Steam & Excursion > For Less Than 3 Short Years, This Was A Daily Steam Spectacle!

From her delivery onto the Sierra Railroad in late June, 1952 until her departure after her last runs in mid-April, 1955 Sierra's 2-6-6-2 #38 put on quite a show as she ran freight trains between Oakdale and Jamestown, California.

As #38 was too long to be truned on the Jamestown turntable, she had to run in reverse from Jamestown to the wye track at Cooperstown.  This meant that she would have to tackle the grade out of Chineese while going backwards.  On this day, the freight train of wood products from the Pickering Lumber mill at Standard and the West Side Lumber mill at Tuolumne is so heavy that 2-8-0 #24 has been added as a mid-train helper.  The show they put on that fine sunny day was recorded by J. C. Hammond on his color slide film.

While she lasted only less than 3 years on the Sierra, #38 certainly made a name for herself during that brief time in the railfan community.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/21 03:39 by LoggerHogger.

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I read "somewhere" that #38 was a "problem child" on the Sierra from the day that she arrived, due mainly to the poor repairs that she received from Weyerhaeuser personnel following her being severely damaged in an enginehouse fire.  She spent much of her first year and a half on the Sierra in the shop, receiving frequdent repairs to "straighten her out".  She had a good last year and a half on the Sierra, which ended when the Baldwin diesel salesman finally was successful in making the sale that dieselized the railroad.  The 2-6-6-2 lost her job on three different railroads (Weyerhaueser, Sierra, and Rayonier) due to the persistance of the Baldwin diesel salesman! 

Actually that is partially true and partially not.  #38 was purchased because the CMO on the Sierra was a steam man and he wanted to stay with steam.  The Baldwin salesman had sent demonstrators on the Sierra but still did not net a sale.  It was only after the CMO passed away, did the Sierra board of directors buy the first diesels.

#38 had a few teething issues after she first arrived, but they were not serious.  She worked for seveal months before she needed some repairs that took her out of service for a couple of weeks.  After that, she was just fine. 

Clearly she was very satisfactory on Rayonier as she ran there continuously until she was finally retired in 1967 when she broke her pilot truck.  That was after 12 years of HEAVY logging service on Rayonier and long after most of the rest of Rayonier steam fleet was retired.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/21 03:19 by LoggerHogger.

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Wonderful air quality...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

As mentioned here the 38 did need a fair amount of work after it arrived on the Sierra. Al Wilcox had told me that they used up two big bottles of acetylene just trying to remove the articulating pin from the frame. My favorite quote was from an old Weyerhauser machinist at Sycan who said that if you ran the engine through a mud puddle it would leave 8 tracks behind.

As was posted here several years ago the Sierra Railroad was very interested in purchasing diesel locomotives and as mentioned one demonstrated on the Sierra in the early 1950s. At that time the Sierra did not have the finances to make the purchase. Instead they shopped around and ended up with the 38 as a stopgap until they could afford the diesels. By the end of 1954 Sierra was in a position to purchase the diesels for $125,000.00 each. At the time of his death in August 1954 Sierra Master Mechanic Bill Tremewan was scheduled to be trained by Baldwin on diesel locomotive maintenance. While the 38 was not successful in allowing the Sierra to operate the railroad with only one crew its tonnage ratings were clearly higher than the other locomotives and did allow for more efficient operations on the heavier grades on the territory where it operated.

The diesel salesman was John Kirkland, Baldwin’s sales manager for the western region. John was involved in the sale of the diesels to Weyerhauser, the Sierra, and Rayonier and played a part in the sale of the 38 between these companies. There were some old letters in the Sierra’s General Office which showed that in addition to the 38 they had also inspected a Long Bell locomotive at Tennent and (believe it or not) were in discussions with the Western Pacific about purchasing one of the 200 class mallets or the 334. For its part the SP told the Sierra that they would not handle either of these locomotives over the branch from Stockton to Oakdale. For a number of reasons the 38 was probably the better choice.

Dave Sell

As far as I know, this engine still exists........so.....................

Is that a second locomotive adding to the smoke about halfway back in the train?

Fantastic photo, love the Sierra.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

DGS Wrote:

> There were some old letters in the
> Sierra’s General Office which showed that in
> addition to the 38 they had also inspected a Long
> Bell locomotive at Tennent and (believe it or not)
> were in discussions with the Western Pacific about
> purchasing one of the 200 class mallets or the
> 334. For its part the SP told the Sierra that they
> would not handle either of these locomotives over
> the branch from Stockton to Oakdale.

Wonder if Santa Fe was equally uncooperative.  At least one of Sierra's new Baldwin diesels was delivered by Santa Fe.  Kirkland shot film of AT&SF GE 44-tonner #463 hauling SERA #40 up the branch from Riverbank to  Oakdale, where it was handed off to #38 to haul up to Jamestown.  Some of Kirkland's footage of this is in the new Catenary Video production "The Trains We Missed." (Full disclosure, I helped with the program but have no financial interest in it).

Here's another view of this same train taken a few seconds later and a few feet further to the left.  It's an uncredited duplicate slide from TO member mundo's collection.

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I appreciate Dave Sell's insight to the #38 on the Sierra.  Here is a shot of #38 arriving from Weyerhauser in 1952.  Guy Dunscomb took this photo of her at Oakdale as she arrived on June 28, 1952.

The second shot is also by Guy Dunscomb.  This is #38's firs break-in run on the Sierra in August, 1952.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/21 03:33 by LoggerHogger.

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It looks like both locomotives are "making smoke" for the photographers.  

Sierra 38 was in Jamestown shop for a full 5 months to straighten out all her problems.  This was January 1st to May 31st of 1953.  Engine saw very heavy use beginning June 1st thru December, 1953.