Steam & Excursion > The Largest Of Her Type Ever Built, Waiting Out Her Final Days!

Starting in 1909 with the construction of the 2-4-4-2 Skookum, the Baldwin Locomotive Works spent the next 20 years refining the articulated locomotive for use in the logging industry of the Pacific Northwest.  Over the next many years following the Skookum, Baldwin's biggest customer for such locomotives was the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. 

The vast majority of this logging articulateds built by Baldwin were of the 2-6-6-2 wheel arrangement.  Most were tank engines, but soon a number of tender-type 2-6-6-2's were built built by Baldwin for the Pacific Northwest woods.

In 1929, Baldwin's good customer Weyerhaeuser Timber returned to Baldwin with a tall order to fill.  They needed a locomotive that could handle the 3.7% grade on a 7-mile stretch of their logging railroad out of Longview, Washington.  This was a tall order, given the enormous quantities of wood that Weyerhaeuser needed to haul on this line in a daily basis.

Soon Baldwin came up with a design and in a few months the erecting shop forces at Baldwin's Eddystone plant turned out what we see here, 2-8-8-2 #200.  She was built with 23" and 5" diameter by 28" stroke cylinders and 51" drivers.  She operated at 215 #s boiler pressure producing 75,000 #s tractive effort.  Both in size and power she was the very largest locomotive built for logging service.

#200 was placed into service and soon she demonstrated that she could handle 101 of Weyerhaeuser's 52-foot loaded log cars down the 3.7% grade while being able to haul 45 empties at a time on the return trip.  She would double this grade on the return to take 90 empty cars back to the woods.  She repeated this operation twice a day for a total of 124 miles each day.  Baldwin was proud to advertise that #200 continued in this service for 4 1/2 years non-stop until her sister locomotive, #201 was delivered thus giving #200 the chance for her first shopping since being built.

Despite the enormous power that WTC #200 had for the task given her, by February 1953 when this photo was taken, Weyerhaeuser Timber had started buying diesel locomotives for their Longview operations.  When Doug Hubert took this fine photo of #200 in the yards at Longview, she was already retired and being readied for shipment to a scrap yard in Seattle.

Both #200 and her sister engine #201 the biggest locomotives ever built for service in the woods.  They met or exceeded the expectations of thier owner which is high praise for any logging locomotive built with the demands they they had placed on them when bult.

Martin



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/19 03:31 by LoggerHogger.

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That would have looked pretty impressive on the way up to Headquarters, etc.

Here's a link to another one of your photos that shows the 200 in a more "intact" pose

.http://loggingmallets.railfan.net/list/wt200/wey200_1948_hansen.jpg

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/19 04:54 by E25.

Very impressive indeed! Looks like it could have been a 4-8-8-2 with the room under the pilot for another set of wheels. It just looks strange with that extra room up front.

The extra room up front was to accomodate the draft gear for the front coupler.
Pete

fehorse1 Wrote:
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> The extra room up front was to accomodate the
> draft gear for the front coupler.
> Pete

We will have a section on the different types draft gear used on Baldwin's logging articulateds and the various front pilots used to accomodate them in our up-coming book on Baldwin's Logging Mallets.

Martin

How much water did the tender hold?

LoggerHogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Starting in 1909 with the construction of the
> 2-4-4-2 Skookum, the Baldwin Locomotive Works
> spent the next 20 years refining the articulated
> locomotive for use in the logging industry of the
> Pacific Northwest.  Over the next many years
> following the Skookum, Baldwin's biggest customer
> for such locomotives was the Weyerhaeuser Timber
> Company. 
>
> The vast majority of this logging articulateds
> built by Baldwin were of the 2-6-6-2 wheel
> arrangement.  Most were tank engines, but soon a
> number of tender-type 2-6-6-2's were built built
> by Baldwin for the Pacific Northwest woods.
>
> In 1929, Baldwin's good customer Weyerhaeuser
> Timber returned to Baldwin with a tall order to
> fill.  They needed a locomotive that could handle
> the 3.7% grade on a 7-mile stretch of their
> logging railroad out of Longview, Washington. 
> This was a tall order, given the enormous
> quantities of wood that Weyerhaeuser needed to
> haul on this line in a daily basis.
>
> Soon Baldwin came up with a design and in a few
> months the erecting shop forces at Baldwin's
> Eddystone plant turned out what we see here,
> 2-8-8-2 #200.  She was built with 23" and 5"
> diameter by 28" stroke cylinders and 51"
> drivers.  She operated at 215 #s boiler pressure
> producing 75,000 #s tractive effort.  Both in
> size and power she was the very largest locomotive
> built for logging service.
>
> #200 was placed into service and soon she
> demonstrated that she could handle 101 of
> Weyerhaeuser's 52-foot loaded log cars down the
> 3.7% grade while being able to haul 45 empties at
> a time on the return trip.  She would double this
> grade on the return to take 90 empty cars back to
> the woods.  She repeated this operation twice a
> day for a total of 124 miles each day.  Baldwin
> was proud to advertise that #200 continued in this
> service for 4 1/2 years non-stop until her sister
> locomotive, #201 was delivered thus giving #200
> the chance for her first shopping since being
> built.
>
> Despite the enormous power that WTC #200 had for
> the task given her, by February 1953 when this
> photo was taken, Weyerhaeuser Timber had started
> buying diesel locomotives for their Longview
> operations.  When Doug Hubert took this fine
> photo of #200 in the yards at Longview, she was
> already retired and being readied for shipment to
> a scrap yard in Seattle.
>
> Both #200 and her sister engine #201 the biggest
> locomotives ever built for service in the woods. 
> They met or exceeded the expectations of thier
> owner which is high praise for any logging
> locomotive built with the demands they they had
> placed on them when bult.
>
> Martin

Martin

Great story and photo. We just were driving down I5 and I was looking at this railroad. Growing up in Longview steam was gone but the log train was still running.

Luke

Posted from Android

Luke,

I enjoyed my time at Headquarters Camp and photographing the log trains on that line back in the 1970's

Maritn



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/19 09:50 by LoggerHogger.

Martin

I rode the woods train a lot as a kid also the last woods train. I kick my self for not taking one picture.

Luke

Posted from Android

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How much water did the tender hold?

She hel 7,000 gallons of water and 2,500 gallons of oil.

Martin