Steam & Excursion > You Never Knew What You Might Find Hiding In One Of These!

Can you just imagine what it was like in the late 1940's for a railfan who came across a set of tracks leading into an old shop building?  Was this just an old empty building, or did it still conceal one of these treasures?

In this particular case, Richard Biermann was quite pleased when he went around to the far side of the rickety old building at National, Washington in June 1949 to explore what it held.  Tucked away in the shadows behind the old hopper car was just what he was hoping to find, a steam logging locomotive.

What Mr. Biermann had found was Harbor Plywood's ALCO built 2-6-2T #2.  She had been working out of National along side an ALCO 2-8-2T for a number of years by the time Biermann found her hiding in the shed.  While she was not spotted in a good place for a portrait of her, she still was worth snapping off this negative to preserve his find for all time.

Well done Mr. Biermann, and thank you.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/19 04:10 by LoggerHogger.

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Finding treasures like that had to be one of the greatest railfan feelings. I remember reading of other railfans finding unknown treasures in the 1950s, but today the Internet, Google satellite views, and railfan groups have uncovered most of what is left.

 Harbor Plywood closed a deal for 165 million board feet of logs in April 1944.   MILW/Tacoma Eastern provided the rail connection at National to get the logs to the HP mill at Aberdeen, WA.  That operation probably was done  before 1949. While it started slow one year they took out 77 mbf.
RB