Steam & Excursion > She Was Certainly Designed As A Most Versatile Steam Locomotive!

While steam locomotives came in all shapes and sizes, most were designed for a specific customer and it's service in mind.  Occasionally, a locomotive was intended for a wide range of duty's and it's design had to be such as to allow her to work well no matter what the task given her.  Here we have just such a locomotive.

The Baldwin 2-6-2T design proved quite popular for quite a number of decades of it being offered for sale.  The California-Western of Ft. Bragg, California realized the versatility of this design and put a number of them to good use, including 2-6-2T #11 shown here.

Built new for the C-W in March 1913, #11 entered service on the curves and grades of the railroad from Ft. Bragg to Willits with little fanfare.  Among her earliest tasks was to pull passenger trains on the line, often double-heading with another of the C-W 2-6-2T's.  Her low drivers and saddle tank for water gave her the needed power and traction, along with enough speed for her to regularly hold down passenger assignments.

Later on in her career, #11 could be found on the logging branches that fed timber to the big mill at Ft. Bragg.  One of these included the Tenmile Branch that ran north out of Ft. Bragg along the Pacific Ocean and then inland and up into the timbered hills along the California Coast.  Again her design was well adapted for this kind of steep terrain logging duty.

Finally, when she was not found hauling passengers or logs, she was assigned to freight service.  Part of this duty meant switching her own trains together at either end of the C-W line.  Here, in the 1930's we see #11 making up her train at the mill yard in Ft. Bragg.  Here lack of a tender, once again, made her ideal for such switching service.

By the time her 34 year career on the C-W was through, there was no type of service that the railroad provided that #11 had not been called upon to perform.  That is quite a testament to the designers back at Baldwin who created her in the first place.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/19 02:21 by LoggerHogger.

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“put a number of them to good use, including
> 2-6-2T #11 shown here.”  ???

Where?

W.



 

That flat car in the foreground with the men working on top. Is that a shower of saw dust we’re seeing?

When I see Fort Bragg, I cant help thinking of North Coast
Brewing. I must be thirsty....

It was called the Tenmile Branch, named for Tenmile River which it followed. The line was nearly 18 miles long. It was abandoned in 1949 and converted to a road for log trucks.