Steam & Excursion > A Wasted Day In The Rain At The End Of Steam On This Railroad!

May 31, 1961 was meant to be the last run of a steam powered train up into the woods above Tuolumne, California for the fabled narrow gauge West Side Lumber Co.  Shay #14 had been fired up that morning to perform the honors.  A small group of railfans, including Jim Wren gathered to record this last run on film.  However, Mother Nature had the best of them and the railroad that day.

Spring rains had started falling in the days before the last run, and they continued on into the morning of the 31st.  Since the West Side had not had a train on the line into to the woods since the last log train came into town at the end of October, 1960, the crews feared that the rains may bring slides and might make the unused track too soft for their chores on this day.  As a result, the trip to the woods was postponed for a week to allow the roadbed to dry out and be inspected.

Not wanting to waste the #14 under steam, the crews donned their rain coats and spent the day switching the yards near the enginehouse with #14 in preparation for the line shutting down for good.  We see #14 performing these tasks in this fine view by Mr. Wren. 

Once they were done that day, #14 was shut down and alowed to cool.  She would be fired up for the last time the next week,  on June 6 and 7, 1961 when she did head to the woods for her last runs to retieve equipment stored there and to be brought back to town.  When she was shut down on tghe 7th, her logging career was finally over.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/19 04:13 by LoggerHogger.

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That's an odd 'coupler' on the end of that tank.

Could it possibly be link-and-pin or some variant?

John.

The West Side used link and pin couplers until 1940 when the skeleton log cars arrived from the defunct Swayne Lumber Co. of Oroville, California.  Even after the arrival of the new Swayne cars with knuckle couplers, West Side retained many of the old carter brothers log cars with Link and pin couplers for work train duty.

What you see here is a link inserted into the slot of the knuckle coupler so that #14 can switch some of the old work cars.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/19 06:18 by LoggerHogger.

From the picture it looks like they kept the yard in good order noting wheel sets ready to install in the background.

That's an incredable amount of stuff on the top of the tender.

PHall Wrote:
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> That's an incredable amount of stuff on the top of
> the tender.

The long wood box is fire tools mandated by the USFS.  The rest are simply parts and supplies that the Shay's crew may need when they are out in the woods and far from the enginehouse.  "Clutter" such as this was very common on the tenders of many logging lokies.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/19 10:14 by LoggerHogger.

On the day her logging career ended, my wife and I were married.  Just celebrated 58 years together.

Jim,

Happy Anniversary and congratulations to you both.

Martin