Steam & Excursion > A Big Day For The Skookum! She gets Her Boiler!

Decades after she rolled over on her side in the woods above Grays Harbor, Washington thus bringing and end to her operating career, the famous Skookum is now finishing a big step that will soon see her back in steam.

Today the Oregon Coast Scenic RR crews loaded the Skookum's boiler at their shop in Chehalis, WA for the trip to the OCSR shops in Garibaldi, OR where the re-built boiler will be placed back on her re-built running gear for the first time in over 54 years.

Pictured here is the Skookum's owner Chris Baldo on the running boards of the Boiler after the loading was completed this morning. Chris is the 3rd owner of the Skookum since her wreck who has dedicated his time and resources into saving and preserving this historic piece of NW Logging Railroad History. The first was Charlie Morrow, a Seattle railfan who bought the Skookum from the insurance company that insured Deep River Logging, her last operator. Charlie dismantled her in 1960 and shipped her to the NW Railroad Museum at Snoqualmie Falls, WA where she was stored for many decades.

After Charlie Morrow passed away, Redwoods logger Rogan Combs bought the Skookum from the Morrow estate and had her shipped up to Mt. Rainier Scenic RR at Mineral, WA for storage. After Rogan passed away, Chris Baldo bought the Skookum and hired the crews at the Oregon Coast Scenic RR to restore her to operation.

OCSR rebuilt the tender for the Skookum and her Boiler at their shops in Chehalis several years ago. Over the past 2 years all attention has been to the rebuilding of the Skookum's running gear at the OCSR shops in Garibaldi. While this was going one Chris Baldo had a new wooden cab fabricated for Skookum using the same materials and patterns originally used by Baldwin.

Now that the running gear is complete it was time to ship the Skookum's boiler to Garibaldi to be re-united to the frame for the first time since Charlie Morrow disassembled her in the woods 54 years ago in 1960.

This has been an exciting project to be a part of and many of us, especially including Mr. Baldo, cannot wait until the Skookum steams again. The 3rd photo shows some of our friends that helped in the loading.

Stay tuned for further updates.


Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/14 16:25 by LoggerHogger.

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Martin, that is damn exciting news especially considering all the things that could have gone wrong
over the years. Passing through two deaths and still in existence is very fortunate. Hopefully the
OTHER collection sees similar success in years hence.

Out

What an unusual wheel arrangement! Nice to see a surviving
example and one soon to be back in steam, no less!

Thank for sharing!

/Mitch

PS - I like the dog in the shot ; )

Me too. He must be part of the team and looks like he wanted to be in the photo!

Mgoldman Wrote:
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>
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> PS - I like the dog in the shot ; )

How interesting! Thanks for the update.

That really is exciting, especially after seeing the running gear at Garibaldi. It is an odd running gear configuration, but man, it will be fun to see her run on the OCSR.

In picture #3 we have, l to r: Brian Higgins, truck driver Dave Profitt, myself, OCSR president Scott Wickert, owner of the locomotive Chris Baldo, crane operator Chris ????, John Wickert, and Chris Baldo's dog, Heisler.

2-4-4-2 compound with a rigid frame?

Posted from Android

Yea, but now that the boiler is back where are the guys at Gairbaldi going to store all their stuff? ;>)

Cheers,
Jack



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/14 20:08 by africansteam.

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Is that the air cooling coils fan sitting there on the cylinder casting?

Out

SD45X Wrote:
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> 2-4-4-2 compound with a rigid frame?
>
> Posted from Android


It has an articulated frame.

I'm really excited to see this engine run.

africansteam Wrote:
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> Yea, but now that the boiler is back where are the
> guys are Gairbaldi gong to store all their stuff?
> ;>)
>
> Cheers,
> Jack


Every great model railroad was a good workbench. Maybe locomotive frames are in the same category!

Jim Montague
IRVINE, CA
Train and Nature photo Art

What a neat looking articulated. What is the tractive effort of this beast?

Martin, is this engine saturated?

Bob Callahan
Monticello, IN

Slide valves, no visible mounting for a superheater header in the smokebox; seems most likely its a soak.

The 2-4-4-2 wheel arrangement was rather uncommon. I'm curious as to the background of this engine. At one time, Tennessee's Little River Railroad received such an articulated from Baldwin, only to find it was too large for their railroad. It ended up being returned to the builder and resold, if I remember right. Could this possibly be that same engine?

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

Mary,

Yes, this is the same engine you are referring to. She was built for the Little River Railroad as their #126. She was deemoed to big for the line and returned to Baldwin who resold her to the Columbia River Belt Line as thier "Skookum".

Martin

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callum_out Wrote:
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> Is that the air cooling coils fan sitting there on
> the cylinder casting?
>
> Out


That's for the dynamic brakes.

What a fantastic story, and great dedication to the effort. This is really something.