Steam & Excursion > It's Not Often That You Have The Entire Roster On A Single Train!

One of the advantages to studying logging railroads over mainlines is the difference in the rosters for the 2 types of operations.  Mainline roads had literally hundreds of engines in their roster at any given time and the recording of such rosters can prove complicated.  Not so with logging railroads.

In this single photo of just one of just one log train we see the entire motive roster for the Ross Saskatoon Lumber Company in operation.  On the left we see their venerable #2 Shay while on the right at the far end of the train of pine logs we see old #1 Shay.  Yes, that is all the motive power this lumber company had over the life of the operation at Waldo, British Columbia.

The line was built to 42" gauge and only operated from 1910 until 1922.  Shay #1 was the first to arrive new from the Lima factory in 1910 and #2 followed in 1913.  The company flourished for a period of time but a poor timber market caught up with them in 1922 and they closed down for good.  The Shay's were parked in good condition and were offered for sale for years, but because of their odd 42" gauge they found no buyers and were finally cut up at Waldo in 1927.

Their proud crews knew of none of these upcoming problems on this fine day when they posed together with their fine load of logs.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/16 04:00 by LoggerHogger.

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What a great image in time...  

Steve Mitchell
yardgoatimages.com 

Not that it would have helped these engines, but in parts of Australia, and in much of Japan, South Africa and (I think) New Zealand, 42" is the most common gauge.  A Shay from the Pacific Northwest probably would not be within the bounds of the present Orange Empire collections policy, but OERM has several hundred yards of 42" track for running our Los Angeles Ry. streetcar collection.  Closer to home, I've heard stories of a 42" gauge steam locomotive that was stored in a barn south of Ontario CA after its railway was sold and standard gauged.  This was less than 40 miles from where OERM would be located starting in 1958, but the locomotive was sold for scrap during World War II.

DNRY122 Wrote:
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> Not that it would have helped these engines, but
> in parts of Australia, and in much of Japan, South
> Africa and (I think) New Zealand, 42" is the most
> common gauge.  A Shay from the Pacific Northwest
> probably would not be within the bounds of the
> present Orange Empire collections policy, but OERM
> has several hundred yards of 42" track for running
> our Los Angeles Ry. streetcar collection.  Closer
> to home, I've heard stories of a 42" gauge steam
> locomotive that was stored in a barn south of
> Ontario CA after its railway was sold and standard
> gauged.  This was less than 40 miles from where
> OERM would be located starting in 1958, but the
> locomotive was sold for scrap during World War II.

Commonly known as "cape gauge". And yes NZ standard gauge is cape gauge. Lots of rescued SAR equipment there.

Cheers,

-Mike

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

I think I came across this same photo in Cranbook when I was trying to track down photos of the Rayonier #3 when she worked for her original owner, Kootenay Logging.