Steam & Excursion > Even Winter Storms Could Not Deter Steam Power On This Railroad!

While many logging railroads in the Pacific Northwest shut down during the winter months, there were some loggers that kept their operations going even after the snow fell.  Brooks-Scanlon in Bend, Oregon was one such operation that did not let Old Man Winter slow it's pace.

In this scene, taken in the early 1940's, out on the railroad's Bull Springs line, north west of Bend, we see one of Brooks-Scanlon's 70-ton Baldwin 2-8-2's with a train of empty log cars and a McGiffert log loader after having been moved to a new falling area one morning.  The McGiffert appears to be cold and there are still cables on the log cars to be set up at this new loading site.  The loggers are likely still cutting near the old loading site several hundred yards away behind the photographer.  The McGiffert has been leap-frogged ahead of the loggers to the new loading site this morning to be set up and ready when the cats with steel arches start arriving with the fresh cut logs.

The empty log cars are being shoved through the McGiffert to begin the loading process.  Once the last car is shoved just in front of the McGiffert, it will be loaded with pine logs, and then the train will be pulled through to the next car and the next car until they are all loaded and the 2-8-2 will then take the loaded car to the mill in Bend.

Winter has clearly arrived as we see snow throughout the forest scene that the train is operating through.  The McGiffert has a full load of wood on her deck and is ready to keep logging as she is moved into position despite the cold winter day ahead.  Winter wqs no match for the power of steam back in the day.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/19 06:29 by LoggerHogger.

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Small world.  My father grew up in Bend and worked for B-S in the woods during his summer breaks while attending the University of Washington.

When I was a youngster, he would occasionally drive us up into the area where he had worked as a young man.

Dad had some interesting tales about the personalities of some of the loggers that he worked with.  One of my favorite stories pertained to dining etiquette in the camp mess car.  'Seems there was one gentleman who routinely reached across two or three fellow workers at the mess table to grab something to eat, rather than asking for a dish to be passed to him as was the generally accepted behavior.  Despite grumbling comments about his "boarding house reach," he persisted in presenting his outstretched arm across the noses of his fellow loggers day-after-day.  One day, however, a fix was tendered.   As the errant arm made its way to a dish of mashed potatoes, a loud "ouch" was heard through the din of conversation.  Upon retrieval, the hastily withdrawn arm displayed a fork fully embedded within it.  Nobody said a word.  Not surprisingly, the fellow never again reached in front of his neighbor for a bite to eat. 

Lessons learned in the woods can be swift and long lasting.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Great story Greg.  Yes, usually the manners of loggers in mess halls was amazingly good.  Few people know that.  Loggers repsected each other because the lived and worked together each day.  If you did not get along, you did not last long.

Martin

The trees in the photo look pretty small, compared to what I am used to seeing in the Sierra Nevada Mtns of California.  Are these the trees that B-S will be cutting?  Was B-S a clear-cutter in this area?

I would guess the area in the photo was clear-cut many years earlier, and the trees you see are 2nd growth.

Elesco Wrote:
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> I would guess the area in the photo was clear-cut
> many years earlier, and the trees you see are 2nd
> growth.

Not likely.  Keep in mind this is the pine forests of central Oregon in the rain shadow of the Cascades.  B-S, like most of the other pine loggers in the Intermountain west, largely practiced landscape scale clear cutting, especially after tractors and arches came into the picture.  

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV 

Actually, the Ponderosa pine that both Brooks-Scanlon and Shevlin-Hixon cut were pretty good size.  Here is the very last train of logs on the Brooks-Scanlon railroad out of Sisters, Oregon in December 1956.  Even the last logs being hauled, were good size for the pine region.

Martin

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