Steam & Excursion > After 63 Years The Skookum Has Her Very First Fire UP!

Yesterday was a huge day for Team Skookum on the Oregon Coast Scenic RR.  We were finally able to do what we have worked so hard to do over the past 15 years, put a fire in Skookum!

Not since she rolled off the short trestle out of camp at Deep River, Washington on February 23, 1955 has Skookum had a fire in her firebox and steam in her boiler.  All of that changed yesterday when we fired her up and brought her up to 200 psi.

We found very few items that need to be addressed (which is always good) and now we are down to the last items to finish her up for operations.

Stay tuned for more news from Team Skookum.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/18 07:46 by LoggerHogger.

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63 years ago Skookum rolled off a low trestle 2 miles out of camp above Deep River, Washington.  Slowly over the next couple of days her steam pressure dropped to zero and she grew cold.  She would lay there on her side in the creek bed for 5 long years before being taken apart in small pieces and removed from her forest resting place.
 
Over the next 6 decades Skookum’s cold iron pieces were stored at 2 different museums until 2003 when work started on her by Scott Wickert of the Oregon Coast scenic railroad.  Over the next 15 years her parts were repaired and lost or damaged parts fabricated.  Slowly these cold pieces of steel were put back together so she began looking like a locomotive once again.
 
Even though she was starting to look like the old Skookum again, she was still just a cold piece of iron that lacked the “fire in her belly” that she was once famous for.  All of that changed yesterday.
 
After several days of additional work putting together the tender connections, lubricator, and injector piping, we rolled Skookum out of the shop yesterday at about 11:00am.  By 11:30 we had air going to her atomizer and had oil in her burner.  A group of us who have worked on Skookum gathered in her cab and we lit some rags a through them in her firebox.  Soon the oil ignited and her firebox filled again with flame.  The heat from the fire was a warm relief to each of us in her cab.
 
Slowly the water in Skookum’s boiler began to warm and in an hour it began to boil.  Steam was seen drifting out of her open whistle valve.  As we all went about further work on her appliances the needle on her steam gauge slowly lifted off the peg.  Steam pressure was once again filling Skookum’s boiler.
 
We went about our work on her and the fittings that were in need of attention as pressure built in Skookum.  Finally, about 4:30 her safeties lifted to announce that she had reached her full 200#’s of pressure. With a strong pull on the whistle cord we announced to the little fishing town of Garibaldi that Skookum Lives!
 
No longer is Skookum just a collection of cold pieces of iron and steel.  For the first time since that fateful day in February 1955 when she took her tumble off the trestle above Deep River, Skookum is once again a living breathing marvel of steam motive power.
 
Long Live Skookum.
 
Martin
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/18 10:54 by LoggerHogger.

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Unique!

An Articultaed, compound Mikado....
Very flexible, soaker,  with slide valves...

Worth a trip..

added:
I like pic 3, with smoke out the stack....makes it more than static work-project...
[It may be that in another 15 years it’ll be time to remove the tubes & interior boiler evaluation all over again......]

If  I had the CASH and the decision power, I’d make her a superheated engine ( new tubes sheets, and ‘plain’ header) , with a new
(expanded) smoke box, piston valve conversion on HP cylinders, rollers on axles ( except driver axles) mechanical lubricators.
I’d keep the dome throttle and capped stack.  

I’d try to make it look as original as possible, but added features would make it easier to maintain...
And, superheating ‘expands’ the tender capacity.... ( saves both fuel and water .)


​W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/18 08:52 by wcamp1472.

A lot of joy in that, eh Martin?

Neat. How long does it take to fill a boiler with a garden hose?

Isn’t she going to another location after the restoration?

Posted from iPhone

Willits, Ca.

Any place she can operate in Willits?   Seems like a ton of effort and money to have it just sit,  after operations in Oregon.

Congratulations to you, Martin, and the whole team!

Gordon

Wow !   Lots of nice work.   What's the fancy red band around the boiler ?  Is that the jacket over the lagging ?   Looks like the back half has no lagging or jacket yet.   Can't wait to see this beauty finished and running.

Craig Hanson
Vay, ID.

The red band is just primer on one of the boiler jacket sheets

Martin

Great figured you were up to something steam as that happens when you miss posting on here. Hope to see it soon. Boyd

Really would be nice if Chris left the engine in Oregon for a bit longer but huge props to him for seeing
the project through.

Out

Big congratulatiopns to all who brought the Skookum back to life!    63 years since she had a fire in her firbox, and it took you guys 15 years to get her to this piint -- thank you for your perseverance!

Would be nice if she could run on the Oregon Scenic for a little while, before she is sent to Willits.  

Hope she gets to pull the Skunk Train Willits to Noyo and back.  Thye've been without a steam locomotive who could run te eastern half of the RR ever since the tunnel just east of Fort Bragg collapsed in Aprilof 2015, trapping hte #45 in Fort Bragg, with only 3 miles of track to run on between Fot BRagg and the tunnel. 

Are we looking at a 2-4-4-2 wheel arrangement?   If so, how many of those were built?

The first time they steamed it up, were the pistons in it ? Looks like they're installed in the photo, did they get to move it under it's own power ?

Posted from Android

There is the Skookum in Oregon and one other engine in New Zealandn now preserved on the Glenbrook Vintage Railway, near Auckland, New Zealand.

Chris

LocoPilot750 Wrote:
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> The first time they steamed it up, were the
> pistons in it ? Looks like they're installed in
> the photo, did they get to move it under it's own
> power ?
>
> Posted from Android

i am sure Martin would have posted video. Besides if they did, I am sure a few people on the board would have chastised them for doing that.

Yay! Been looking forward to seeing this locomotive come back. I wonder if there's any chance of reuniting it with the Little River 110?

What is the significance of the name skookum? Super cool thanks for posting BTW. Neat looking engine

Posted from iPhone

jointauthority Wrote:
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> What is the significance of the name skookum?
> Super cool thanks for posting BTW. Neat looking
> engine
>
Her owner Columbia Belt Line did not number their logging locomotives.  They were given indian names.  The name Skookum means "Big & Strong" in Salish and was given to her.

Martin