Steam & Excursion > Ohio Match on Hayden Lake, ID

The two attached photos have cost me a lot of long hours at night researching everything I could find about Ohio Match and Climax locomotives used in North Idaho. They come from a roll of film in Bruce Butlers' collection marked Hayden Creek. At first I did not believe this was Ohio Match #3, and the home made log cars ruled out the Burnt Cabin RR in use from 1924 - 1945. Looking at photo of Ohio Match #3 from 1937, it would be hard to believe this would be the same locomotive, as by 1937 the locomotive had a oil tank, no sand dome or sand boxes, a different headlight mount, smoke stack and injector pipes, among other things. But after ruling out all other climax locomotives used in the area, and looking at photos of #3 working for previous owners, I've changed my mind and now believe these are photos of Ohio Match #3 in 1923 or 1924. The locomotive is new to Ohio Match and has yet to be renumbered and lettered for Ohio Match. #3 had a long history, being built in 1902 (Build #303) for the Polson Logging Co of Aberdeen, WA as their #11. At some point it was sold to Grays Harbor Commercial Co which became the Chehalis County Logging & Timber Co of Montesano, WA. The Schafer Brothers of Bradley, WA bought the CCL&T in 1923 but quickly sold the Climax to Ohio Match. With only 19,000#'s of traction, the Climax wasn't as powerful as equivalent Shays which manage 23,000~24,000#'s of traction. The Ohio Match #3 stayed on until 1941 when it was sold to contractor Walter Butler who had just won the contract to build the Farragut Navy Boot Camp. The Climax help to build the miles of track to connect the Northern Pacific and Spokane International to the new boot camp located on the south end of Lake Pend Oreille near Bayview, ID. Having reach the end of it's usefulness and the desperate need of metal for the war effort, #3 was scrapped in 1944.It was quite a bit harder to figure out a location, and it's still not 100% certain, hence the question mark on the captions. But I'm fairly confident that the two pics are of Hayden Lake and Hayden Creek outside of the label on the roll of film. But I needed to build a timeline of events to make sense of why Ohio Match would have this disconnected operation on the north of Hayden Lake prior to the construction of the Burnt Cabin RR which would pass through the area a year later. One of the first mills on Hayden Lake became the Atlas Tie Co. Over the course of several years the Atlas Tie Co operated on the lake and secured rights to much of the timber in the watershed. Before long the easy timber near the shores had been logged and the mill was moved to the Spokane River between Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls. Logging continued on Hayden Lake, but the logs were loaded onto the electric railway and transferred to Coeur d'Alene were they were dumped into the lake to be floated to the Atlas Tie Mill downstream on the Spokane River.In 1918 Ohio Match built a match block mill at Yardley near Spokane. At first they were buying planks of white pine from other local mills, but before long they built mills at Metaline Falls, WA and Orofino, ID to ship planks to the Spokane Mill to be cut into blocks for the Ohio Match Plant in Wadsworth, OH. There the blocks were cut into sticks and flammable heads were applied. And then the packaged matches were shipped world wide. Between Ohio Match, Diamond Match, and Federal Match, all of which had operations in the region, virtually all wooden match sticks used in the US came from the Spokane-CDA area. A large new mill was completed at Huetter, ID on the Spokane River in 1921 for Ohio Match. At that time with mills popping up all around Lake Coeur d'Alene, logging was very competitive in the region. Fires in 1910 and again in 1919 had done great damage to the stands of White Pine that had brought most of the early loggers to the region. In 1923 a successful local lumber dealer and two other business men bought out the Atlas Tie Mill and their timber on Hayden Lake.  Although specifics are hard to come by, the men had a relationship with Ohio Match which likely funded the buy out. Soon a logging railroad would be established on Hayden Creek to bring logs to the lake, and when transferred over the Hayden Branch of the Spokane, Coeur d'Alene & Palouse Railway to the log dump at the start of the Spokane River, and down to the mills. The planks of White Pine where then sent to Spokane to be made into the blocks for shipment to Ohio (Ohio Match moved the Spokane operations to Huetter in 1948). Since this deal and the Schafer Brothers offering the Climax for sale happened at the same time, it's fairly clear how the Climax moved from western Washington to northern Idaho. The locomotive would have been barged to the very north end of the lake, and was likely used to push the railroad up Hayden Creek.In 1924 Ohio Match won the rights to a large tract of timber from the US forest service in the headwaters of the Little North Fork of Coeur d'Alene River. Not surprisingly they elected to build a logging railroad that passed through the timber behind Hayden Lake (at least what was left after the 1910 fires). The new railroad would build out from a connection on the Spokane International RR at Ohio Jct (near Garwood, ID) and over the hill into Hayden Creek and then over another pass to the Burnt Cabin Summit, before descending Burnt Cabin Creek to the Little North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. to be sure, there were shorter routes, but this route maximized their coverage of the Hayden Lake Watershed and it's available timber.#3 never saw much use on the Burnt Cabin RR as built new Heislers #1 and #4 were the favored power. Tracks were only laid up the creeks so far where trucks would bring logs from the steeper slopes to be transferred to Spokane International flatcars were they were moved to the log dump in Coeur d'Alene. Traffic was enough to keep a SI train busy most mornings moving the log cars back and forth. By the end of WWII, the watershed of the Little North Fork had been cut over and logging had moved to other areas. The Burnt Cabin RR was abandoned in 1945 and trucks began to run to log dumps on the Coeur d'Alene River.A 2-truck shay also shows up in a couple of photos on the Burnt Cabin RR, but I haven't had any luck finding info on it.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Here are Ohio Match engines #3 and #4 after they were sold to the Navy.

