Steam & Excursion > The Face Of A Working Steam Logging Lokie At Camp!

We all are accustom to seeing the neat and trim paint and striping that steam locomotives left the factory with when they were first built. Whether the builder's pride in the finish applied to a particular steam locomotive would survive over the years of service was up to the individual operator the engine was shipped to.

Logging locomotives were often the least likely to maintain any portion of their factory fresh appearance after they were placed into service. A testament to this trend is demonstrated in the photo below.

We are at Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. Camp 4 in the pine forests in the hills West of Klamath Falls, Oregon in August 1940 when we come across this well worn logging lokie. She is 2-8-2 # for WTCo. and is in active service on their west side logging operation.

This 70-ton Mike did not always look like this. When she was built by Baldwin in 1912 she was neatly lettered and striped for her first owner, the Twin Falls Logging Co. where she was their #102. TFL was a Weyerhaeuser subsidiary who had a logging railroad in the Yacolt, Washington area for a number of years. She later went to another WTCo operation when she was transferred to the Clark County Timber Co. as their #102 also at Yacolt. She later went to WTCo's Vail operation before being transferred to the Klamath falls operation soon after it opened in 1927.

Other than being renumbered as #1 and receiving a new headlight and a Gerlinger Spark Arrestor, she is largely unchanged from how Baldwin first built her. However, her factory fresh spit and polish is long gone and she now wears the mantle of a hard-working logging lokie.

As one old time logging superintendent once said when he caught an engine crew member trying to polish a logging lokie on his Sunday day off, "I never trusted any lokie that couldn't pack its own dirt!"

Obviously WTCo. #1 could be trusted.


Martin



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/20 00:56 by LoggerHogger.

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Interesting stack spark arrestor(?)

Pat

Martin:

Thanks for the nice photo. I've always been partial to those small drivered steam locos that muscle freight up steep grades and tight curves and bring a lunch box to work. Blue collar steam at its best.

John

Cabhop Wrote:
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> Interesting stack spark arrestor(?)
>
> Pat


Hate to say it as I like it also but have you looked at some of the restraint vents on the roof? Just saying..........