Steam & Excursion > The Transition From Steam To Diesel Power Never Looked So Good!

Few scenes captured the contrast of the modern diesel motive power as it made inroads into the fading age of steam power better than this.

This winter scene was captured in 1960 on the northern end of Vancouver Island in British Columbia on the Canadian Forest Products Englewood Railway. This exclusively logging railroad had a long history of steam power that lasted through the 1950's until the first EMD diesel began to arrive.

Here we are witness to a mid-winter meet of loaded log trains. In the foreground we see an almost new EMD #301 and her snow-covered train of logs bound for the log dump at Beaver Cove.

In the background we can not help but see the lines of CFP's 2-6-6-2 #111 paused with her train as she prepares for #301 to roll by.

Unfortunately, he days are numbered for #111. She began life as a Baldwin 2-6-6-2T when she was delivered to Weyerhaeuser's Longview, Washington operation in the 1929. She would later be transferred to Weyerhaeuser's Vail, Washington operation where the shop crews would cut down her side tanks and add a tender to give her greater range. When she was done at Vail, she was sold to CFP for use out off Woss Camp on Vancouver Island as we see here.

For this brief moment in time, both the steam era and the diesel era coexisted in stunning harmony.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/18 00:14 by LoggerHogger.

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Absolutely beautiful.
Bob

What a phenomenal image! Has an Ansel Adams quality about it!

Wow, a great picture. Any idea who the photographer was?

Jimbo Wrote:
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> Wow, a great picture. Any idea who the
> photographer was?


Unfortunately no, I do not. Given the remoteness of this operation, especially in winter, this may have been a company photographer.

Martin

Best image ever!

Another masterpiece from you Martin.You have excelled this past couple of weeks.
Regards,DK

Is that one of the simple articulated loggers? Looks like it might have the same size cylinder sets, and dual stacks.

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A-1 Wrote:
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> Is that one of the simple articulated loggers?
> Looks like it might have the same size cylinder
> sets, and dual stacks.

Yes, #111 was indeed one of Weyerhaeuser's twin-stacked simple articulateds.

Martin

According to the "Mallets in the Tall Timber" web site, #111 started out at Weyerhaeuser Timber Company's (WTCo) Vail operation (1929-193*), was transferred to WTCo's Longview operation (193*-1938), was then transferred to WTCo's Camp McDonald (1938-1947) before being sold to Canadian Forest Products (1947-1961). WTCo #111 was the only simple articulated 2-6-6-2T locomotive at the Vail operation while the Longview operation had three simple articulated 2-6-6-2T locomotives (#105, #106, and #107) built at basically the same time as #111 so this might have been the reason #111 was transferred to Longview.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/18 03:12 by GYModeller.

GYModeller Wrote:
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> According to the "Mallets in the Tall Timber" web
> site, #111 started out at Weyerhaeuser Timber
> Company's (WTCo) Vail operation (1929-193*), was
> transferred to WTCo's Longview operation
> (193*-1938), was then transferred to WTCo's Camp
> McDonald (1938-1947) before being sold to Canadian
> Forest Products (1947-1961).

They have this one wrong. This #111 (WTC had 2 such articulateds)was still at Vail as of 1941 as I have photos of her there at that time. It was at Vail she got her tender.

Martin

The roster information at the "Mallets in the Tall Timber" web site is in agreement with the the roster found in the book "Logging Railroads of Weyerhaeuser's Vail-McDonald Operation" by Frank Telewski and Scott Barrett and the web roster of Robert West. Given that the Vail and Camp McDonald operations can be confused, it is certainly possible that a photograph taken in the 1938-1947 period could have been attributed to being at Vail (or #111 could also have been used at Vail as well as Camp McDonald in the 1938-1947 period).

My 1941 photos of #11 show her at Vail with all the Vail shops in view.

Martin

The only disagreement we seem to have is whether #111 was built for Longview or Vail. I think the evidence is clear that she was built for the Vail operation (and the locomotive numbers of the 2-6-6-2Ts and their acquisition dates at Longview is further evidence of this) and may have spent a short time at Longview before returning to Vail-McDonald operation.

Great photo--and yes, almost like an Ansel Adams shot.  Martin always has great posts!