Steam & Excursion > Put Out To Pasture At Last - After Her Second Career Has Ended!

Most steam locomotives who were purpose built for a certain railroad found themselves hauled off to the scrap heap when diesels were built that could do their same job.  Rarely did those specialty steam engines have a chance to live on at a second railroad.  Such was not the case for the locomotive  see in this photo.

Yreka Western 0-6-0 #8 was certainly not designed for shortline freight hauls when Baldwin erected her back in July 1916.  No, this engine was purposefully built to switch the docks of San Francisco on the State Belt Railroad owned by the State of California.  She performed those duties quite well for decades until the coming of the first diesels to the State Belt in the 1940's.

Luck was on her side as she was not sent to scrap.  Even though there were no switching railroads in the market for used steam switch engines such as #8, the Yreka Western RR of Yreka, California knew a good deal when they saw one and they bought her and sister 0-6-0 #7 for use on their 9-mile long shortline in Northern California.  The YW was used to buying used locomotives and felt that a husky 0-6-0 like #8 could easily handle the relatively flat grades between Yreka and the SP connection at Montague.

Unfortunately, by September 1955 time had run out for YW #8 and #7 parked behind her.  By this time the YW had picked up 2 used Baldwin 2-8-2s from the nearby McCloud River RR and they were more than capable of handling the traffic on the YW.  Soon #8 and #7 would be returned to San Francisco one last time.  Unfortunately this time they went to the scrap yards at South San Francisco where so many good engines went as their final stop on this earth.


Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/15 03:41 by LoggerHogger.

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Thank you Martin.
Sort of like the locos saved and used by NW Steel and Wire in Sterling, IL.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> Most steam locomotives who were purpose built for
> a certain railroad found themselves hauled off to
> the scrap heap when diesels were built that could
> do their same job.  Rarely did those specialty
> steam engines have a chance to live on at a second
> railroad.  Such was not the case for the
> locomotive  see in this photo.
>
> Yreka Western 0-6-0 #8 was certainly not designed
> for shortline freight hauls when Baldwin erected
> her back in July 1916.  No, this engine was
> purposefully built to switch the docks of San
> Francisco on the State Belt Railroad owned by the
> State of California.  She performed those duties
> quite well for decades until the coming of the
> first diesels to the State Belt in the 1940's.
>
> Luck was on her side as she was not sent to
> scrap.  Even though there were no switching
> railroads in the market for used steam switch
> engines such as #8, the Yreka Western RR of Yreka,
> California knew a good deal when they saw one and
> they bought her and sister 0-6-0 #7 for use on
> their 9-mile long shortline in Northern
> California.  The YW was used to buying used
> locomotives and felt that a husky 0-6-0 like #8
> could easily handle the relatively flat grades
> between Yreka and the SP connection at Montague.
>
> Unfortunately, by September 1955 time had run out
> for YW #8 and #7 parked behind her.  By this time
> the YW had picked up 2 used Baldwin 2-8-2s from
> the nearby McCloud River RR and they were more
> than capable of handling the traffic on the YW. 
> Soon #8 and #7 would be returned to San Francisco
> one last time.  Unfortunately this time they went
> to the scrap yards at South San Francisco where so
> many good engines went as their final stop on this
> earth.
>
>
> Martin

Here's a color version of the same photo. I was very lucky to pick up this print a few years ago. Both the 7 and 8 actually performed very well on the Yreka Western especially over the grades of Butcher Hill and coming out of the Shasta River at Pumphouse Hill which are anything but flat! However traffic levels increased and cars became heavier. Too heavy for the pair of 0-6-0's eventually. YW again turned just to the south to the folks at the McCloud River Railroad for more motive power as they had done in the past. The 19 arrived in 1953 and the 18 in 1956 officially sealing the fates of the 7 and 8.

If ya'll are interested in seeing more photos of both the 8 and the 7 in operation, pick up a copy of the book Tim Stricker and I produced through Arcadia Puublishing about 4 years ago. We would be happy to sign it as well! ;)

Yreka Western Railroad (Images of Rail)
 

Matt Starman
Greenleaf, ID

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That's interesting that this is the same photo.  My black & white was from an original negative I picked up recently in a collection of Western negatives. 

Do you know the name of the photographer of your shot?  The collection I just got does not have the photographers name on any of them.

Martin

In one of my videos there is a scene(s) of one of the 0-6-0s in action. Can't recall the video title at the moment.

LoggerHogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's interesting that this is the same photo. 
> My black & white was from an original negative I
> picked up recently in a collection of Western
> negatives. 
>
> Do you know the name of the photographer of your
> shot?  The collection I just got does not have
> the photographers name on any of them.
>
> Martin

Unfortunately I don't. I wish I did though!

Matt Starman
Greenleaf, ID

TonyJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In one of my videos there is a scene(s) of one of
> the 0-6-0s in action. Can't recall the video title
> at the moment.

Cantenary's Souther Pacific Shasta Route Volume 1 has a very breif shot of one of the 0-6-0's mixed in between the shots of the 18 in the short side trip on the YW. I also have a DVD given to Matt and I that was from the archives of Yreka Community TV. It was an old 10 minute production about the Yreka Western called "Siskiyou Shortline" and was recorded in the early 50's and all the shots show the 0-6-0's at work. The intro says it was done through Railroad Magazine and presented by Jack Wagner.However, the original audio must have been lost somewhere along the way, since electric traction sounds are dubbed over everything along with a cheesy music that sounds like it came from the 70's.

Tim Stricker
Gillette, WY

Study the pics closely and you will see they are not exactly the same.  The weeds in front of the tender trucks are shifted along with the building the background.  Probably taken by the same person on the same day, but with two different cameras and a step or two off.