Steam & Excursion > This Locomotive Is A Long Way From Home But Still Survives Today!

Some steam locomotives managed to move around the world many times in thier life time and in doing so they stayed ahead of and out of the hands of the scraper.  Here is one such locomotive.

The trim little Baldwin 2-6-2 that we see here was first built in 1920 for the Calcasieu Long Leaf Lumber Co. of Lake Charles, Louisiana as their #68.  She later went to the Long-Bell Lumber Co. of Longville, LA as thier #681.  From there she traveled across the U.S. to join the Long-Bell operations in Longview, Washington.  After that assignment was over, she was transferred to the Longview, Portland & Northern, first in Longview and then later, at Grand Ronde, Oregon.  Her last transfer in the U.S. was to the Willamina & Grand Ronde as their #681 in Grand Ronde, OR.

In the 1950's when diesels arrived on the W&GR, she was lucky enough to be sold yet again, this time to the Mexicano del Pacifico s their #7 as we see here in Los Machis, Mexico.  Amazingly, when her work in Mexico was finished, she was preserved and mot sent to the scrapper.  Over the years their has been some talk of trying to bring her back to the U.S., but so far no firm plan to do that has materialized.  For now, she has managed to reach the ripe old age of 100 years old and she has avoided the fate of most of her sister locomotives.  She should be proud of that.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/20 03:52 by LoggerHogger.

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The picture of this locomotive working on the Mexicano del Pacifico (Mexican Pacific RR) brings to mind that this short line railroad continuously operated revenue steam freight later than any other railroad on the contiguous standard gauge North American railway network.  It was documented as still using steam in 1987 and reportedly continued some revenue freight operaions with steam as late as 1990.  The line was in the vicinity the Chihuahua Pacific staton at Los Mochis in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. 

PFM brought in a H O model of that engine.

As far as I know the PFM model you are remembering is the Oregon-American Lumber #105, not this one. 

The locomotive has been on a display stand in the middle of a street in Los Mochis without its tender since 2012, as seen in these three snippets from Google streetview. 

Thanks for posting!

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

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Is the tender still around somewhere?

Jeff,

That is quite a bizzare display.  An expensive cement raised pad with nice permanent lighting.  All of that for a locomotive that they can't even bother to give a simple coat of black paint.  They seem to be proud of her as a rusty hulk.  Very odd.

Martin

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> Jeff,
>
> That is quite a bizzare display.  An expensive
> cement raised pad with nice permanent lighting. 
> All of that for a locomotive that they can't even
> bother to give a simple coat of black paint. 
> They seem to be proud of her as a rusty hulk. 
> Very odd.
>
> Martin

Perhaps it is interpreted as "public art".

Martin, I’ve had the same thoughts. Somewhere I found some video of the locomotive being moved to this display location but can’t relocate it in a hurry now. Maybe if I have some time later on today I’ll try to find it. Displaying locomotives without tender seems popular in that town, the Mexican Pacific 2 was on a nice display track sans tender outside the sugar mill office, it’s since been moved to a temporary track nearby in the footprint of an old molasses tank.

As for the tender question, it’s likely gone. The former Mexican Pacific power had been sitting just inside the old sugar mill fence in the early 2010s, in 2012 they moved this one to the display stand and shoved the rest deeper into the mill. Google Earth shows all the remaining rail equipment (two locomotives, the tender for this one, and one or two other pieces) vanished without a trace sometime between 8/2/2019 and 12/7/2019. At least one poster on another forum reported in early April 2018 seeing the Mexican Pacific #6 (former California Western) in the Chepe shop in Los Mochis, headed North, coupled up behind a Ferromex GP-38, but this report conflicts with the Google Earth imagery.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Posted from iPhone

Yes, in 1990, it was under steam, doing the interchange with the CHP.  Had three tours that year, that visited the plant.

Thanks for the confirmation of the 1990 date for steam on the Mexican Pacific.   When I was Executive Director of the American Railway Engineering Association (AREA) from 1979 to 1994, we used a map of North America (Canada, United States and Mexico) as the association's symbol because of the physically contiguous standard guage rail network.  One could (and can) send a boxcar from Montreal to Mexico City without any need for mechanical alteration.  So the end of revenue steam on this network is an important historical milestone that deserves to be remembered.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/20 07:02 by LTCerny.

Like someone saw a piece of home decor at Hobby Lobby and wanted a bigger version.  (The stuff they manufacture out of metal then throw into salt brine....)
KMiddlebrook Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LoggerHogger Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Jeff,
> >
> > That is quite a bizzare display.  An expensive
> > cement raised pad with nice permanent
> lighting. 
> > All of that for a locomotive that they can't
> even
> > bother to give a simple coat of black paint. 
> > They seem to be proud of her as a rusty hulk. 
> > Very odd.
> >
> > Martin
>
> Perhaps it is interpreted as "public art".