Steam & Excursion > She Was The First Of Her Kind Here She Is At The End Of Her Days!

When you stop and think of the enormous investment that was required in the early 1920's by the Willamette Iron & Steel Company of Portland, Oregon to tool up for the construction of standard gauge logging steam locomotives, it is truly impressive.

Here was simple regional company that had spent decades building shop boilers, and logging donkeys and other logging tools for the timber companies in the Pacific Northwest. For this relatively small company to suddenly decide to compete head-to-head with the giant Lima Locomotive Works, in the construction of geared logging locomotives that was Lima's decades-long specialty it took some real courage.

Well, WI&SC actually did take the plunge and here was the result of that gutsy endeavour. The first of 33 geared logging locomotives produced by Willamette was this very engine. Originally she was built as Coos Bay Lumber #10 for service out of Powers, Oregon. She proved to be a very good product and soon more orders were coming in from other loggers for similar locomotives.

When her service was done at Powers she was sold to the Cobbs-Mitchell Lumber Co. of Valsetz, Oregon. It is here that we see her in June 1949 at the end of her career.

While her factory gloss is gone and she is missing a few minor parts, one has to remember that it was this very locomotive that so startled Lima, Heisler and Climax that those locomotive manufacturers scrambled to come up with their own products tailored to the Northwest loggers to compete with her.

In a classic David vs Goliath battle for market share, this was David's locomotive.

Martin



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/17 03:41 by LoggerHogger.

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I wonder where the builder plate ended up at.
Luke

Posted from Android

Gee, Luke that is a good question. :)

Martin

Were there patent issues regarding geared locomotives between Lima and Willamette Iron & Steel Company?

If so, how were they resolved?

OCV

Several of the key Shay patents had expired by 1920 thus allowing Willamette to freely copy these parts of the Shay design.
Additionally, Willamette hired away one of Lima's design engineers to give them a jump on copying the Shay design.

Be aware that the Willamette was not an exact copy of the Lima Shay. There are a number of very noticeable deviations that Willamette employed in their gear locomotive.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/17 08:48 by LoggerHogger.

yes a most interesting company....a story that one day we should try and tell some of it at ORHC. in taking apart one of the wife's relatives estate, she found a identification card from Willamette back during the WW 2, tin type picture, and a bunch of newspaper clippings from Willamette's building escort carriers.....like ESCO, we have some very interesting company histories here in Portland. great picture Martin. Arlen

LoggerHogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While her factory gloss is gone and she is missing
> a few minor parts, one has to remember that it was
> this very locomotive that so startled Lima,
> Heisler and Climax that those locomotive
> manufacturers scrambled to come up with their own
> products tailored to the Northwest loggers to
> compete with her.
> Martin

I don't really follow the history of logging locomotives, but this part peaked my interest.

What was different that was needed for PNW loggers from others built by the Eastern builders?

Some of the major differences was to make all-weather cabs, cast steel trucks and girder frames standard features and not extra cost options.
Also the 3 cylinders were designed so they all could be removed for servicing without removing the cab.
Martin

I seem to remember superheating being another major issue, Lima and the other geared Steam manufacturers generally refused to offer it (and some of the other steam locomotive technological advances) on their products. Willamette worked on a lot of Shays and other geared steam and paid close attention to the specific items their customers complained about, then incorporated those improvements into their products, which gave them an instant leg up over any of the others when this machine rolled off its floor. This forced the hand of the other builders, who responded with the Pacific Coast Shay from Lima and Heisler's West Coast Special. Climax added superheater and some of the other improvements but to my knowledge did not otherwise introduce a new model as did the other two.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Posted from iPhone

LoggerHogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some of the major differences was to make
> all-weather cabs, cast steel trucks and girder
> frames standard features and not extra cost
> options.
> Also the 3 cylinders were designed so they all
> could be removed for servicing without removing
> the cab.
> Martin

Cast trucks and frames? They had their own casting furnance? Wow now that type of stuff I would love to see pictures of.

To Jeff's comments on superheating. Lima, like the other geared manufacturers did in fact offer superheating on their geared engines in the early 1920's before the Willamettes came out. This was simply an extra cost option on these engines.

The first Willamette's were saturated and came with slide valves. Later, Willamette switched to piston valves and superheating. By the mid 1920's many of the logging locomotives being manufactured were built with superheaters.

What Willamette pioneered was giving loggers upgrades that were expensive options on other locomotives as standard equipment at lower cost. Superheaters became one of those upgrades that became standard on Willamette's. Lima and Heisler followed suit by making the Pacific Coast Shays and West Coast Special Heislers superheated as standard equipment, along with other upgrades that Willamette had been offering on their engines from the beginning.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/17 13:23 by LoggerHogger.

I suspect having the builder in the PNW was an added bonus. Didn't have to ship it from Ohio.