Steam & Excursion > Interesting To See A Locomotive Using This Fuel Source So Late!

By the early 1950's the sight of steam locomotives themselves was already becoming more rare by the day.  To find one still burning wood for fuel was downright amazing!

Despite it's rarity, there were still a few spot in the U.S. that one could see the sight of and smell the fragrance of a wood-burning steam locomotive.  One such place was the Long-Bell Lumber sawmill operation at Vaughn, Oregon.

Shuffling through the mill yards we find Long-Bell's 2-truck Shay #5.  This 50-ton Shay was built by Lima in 1924 as an oil burner for the Security Logging Co. of Carnation, Washington.  In 1929 she made her way to Oregon and was purchased by the Shaw-Bertram Lumber Co. out of Kirk, Oregon.  When her work there was done she was purchased by the Klamath Locomotive & Machine Works, a dealer in Klamath Falls, Oregon.  They sold her in 1938 to the Snellstrom Brothers who operated the mill at Vaughn, Oregon.

During WW-2, Snellstrom converted #5 to a wood-burner to save on fuel costs and to avoid the oil rationing that took place during the War.  She would stay a wood-burner for the rest of her life, even after Long-Bell took over the Snellstrom operation in 1945.

Finally retired in 1955, Long-Bell made a gift of her to the City of Longview, Washington, the town they had formed when they first came to the Pacific Northwest.  She has recently gone through an extensive cosmetic restoration and is now a beautifully preserved reminder of the era of steam logging in the Northwest.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/20 01:54 by LoggerHogger.

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To this day, the Clark's Trading Post at North Woodstock, NH still uses wood to fuel it Climax and Heisler on their White Mountain Central Railroad.  They also have a Porter 0-4-0ST and a EB&L #5 2-4-2 ST logging engine.  In their engine house is the EB&L 2T Shay #5 but that has never been operated since it went out of service at Lincoln and put on display before 1951.  It still has the original oil cans that were used stashed within its machinery and a few clogged flues in the bottom level.  We were about to do a hydro on it one Railfan weekend but I don't think that ever happened, and it was switched back into its safe shelter.  The Shay was coal fired. And the railroad runs through a wooden covered bridge daily during the season of operation.

Martin,

Cool shot of a little-covered railroad. It's kind of interesting that two of the last wood-burning railroads (Long-Bell at Vaughn and Lorane Valley Lumber) were in the same county and at their closest were only around 20 miles apart.

Do you know if they ever ran the #805 at Vaughn? I seem to remember hearing somewhere that they shipped her there to replace the Shay and things didn't quite work out that way.  

Thanks,
Casey

Casey,

I do have a couple shots of #805 working at Vaughn.  Far more shots show her parked with her front footboard bent as we see in the first photo.

Here in the second photo is Shay #5 after her restoration a few years ago before pavilion was built over her.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/20 11:41 by LoggerHogger.

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the Longview community has done a wonderful job with displaying this locomotive...KUDOs to all involved.   and I love their overhead squirril street crossings

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It does look like 805 had a bit of a boo-boo.

Thanks for sharing the pics and info! Whenever I'm driving through Noti I debate swinging over to Vaughn to see if anything interesting is still around.

Casey

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> Here in the second photo is Shay #5 after her
> restoration a few years ago before pavilion was
> built over her.
>
Martin, was the boiler jacketing added to No.5 after the pavillion was built?

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

Gerry,

No.

Martin