Steam & Excursion > The First Willamette In Her Last Days! Valsetz Oregon.

By 1949 the very first of the 33 Willamette locomotives built by the Willamette Iron & Steel Co. of Portland Oregon was out of service at the mill of her owner, Valsetz Lumber Co. of Valsetz, Oregon.

Production started in November 1922 with the construction of the 70-ton machine for the Coos Bay Lumber Co. out of Powers, Oregon In the Oregon Coast Range. She was #10 on CBL. She worked well for CBL for over 15 years. By 1937 there no longer was a need for geared power on CBL and the big saturated engine was sold in 1937 to the Cobbs & Mitchell Lumber Co. of Valsetz. She was re-numbered to #104 on C-M.

She continued to work in Valsetz for the rest of her life bringing logs down to the mill located at the end of the Valley & Siletz RR. The name of Valsetz was developed from the contraction of the V&S RR name.

In 1947 Cobbs-Michell sold out to the Valsetz Lumber Co. who continued to operate #104 but never re-lettered her. In June 1949 Richard Biermann was in the area to photograph the steam locomotives of the area. He came across #104 at the Valsetz Lumber mill. She is still in service but her years are numbered. She has lost her headlight and much of her polish. This is the look of a logging lokie after years of working in the Oregon woods.

She was finally scrapped in Valsetz in 1952. Thus ended the life of the first Willamette.


Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/12 05:03 by LoggerHogger.

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Sheesh Martin, considering it is the season of hope and joy we didn't want to hear the one about Bambie's mom getting shot, we want a story with the good ending!!!

So how about a story of one that got away?

Merry ho-ho and happy New year Martin,
Karl

That first image is interesting. For a moment I thought that they had rigged a small hoist on the front of the engine, using the smokestack as the upright. The boom looked a little short to be practical, but it might have helped in rerailing or track clearing.

Then from the second image I realized there was a crane in the background of the first image.

Considering the accessories that they seemed to hang on the logging engines, a hoist off the front of the engine just didn't seem all that unreasonable, though I questioned whether the stack would make a good upright.

I went to Google to get the lay of the land. There isn't much left up there, is there? When I panned back down to Salem, I noticed what looked like a locomotive tender and a tank car together just south of Polk St., to the west side of Log Cabin St. Across the main is what looks like a baggage (white) car. Any details available on this equipment?

Martin, as usual, thanks for the great photos and stories. You send me looking in cyberspace more than anyone else.

Barry

Barry,

You have located the shops for the Valley & Siletz. The tender is part of the SMV #205 re-build project. This is off the SMV #100.The tank car came from the V&S shops at Hoskins and was the fuel oil car. The RPO is ex-SP.

Martin

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my memory I seem to recall hearing that the spot plate for this engine had been saved. Can anyone verify this?

Cheers,
Jack