Steam & Excursion > A Very Unusual Locomotive, With An Equally Unusual Name!

A Friend of mine recently sent me a blurry image of a steam locomotive that he came across but had no data for it.  He sent it to me to see if I could help him identify it.  I took one look at his image, even as blurry as it was and knew I had seen that locomotive.  How could you forget the lines of the tanks and the cab on such an engine.  It did take me a few minutes to recall the name, however. because the name of her owner was as unusual as the locomotive itself.

While most of the photos that are floating around of this 0-6-0T are taken of her in Redding, California, where she spent most of her working career, I have chosen to show her in the Northern Pacific yards in Auburn, Washington in April, 1944 in this fine photo by Al Farrow.  Here we see Balakala Consolidated Copper Co. #1 on her way to a new owner.  As if her name was not unusual enough, the shape of her cab roof, windows, side panel and oil bunker give her a very European flair to her.

She most certainly was quite an unusual locomotive.

Martin



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/20 04:06 by LoggerHogger.

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Very interesting, Martin.  A Google search turned up this site:

https://calisphere.org/item/b94c7be33b9c44ac9cddac9d49e57ec3/

with pictures of the copper mine and facilities, but no pictures of the locomotive.

Gerry

Martin, is this the same old tired loco that is presently located at a trailer park
in Mountain Gate just north of Redding ? If so, it's had a rough life to say the least.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/20 09:54 by 462pacific.

What's with the moonscape in the background?  Was Auburn yard that crude in 1944?

As I remember this locomotive served a mine above the SP North of town, didn't realize that the interchange point was
actually in Redding.

Out 

=13pxFrom Poor’s and Moody's Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities, 1922, Vol. 1 - A to J, pages 1398-1399 ‘Balaklala Consolidated Copper Company’https://books.google.com/books?id=u3BKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=Balakala+Consolidated+Copper+locomotive&source=bl&ots=lE3TMxAUJA&sig=ACfU3U2Ts-6AnsE3IEpZ7qFi06g8GKqUEQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi1m92Zi9fpAhUpnq0KHe_aDOMQ6AEwCHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

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462pacific Wrote:
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> Martin, is this the same old tired loco that is
> presently located at a trailer park
> in Mountain Gate just north of Redding ? If so,
> it's had a rough life to say the least.

I'd say no?
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,1128043
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7237614,-122.3241818,3a,15y,162.99h,87.47t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1qkH18tN46wTHoXiHfo_Bw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Who was the new owner that #1 was enroute to?  The photo doesn't look like Auburn, WA to me either.  Could the location of the photo be Olympia, WA?

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> Who was the new owner that #1 was enroute to? 
> The photo doesn't look like Auburn, WA to me
> either.  Could the location of the photo be
> Olympia, WA?

That's an interesting thought.  Construction of Capitol Lake would have started before WWII, then suspended.  So that would explain the mud and logs in the background.

The photo location is most definatley Auburn, Washington.

Martin