Steam & Excursion > A Dealer's Yard In 1942 Was Not A Safe Place For Any Locomotive!

When this nation was thrust into WW-2 there was immediately developed a national system of rationing for fuels and other commodities need for the war effort along with a national drive to accumulate as much scrap iron as possible as quickly as possible in order to aid in the manufacturing of the tools needed to fight the war.

We all know of certain historic steam locomotives that were "lost" to this scrap drive.  Some of those were small locomotives that actually yielded little scrap but their donation was more of a moral boost than any real tangible aid to the war effort.  There were, however, many other lessor known locomotives that were consumed in this national effort to gather scrap.

In  February, 1942, the M. Bloch & Company, and equipment dealer in Seattle, Washington had purchased this handsome 3-truck Shay from the recently out of business North Bend Timber Co. of North Bend, Washington.  Having been built in March of 1924 for Weyerhaeuser's subsidiary, Siler Logging, she was less than 18 years old when she ended up in the M. Bloch yard as we see her in this photo.

With her line shafts having been carefully removed for shipment from North Bend to Seattle, it is clear that the original intent was to preserve this fine Shay for re-sale.  However, despite her well kept condition and her few years of service, the M. Bloch records show that she was scrapped there and not re-sold to a new buyer. 

Given the early 1942 date of her arrival at M. Bloch coinciding with the beginning of the most intense part of the national war effort scrap drive, we can only surmise that she was not seriously marketed for re-sale but was quickly donated to the scrap drive.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/20 02:59 by LoggerHogger.

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I wonder if there would have been any value in using it to fill the motive power shortage that the war caused.  Obviously it wouldn't be any good for mainline operations but possibly for switching. 
Thinking this out more, the fact that it was a low speed - limited use locomotive is probably what lead to its demise.  If it had been a rod engine I would bet it would have been picked up.
 

My folks and others took part in scrap drives during WWII - they even had parades to promote them!
Nothing was safe.  People took stuff much more seriously then than they ever do now.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

I know a guy (since deceased) that as a boy took part in that scrap drive. But one of the things he and his friends did was steal the scrap back and then turn it in again. They received awards for the most amount of scrap found... He confessed this to me years later.

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



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/20 17:21 by wabash2800.