Steam & Excursion > There Are Some Monday's It's Better To Not Even Leave The Shop!

While there were plenty of perils facing steam crews back in the day, there were even more facing the crews on logging railroads.  This photo proves that point.

It was the first trip to the reload from Camp one Monday morning in 1938 and the Schafer Brothers logging crew on Baldwin 2-6-2T #10 felt they had the week off to a good start.  However that soon changed.

While waiting at the landing they cut into the string of loaded cars that were still being loaded at the far end of their train.  This was a new landing and the cutting crews were working nearby.  As the crew oiled around their engine waiting for their signal to depart, the sound of a falling tree nearby caused the crew to scatter.  When the dust settled this is what they found.  Sure enough, that tree had managed to come down right across the wooden cab of their engine rendering it immediately out of service.

Later in the week, Seattle railfan Harold Hill found #10 waiting in the yards outside the Schafer Shops at Brady, Washington for a new steel cab to be installed.

We all have had Monday's like this one.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/16 03:30 by LoggerHogger.

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Considering all the mayhem on the large logging operations, I'm sure this was just another day for the crews in the Brady Shops. Loggers learned early on to move fast and far when things were not moving in the direction they should.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

I was contacted by this message:

"From: elueckTo: LoggerHogger06/27/16 16:16 Not to pick Martin, but it looks like it already had a steel cab to me.  I would think that a wooden cab would have been simply splinters, not all bent up like that.   
I don't know when the engine was built, but I don't think that there were too many tank engines built with wooden cabs say after 1900 that I remember seeing pictures of."

The Schafer engine in my post was originally built for the National Lumber & Manufacturing Co. by Baldwin in April, 1922.  Here is the builder's photo to show that yes it did indeed have a wooden cab from the factory and until the accident in my post.  As we see in the photos the wood cab is indeed "simply splinters".

Steel cabs were still an "option" on Baldwin locomotives throughout the 1920's.  The base cab, even on tank engines was still wood as we see on this engine. 

I hope that clears this up.

Martin

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/16 16:35 by LoggerHogger.

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