Steam & Excursion > 2 Different Locomotives Miles Apart- Share Something!

See something these 2 engines on two different railroads have in common? Yes, you got it, their tenders! But, how can that be? One is an ALCO and the other a Baldwin?

The answer is simple, these are not just similar tenders, they are the same tender!

The first photo shows McCloud River Railroad #26 at McCloud in the early 1940's. She was purchased in 1938 by the MCRR from the Copper River & Northwestern Ry in Alaska where she was their #72. Built in 1915 for the CR&NW by ALCO she came with the large tender you see here. She was built along with her sister engine, CR&NW #73 which was also purchased by the McRR in 1938 and became McCloud #27.

McCloud determined in the early 1940's that they could do just as well by putting Vanderbilt tenders behind both #26 and #27 so that change was made. Part of the reason for the change was that The Shevlin-Hixon Company out of Bend, Oregon needed large tenders for their two 90-ton Baldwin logging Mikes because of the great distances they were traveling each day. Since both the McCloud Lumber Co and The Shevlin-Hixon Company had common ownership and management, the Shevlin-Hixon Company ended up with the 2 large tenders from the former CR&NW engines.

In the second photo we she S-H #4 at the shops in Bend, Oregon in the late 1940's now sporting the tender off McRR #26. This tender suits her well as she has a 65-mile mainline run each way each day down the Great Northern to Chemult, OR where she picks up her loads that have been delivered by other S-H Baldwin 2-8-2s arriving from the logging town of Shevlin, Oregon.

In 1950 the Brook-Scanlon Lumber Co. of Bend, OR bought out The Shevlin-Hixon Company and #4 was re-lettered as "S-H #4" so she would not be confused with the Baldwin 2-8-2 # 4 already on the B-S roster. S-H#4 was used by B-S to honor the contract that S-H had with the Great Northern which read that only "Shevlin-Hixon log trains" could use the GN to access the S-H logging sites south of Bend. Once that timber was cut out then #4 was put in the deadline along with the other retired S-H and B-S engines. By that time, B-S had purchase a pair of ALCO diesels who handled all the log trains until railroad logging was abandoned all together by B-S in December 1956.

By the 1954 the retired steam locomotives were all towed to Portland where they were all scrapped, including #4 along with her inherited tender.

Martin



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/15 03:18 by LoggerHogger.

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Very cool. That S-H 4 is a nice looking engine.

Z

Thanks for posting these, Martin...

One minor correction, the #27 was built in 1917, two years after the #26.

To expand the McCloud side of the story a little bit...McCloud River sold the two tenders to Shevlin-Hixon in May 1947 for $3,714. The railroad then purchased one Vanderbuilt tender from the SP for the #27 and reassigned the tender from the #15 to the #26, as the #15 had been designated for retirement at the time...however, in July 1947 McCloud purchased the second Vanderbuilt tender for the #26, allowing the #15 to get its tender back. That finally explained why several later pictures of the #15 show a fresh patch underneath the number on the side of its tender. Anyway, here's a picture of the #26 with its Vanderbuilt tender...

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

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Here is another shot of McCloud #26 with her Vanderbilt tender.

Martin

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