Steam & Excursion > This Locomotive Seen Starting Her 2nd Career For Her 3rd Owner!

Certain steam locomotives were blessed to survive the scrappers torch at the end of the steam era and lead new careers, usually in the tourist railroad industry.  Here is one of those lucky engines.

Shown here soon after her arrival in the yards at Camino, California, we see former West Side Lumber Co. 3-truck narrow gauge Shay #14.  She has yet to be lettered for her new owner, the Camino, Cable & Northern.  A quick dab of black paint on her cab blocked of the "1" so that she is now "4" on the CC&N roster.  Soon she will be given the #4 spot plate off Yosemite Lumber Co. Shay #4 as her new spot plate.

This was the beginning of #14's 2nd career.  Her first career was as a logging locomotive, first for the Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Co. as their #10 and then on to the West Side.  She was give the honor of bringing down the last train of cars from the woods on the West side on June 7, 1961 before going back into storage before being sold to the CC&N in 1965. 

After the CC&N folded a few years into it's operation, #4 was sold to the Ashbey family for further tourist service in Colorado, first out of Central City, CO and then on the Georgetown Loop until 2004 when she was moved to the Colorado Railroad Museum, where she is today.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/19 03:53 by LoggerHogger.

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This is a great picture of a Shay in the environment it was designed for.  The small enginehouse, the trees and dirt ballasted track gives it a feel of a logging operation out in the woods.  The low camera angle also makes the locomotive look burly and all business.  Very cool picture.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/19 09:12 by wingomann.