Steam & Excursion > Steam Railroading Held Out Here In More Than Just One Form!

In the early 1960's, it was very hard to find any railroads that still chose to stay with steam power over the more modern forms that were available by that time.  When you did find such an operation it was a real treat to see how dedicated they still were to steam propulsion.

One such steam hold out by 1960 was the Hillcrest Lumber Co. of Mesachie Lake, B.C..  Not only did they rely on a pair of Climax geared locomotives, they also had a Pacific Coast Shay for the sole motive power on the railroad.  Even the locomotive crane used in the mill yard was still powered by steam as we see here.

Amazingly, steam would hang on here at Mesache Lake all throughout the 1960's and even into 1972.  Quite a steam hold out indeed!

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/21 02:40 by LoggerHogger.

---

Like the link and pin coupler on the locomotive crane!

The crane had link and pin couplers?  I can understand still using steam but the couplers is a safety item that should have been fixed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/21 14:06 by wingomann.

The crane was only used to move around small cars of cut lumber around the plant.  Lin & Pin couplers for that purpose was very common.  The rolling stock all had automatic couplers.

Martin

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Like the link and pin coupler on the locomotive
> crane!

Good catch!

ChrisCampi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Like the link and pin coupler on the locomotive
> > crane!
>
> Good catch!

The advantage of a 27 inch monitor!

Many sawmills used rails to move and begin the sort of freshly cut saw wood.  The boards were loaded on these wheeled push chart and most had link and pin system of coupling together.  Very common all over except in NY state which required Janney coupler in all industry.  Finally California about 1950-s required elimination of link and pin on log cars and several log railroad that were nearly cut out had to close their mill.  
The final logging railroad in North America was destroyed by the failure of a "Automatic" coupler to drop its pin causing a number of log cars to run away and kill 4 persons on a track car, and the entire railroad.  If it was a link and pin, it would have been secure.  The switchman failed to look to inspect that the coupler actually had dropped its pin in place.  They took the coupler apart and found the anticreeper to be defector and worn out, and out of specifications.