Steam & Excursion > 2 Old Friends Face Retirement From The Steam Era Together!

By the time steam power was being retired on many railroads the time was also coming for the retirement of some of the locomotive crews who had worked on these fine machines for many decades.  On a few occasions these retirements occurred simultaneously.

One such mutual retirement occurred in August 1956 on the Simpson Logging Co. railroad out of Shelton, Washington.  Simpson had just taken delivery of the last of their new diesel power which meant the end for the steam lokies on the line.  A farewell to steam trip was planned to say goodbye to the old steam power and to welcome the new diesel.

Simpson Logging 2-8-2 #9 was chosen to power this final steam trip over the line.  At her throttle for the last time would be Don Hansen, seen here. Don was also facing his own retirement as his many years on the railroad were coming to a close at the same time as his faithful #9.

You can see on both of the weathered faces of Don and #9 the pride each has in saying goodbye to a job well done.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/16 03:09 by LoggerHogger.

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Dang!  Simpson should have given #9 to Don as a retirement gift!  What happened to #9 anyway?

Hmm   Don Hanson,any relation to you Martin..??

No, there is no relation between Don Hansen and myself other than we both worked on steam locomotives.

As for Simpson Logging #9, she went off to the scrapper shortly after her "Fairwell To Steam" trip.  Some of her items still remain however.

Martin

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