on a page for Stathi's engine and would be great if you have any others that could be used for it.

Tanks!

Anyone got a photo of it sitting in that parking lot off the side of hwy99? Wasn't it painted red and yellow? I remember seeing it as a kid and thought it looked gawd awful then.

Martin,
Do you have a photo of the engine coupled to the front of the #2? It should be the #1, which we had at Rio Vista for a short time. They sold her to someone in the Central Valley and I have since lost track of it's whereabouts. Looks like Stathi's #2 is in far better shape.

Definitely doesn't look like the original boiler, tough life or not
she looks like she got some care at one point or the other.

The boiler and smokebox is mostly brand new with a good chunk of the firebox as well. This was all done as of last year.

Its pretty much a clean up and reassembly process now as time permits.

Should make a sweet running piece, you can tell why locomotives
like that lasted a long time in industrial use. They were very
reliable and easy to maintain, should make a nice shop switcher.

What a neat looking little tank engine when fully assembled! She will fit well with the rest of MRSR's fleet.

Was this the engine that sat in front of Pollardville on the east side of CA Hwy 99? It used to be a landmark when heading up to Sacramento or Davis. Somewhere I have a photo my wife took of me examining the saddletanker. I remember looking around the property, which also had a Fairmont speeder that was so worn out it had see-through wheels. There was also quite an assortment of cats with varying degrees of friendliness. I think the original concept was to have a Knott's Berry Farm of the Central Valley, but it never quite made it.
If #2 really is the engine I'm thinking of, it's certainly a preservation success story: going from static display tourist attraction back to working steam engine.
And Santa Cruz Portland Cement had another claim to fame: one of the last electric freight railways in California. It was a 36" gauge mining operation, but it ran into the 1970's and at last report the two electric locomotives are preserved.

Here's some more trivia relating to Stathi's Porter. After the tank engines were put out to pasture in Oroville, a small group of railfans trekked up there to take photos of them. This was the first "field trip" for their new organization, the "Pacific Locomotive Association." The PLA is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year.

During that field trip, someone got the great idea of dropping whatever burnable items they could find, including at least one tire, down the stack of the #2 so that they could have smoke for their photos. When Stathi first opened the smokebox of the #2 after purchasing the locomotive, he was amazed to find so much burned junk in the smokebox! He always wondered about the back story and finally got the answer after we met and I hired him.

Brian Wise
General Manager
Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad
www.mrsr.com

Here's a photo taken on that day in September, 1961 by Henry Luna.

Brian Wise

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Let me add to the post by Brian Wise and answer Chris Allen's question all at the same time.

The PLA groups "tires for fires" day at Kaiser Gravel did not stop with igniting the "Chiggin". Here we see on that same 9-1-61 day the group started a fire in Kaiser Gravel Porter #1 as well. She was built in 1906 as C/N 3578.


I do have several other photos of #2 including at least one good color slide of her. I have been sending them to Stathi as I come across them.

Brian, you can contact me off-list and I can do them up for you.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/12 05:42 by LoggerHogger.

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I don't recall seeing many too many Porters this size without inclined cylinders?

Yes, Stathi's engine, Santa Cruz Portland Cement Porter no 2 is the one that used to be in front of Pollardville on Hwy 99 in Stockton. She's come a long long way since we moved her from there!! Lots of work and love have gone into her restoration!
John