Steam & Excursion > Not All Helper Locomotives Came In The Same Size And Shape!

The use of helper locomotives was not limited to the mainline railroads as we might have become accustomed to think.  As we see here, even logging railroads had to resort to use helper engines on occasion in order to overcome the grades they faced.

In this January, 1943 photo we see Pickering Lumber Corp. Shay #3 at Ralph, California.  Her crew is over at the small phone booth across the road calling for clearance onto the Sierra Railroad that they need to run on back to the mill at Standard.  2-Truck Shay #3 is returning from her helper assignment assisting a train of empty log cars out of the mill grounds and up the joint Sierra trackage and then up the first few miles of heavy grades on the Pickering Lumber logging railroad.

#3's nearly 24,000#s of tractive effort was just what that train of empties needed to make it out of Standard and into the high country were the next load of logs will come from.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/20 02:07 by LoggerHogger.

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Another beaut Martin.Some rail still in place there to this day.
Regards,DK

And, the Pickering had another helper grade on their railroad line.  For a time, loaded millbound trains had to be doubled and have a helper on the 4% grade from Beardsley to Schoettgen Pass.  This portion of the line crossed the famous "Peeled Onion" rock formations, which have been pictured on Trainorders previously.