Steam & Excursion > This Must Count As One Unusual & Modified Steam Locomotive!

In 1922, when this photo was taken in Maple Valley, Washington, did the photographer know at the time that he was preserving on film one very odd looking piece of steam motive power?  Maybe not, at the time.

What he was preserving on film was the #1 for the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad.  This engine was built by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco in 1868.  She was standard gauge and weighed only 23 tons.  When first built for the Black Diamond Coal Company of Mt. Diablo, California she was given the name, "D.O. Mills" and the "#3".  She was sold to the Black Diamond Coal & RR Company of Black Diamond, Washington.

I have included an earlier photo of this same locomotive to show how she was modified over the many years she saw service  In the 1922 photo, the bell that one adorned her sand dome is gone as is the big box headlight that she first came with.  She also has received new and smaller drivers and a change to her cab and fuel bunker.

Needless to say, she was one odd duck from her beginning all the way to the end.

Martin



Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/20 06:20 by LoggerHogger.

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Odd Duck?  Let's give full credit to Ugly Duck.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"......."Only a mother could love her".....IMHO it's one of those engines that makes steam locomotives so unique!

David Ketchum
Cheyenne WY

Darius Ogden Mills was a prominent American banker and philanthropist. For a time, he was California's wealthiest citizen.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

How about the pipe-straps over the smokebox to support the boiler or cylinders.

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA