Steam & Excursion > A Rarely Photographed Locomotive Assigned To Do Unusual Work!

When one thinks of logging locomotives, the image of geared locomotives or small drivered rod engines, some with saddle tanks, come to mind.  Rarely if ever, especially in the West, would one think of a high-drivered locomotive of the 4-4-0 American Class.  Here is an exception to that rule.

In this old 1931 view taken at Westwood, California, we see one of the oddest logging locomotives ever.  She was built in 1881 by The Schenectady Locomotive Works for the Southern Pacific.  That assignment certainly makes sense as SP had dozens of these CJ-Class engines in the early days of the railroad.  This one, however, was sold by the SP in 1909 to the Anderson & Bella Vista RR out of Anderson, California.  On that line she continued to haul passenger and freight trains on relatively flat track.   It was her next assignment that we see here.

Sometime in the 1920's, #1341 was purchased by the Red River Lumber Co. of Westwood to haul log trains.  This certainly was not her intened use when the designers back at Schenectady first drafted the blueprints for this locomotive.  There are very few photos of #1341 at Westwood because she was scrapped there in July, 1937, before most railfans descended on the operation.

She must have worked out for RRL as the logger bought a second old SP 4-4-0 (#1349) and ran that engine well into the 1940's.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/20 04:12 by LoggerHogger.

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Martin, didn’t Red River inherit both of these 4-4-0s along with the A&BV/CS&E? Hanft in his Red River book indicated that company discovered the Terry Lumber Company (A&BV’s corporate parent) has been harvesting a good amount of Red River timber intermingled with their holdings above Round Mountain, and by the time the dust settled from that Red River owned the Terry operations, but only ran it for a year or two before shutting it down and taking the locomotives to Westwood.

Thanks for posting the picture!

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Posted from iPhone

It actually might not be as unusual as it seems to run a 4-4-0 in such a service. In the early days of railroading, when most locos were 4-4-0s, they were used in all kinds service, including switching. I know of one that beame a full-time switcher with the cowcatcher removed so a brakie could ride the pilot.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

JDLX Wrote:
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> Martin, didn’t Red River inherit both of these
> 4-4-0s along with the A&BV/CS&E?
>
> Thanks for posting the picture!
>
> Jeff Moore
> Elko, NV


Jeff,

My SP records do not show that #1349 was ever owned by anyone but SP before she was sold by SP to the RRL in March, 1923.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/20 03:51 by LoggerHogger.