Steam & Excursion > It's Hard To Imagine Why The U. S. Navy Bought These 2 Engines!

Some purchases by the U.S. Government have you scratching your head.  And these are 2 purchases that certainly fit that description.

Sitting in the yards at Farragut, Idaho we see 2 recent purchases of the United States Navy in 1942.  Yes, these 2 well worn logging lokies are now assigned to Naval service.  But why?  That answer may be lost for all time.

Both engines were just retired by the Ohio Match Company of Cour'd Lane,  Idaho and the U.S. Navy came in a purchased them.  Was this for some service for the War?  Hard to tell.  By 1944 they both would be scrapped by the Navy.

The aging Shay had spent most all of it's early life in logging service in the forests of Montana before being bought by Ohio Match.  The Climax had started out logging in Western Washington State for Polson Brothers Logging before finally ending her logging service in Idaho for Ohio Match.

What the Navy saw in these to old logging lokies we may never know.



Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/16 03:17 by LoggerHogger.

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Bombing practice targets? (Sorry) :-)

Uranium mining......remember the Manhattan project? No indication they were used to haul ore, but there wouldn't be I suspect. Secrecy being quite successful for the time.

Possibly related to the USN faculty at Lake Pend Oreille - acoustic labs since WWII.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/16 06:13 by doge_of_pocopson.

I heard that the Navy actually had a submarine in Lake Pond Oreille at one time, maybe they built a spur into the lake to bring in the sub.  Also, there was the Navy Boot Camp, though that wouldn't seem to warrant their own railroad.

Ed

The acoustic lab there has been pretty hush hush for a while.  The lake is quite deep, and is a great place to test sub detection equipment as it is deep, secure, and not as easily accessible for eavesdropping/spying as is the Pacific or Atlantic ocean.  I would not be surprised if subs or sub mock-ups were there at any one time. 
Most of the uranium for the Manhattan project came from the Congo; Idaho uranium mining did not start until the 1950s IIRC.  B

Did, still does. Here's an article about it:  http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-navys-most-vital-and-secretive-submarine-base-is-in-1590794426

Uranium mining was done in Colorado on Rio Grande Southern Railroad as early as 1942-1943.

In 1942 there was a shortage of everything.   Someone in the navy probably thought that these two locomotives were available and small enough to be easily shipped out to some island in the Pacific for use.  Their intended role probibly got bumped by trucks - just as trucks ended up bumping most of the logging railroads out of operation shortly after the war.

Remember that in 1942 there were also plans to raise and repair all the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor.  They even had plans for the USS Arizona (a new front half of the ship like they did to the USS Shaw).  By the time they raised the USS Oklahoma in 1944 they had so many new faster ships they decided not to waste the time and resources on restoring and refitting it. 

There is no question that the Navy Base had a railroad so what was it like?  Look at Acme Mapper 2.1 and " Find" Bayview ,ID.   The NP mainline is to the east (find Athol) and then to the south aways is Corbin Jct.  The camp railroad headed NE across the flat land and dropped down to Bayview ,on the lake.  Not a large elevation change but done in a short distance.  Thats why the geared engines?   Also note that the camp units were laid out in ovals.  Six of them and handy to rail access that appears to me to loop each one. What do you think?  This would facilitate the building construction needed in each area.  FDR personally toured this site and approved it as a training base soon after the war started. I dont think there was time to  buy new locos etc.  Four thousand acres were purchased and construction started promptly. They had 22,000 (just think of that!) working to build the camp in about one year.
The Navy has an acoustic range in the lake, which is really deep in places. Scale models of submarines are used there. Smaller than 1:1 I think.
Roger Beckett

The Farragut, Idaho spur off the NP at Athol and at one time the Spokane International (UP) (Corbin Jct, as mentioned above) allowed for troop trains to access the naval station on Lake Pend Oreille. During the 40s, the NP had three First Class trains scheduled between Spokane and Athol. I'm not sure how or who operated the spur to Bayview, I've never seen a schedule column in a timetable.  

Google    lake pend oreille submarine    for some interesting links.
Dave in Msla



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/16 12:07 by monaddave.

Much of the uranium "mining" along the Rio Grande Southern was done by separating the previously worthless "yellow cake" or carnotite,from the rest of the material that had been put in the mine dumps when the mines were actively mining vanadium ore (or "red cake") prior to WW2.    Another large source of uranium for the A bombs was the surrender of the German Submarine U-234 after the German surrender in May, 1945.  The submarine was carrying 1200 pounds of enriched uranium oxide from Germany to Japan, for the Japanese A bomb program.  German Admiral Donitz ordered the submarine to surrender to the Allies, and the uranium on board did ultimatly find its way to Japan, althougn not in the way in which it was intended.

The U. S. Navy bought several other logging locomotives at the beginning of World War 2.   One of those was Meridian Lumber Co. 2-8-0 #206.  The engine had sat in the enginehouse at Alco, LA from early 1929 to October 1942 when it was purchased by the U.S. Governent, reportedly for the Navy.

The Baldwin buiilders photo of this locomotive is below,  but should anyone out there have any information regarding its use by the government during WW2 and its final disposition, I would welcome hearing about it.

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My dad went to navy boot camp and electrical school at Faragut in 1942 or 43.  I recall he said that the buildings were partly prefabbed and designed with flat roof for Southern California.  They had a few problems apparently with the heavy winter snows.  I can imagine that the navy could have used some motive power moving materials around during contruction for such a large base, and once purchased they would be available for any future contingency.  Did the NP run all the way into the base, or would the Navy have operated the line into and around the base themselves?  As I recall dad said the troup train he traveled on ran on UP lines, so possibly the SI.  He boarded the train in Boise, Id. and the routing took them trough Walla Walla, which of course would be over trackage N and S that no longer exists.

My uncle also went to boot camp and electricians school there. His next assignment was with the Sea bees on Guadalcanal.....
The answer to why they bought the engines...They were bird engines...Cheep....Swede.....Albany,Or.

The National Archives at DC may have the record of the form that was required to be filled out for permission to scrap any locomotive during the War.
The form required the details about the condition of the engine and location and reason why it was to be offered for scrap.  Form was for the purpose of finding new service location for surplus locomotives.  I can find my copy and name the form if someone wants to follow up at NA. Always wondered where EBT #11 ended up after it was loaded in a SG gondola and shipped away from Mt. Union. 

I've wondered why the Savannah River nuclear power plant has a GP60 and a B40-8.  Because they can?