Steam & Excursion > New Steam Power Fresh From The Shops One Last Time!

During the early 1950's there were still a handful of steam operated railroads that had resisted the high cost of diesels and instead had searched for good used steam locomotives when they needed replacement motive power.  This was also true of certain logging railroads in the West.

In the early 1950's the Pickering Lumber Corp. of Standard, California still had over 60 miles of logging railroad in operation.  While Pickering's rail line had sported for years several large 3-truck Heislers as primary power, starting in the 1920's they began adding even larger 3-truck Shays to slowly replace the Heislers on the mainline haul.

By the early 1950's Pickering was again in need of new motive power for their line.  While Diesels would ultimately be acquired in the next few years, for now Pickering's master mechanic Al Botfield wanted to stay with tried and true steam power if he could find it.  Fortunately, he was told of a large Lima Shay that Long-Bell Lumber of Ryderwood, Washington had for possible sale.  After a thorough inspection Long-Bell #1008 was acquired by Pickering and immediately sent to their shops at Standard for a complete rebuild.

In January, 1953 when this photo was taken, new Pickering #8 emerged into the bright winter sunshine and presented quite a sight for those on hand to record her on film.  Part of her sprucing up included the addition of new stainless steel jacketing for her boiler, cylinders, air pumps and dry pipe.  She also received her new number (#8) with heavy brass cut-out numbers for her spot plate, cab, tender and sand dome.  Needless to say, the shop forces at Pickering were damn proud of this new locomotive.

In just 3 more years the first pair of EMD diesels would be purchased by Pickering to take over for the aging Heislers.  Even when the second pair of EMD units arrived some of the Shays stayed in service for Pickering until the end of rail operations came in December 1965. 

If you were to ask which Pickering locomotive was chosen to pull the "ceremonial" last log train you would find out that it was none other than Shay #8!

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/15 04:00 by LoggerHogger.

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A lot of pride in that one.

I can totally understand the shop forces being proud of their work. That's one beautiful new lady !!

Is #8 still around ?

Beautiful!

mikel Wrote:
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> Is #8 still around ?

Yes, Mike, in Merrill, Oregon.  See SierraRail's recent thread at http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3793087,3794337#msg-3794337.