Next is the Heisler builder's photo of #4.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/16 06:40 by LoggerHogger.

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I saw references to a Ohio Match #4 shay, but had thought they may have been in error. Your pic shows that there was a second Ohio Match #4. Now to really confuse the issue, here is a photo of another shay next to the original Ohio Match #4, a Heisler built new for Ohio Match in 1923 and sold to National Pole & Treatment of Spokane in 1933. Crews on Ohio Match loved the Heislers and they are all nice in shiny in all the photos I've seen.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Is the Heisler in Lewiston, ID, a former Ohio Match locomotive?

pmack Wrote:
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> Is the Heisler in Lewiston, ID, a former Ohio
> Match locomotive?

Yes, that was Ohio Match #1, and went to Potlatch after Ohio Match quit in 1945 I believe.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Here is some interesting correspondence between Ohio Match Co. and Heisler about the drafting issues on the 2 Ohio Match Heislers.

I have also attached a photo of Ohio Match's 90-ton Heisler #1 stopped for water east of Garwood, Idaho in June 1938.  This engine was superheated and was originally built with slide valves but later piston valves were installed as we see here.  The same conversiion was made to Ohio Match 2-truck Heisler #4.

Finally, here is a shot of her as Potlach Forests Industies #82 right after she was put on display in Lewiston, Idaho in April, 1963.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/16 06:42 by LoggerHogger.

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Hmm, I have a collection of photos yet to post, and they all show #1 and #4 with the slide valves. If Ohio Match did indeed replace the valves in the first part of 1925, then it pretty much dates all the photos I have to 1924. But I remain suspect if that was indeed the case.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

funnelfan Wrote:
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> Hmm, I have a collection of photos yet to post,
> and they all show #1 and #4 with the slide valves.
> If Ohio Match did indeed replace the valves in the
> first part of 1925, then it pretty much dates all
> the photos I have to 1924. But I remain suspect if
> that was indeed the case.

The letter I posted seems to be referring to a change in the smokebox with the petticoat.  This would explain the better drafting and the lack of burning debris being thrown out the stack.  The change over to piston valves came later according to my other correspondence on these engines.

Martin