Steam & Excursion > Even After Their Working Career Is Over, These 2 Engines Work On!

The Hammond Lumber Company had an extensive logging railroad out of the Mill site at Samoa, California that was used to log the Redwood holdings they had in that area of Northern California.  Unfortunately, a huge fire in 1945 destroyed much of the Hammond Lumber logging railroad as well as a sizable portion of the timber in that area.

This fire, all but ended Hammond use of the logging railroad.  Some of the locomotives were trapped in the woods for years while others, like these two 90-ton Shays (Hammond #31 and #32) were simply out of work.  Not to wast the steam power the boiler on these 2 out-of-work logging lokies had available, Hammond decided to put them to work as stationary boilers as we see in this fine photo taken by the late Stan Borden.

Shay #32 has already been picked for parts by the time she entered stationary boiler service.  We see here boiler tender resting on the ramp leading to the cab of #32.  His job was to spend the day going between #31 and #32 and watching the fires in their firebox and adding water when needed to keep them producing steam for the nearby mill.

While not the glamorous logging duty that these two huge Shays were designed for, this stationary boiler service kept them hot ans useful for a few more years and delayed their ultimate scrapping for a while longer.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/19 03:25 by LoggerHogger.

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Martin, 
Great stuff.  I always look forward to your posts, especially all of the great background info you share.  Thank you!
 

Neat story.   Seems like they are a long way from where the steam is used.  How far could you send steam down the pipe before it lost it's usefulness?

Tominde Wrote:
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> Neat story.   Seems like they are a long way
> from where the steam is used.  How far could you
> send steam down the pipe before it lost it's
> usefulness?

The steam can be plumbed quite distance as long as you keep the line insulated.

Martin

Martin,
   Any idea which camp this picture was taken at and date?   The Timber Heritage Association in their July 2019 newsletter has a story primarily on Hammond Shay #33, but mentions that #31 and #32 were both scrapped in 1948 with #31 having parts sold to Pickering Lumber for spares for $33 and that she may have been isolated at the Gap as she was scrapped there.  This photo seems to contradict that isolation unless this photo is at the Gap or is before the fire..   The #32 was supposedly scrapped in Eureka.  Of course, #33 was sold to Pickering in 1944, before the fire.
Also, in your files, would you happen to have a picture of one of the Hammond cabooses used on that line.       TomE