Steam & Excursion > Even After 10 Years She Was Only the Second Of Her Kind Built!

Baldwin turned out the the first Baldwin logging mallet in 1909 with the construction of the legendary Skookum.  She was a 2-4-42 tender engine for which much has been written recently.  Just 6 months after Skookum left the Baldwin factory, the very first Baldwin logging tank mallet was built in the form of Booth-Kelly 2-6-6-2T #2.  It seemed that Baldwin was poised to explode onto the logging locomotive scene.  However, that would not be the case for several more years.

It was not until April, 1920 that Baldwin would receive another order for another saddle tank logging mallet.  As it turned out this order also came from the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company of Wendling, Oregon.  They were apparently so pleased with their #2 that they placed another order with Baldwin, and again specified a tank mallet of nearly the exact same design as the engine they had ordered 10 years earlier.

#6 would be delivered with split side tanks and slide valves with a saturated steam boiler.  Not very modern features for 1920, but that is what Booth-Kelly wanted.  In just 3 more years Baldwin would be selling much more modern super-heated piston-valve tank mallets with full side tanks to customers in the Pacific Northwest.  The era of the Baldwin logging mallet had finally arrived in full steam.

Here we see Booth-Kelly #6 parked out of service in December, 1947.  Just behind her is her sister mallet, #2.  Both had done fine work for their owner over the years and now they would have only to wait for the scrapper to come to carry them away.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/18 07:14 by LoggerHogger.

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Wendling...a place I never head of growing up in OR.  NE of Eugene/Springfield OR.  Nothing much there now
RB.

Great shot as always Martin, thanks for sharing.
A speeder and several employees from B-K found their way south to Cottage Grove for work on the Lorane Valley Lumber Company after operations ended at Wendling. Though I have no evidence or oral history to support it, I have a suspicion that thought was given to purchasing one of the mallets or even the Willamette for use on the Lorane Valley. Doubling or even tripling the hill outside Cottage Grove was the norm, and the larger B-K power would have reduced operating costs.
On a separate note, as you pointed out to me some years ago, the boiler from B-K Heisler #4 existed outside Blue River, Oregon. It seems to have disappeared around 10 years ago. More history lost... 
Casey