Steam & Excursion > With The Fire In Steam Locomotives, This Was Always A Danger!

Every steam locomotive that was ever parked for the night in an enginehouse for servicing, posed an inherent danger given the hot firebox and the remaining fuel that it carried into that structure.  Mix these factors with the often wooden nature of the enginehouse structure and the lubricating oils and other fuels found there, and you have a recipe for just what we see here.

In this stark view, we see the moring after a huge fire that destroyed the White Pass & Yukon enginehouse at Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, on that narrow gauge line on December 25, 1943 while that line was being operated by the U.S. Army.  WP&Y engines #10 and #14 were nearly completely destroyed in the conflagration on Christmas Day, 1943 that leveled the enginehouse.

Both of these engines had been purchased by the Army in 1942 from the East Tennesseee & Western North Carolina RR and shipped to Whithorse for the War effort.  Prior to the fire they had been loaded on barges and shipped to the Northern Pacific shops in South Tacoma where they were rebuilt and returned to Whitehorse in the summer of 1943. 

After the fire, they were deemed too far gone for further repair and were parked until after the war ended.  Finally, in 1946, they were sent to Auburn, Washington  along with many other "foreign" locomotives that the Army had brought to the WP&Y and cut up for scrap.

Martin



Edited 12 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/19 02:53 by LoggerHogger.

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Sad.  Had not seen that photo of the fire before.   Thanks, Martin.

Did they actually see service before the fire?  They seem light for the the WP&Y.  

-Alan

Ironman Wrote:
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> Did they actually see service before the fire? 
> They seem light for the the WP&Y.  
>
> -Alan

Yes, they ran on the WP&Y from late 1942 until the fire in December, 1943.

Martin

Ironman Wrote:
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> Did they actually see service before the fire? 
> They seem light for the the WP&Y.  
>
> -Alan

Not much 3-ft gauge power around. The railroad had to take what it could get to move the wartime traffic.

Thanks guys