Steam & Excursion > Some Steam Crews Started Their Day Long Before The Sun Came Up!

Loggers have always been known for starting their days long before sunrise.  They are often in the woods early to beat the heat of later in the day.  Even today, the first loads leaving the landing by truck are often on their way just at sunrise.

Such was the case back in September, 1963 when Glenn Beier awoke early at Pickering Lumber Corporation's Soap Creek Pass Camp and captured this image of 90-ton Shay #33 being fired up in the pre-dawn hours for another day of working in the woods. 

On this day #33 will spend most of her time switching the yards as log cars are loaded with logs being delivered to camp by the fleet of Pickering log trucks.  Once the trains are assembled, the EMD diesel seen at the right edge of this photo will take the loaded train back to the mill at Standard, California.

Big Shays like #33 are impressive when working in the woods any day.  At night they are down right imposing!

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/21 03:44 by LoggerHogger.

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Nice photo!

On the subject of 'today' and log hauling by truck, it's not unheard of for a log hauler to start his day the night before!  It's all based on getting to wherever he is going (mill, export yard, etc) as early as he can get unloaded.  Most first loads leave the landing long before the sun comes up, even during the longest days of the year.  The use of operating lights on forestry equipment make log loading possible any hour of the day.  

Imagine chaining up in the ice and snow, at 2:30am on a nasty winter day!   

Martin:

Thanks for posting the photo. By the way the Stanislaus watershed is one of the top rated watersheds in California in terms of wildfire risk, which is a very dubious distinction. The Stanislaus watershed needs a lot of fuel thinning work done at a pace and scale far beyond anything proposed or even contemplated by US Forest Service or the State of California is proposing.

The early crew calls on the Pickering and the Westside were not just in the woods. As I recall, one of the later Westside timetables showed the first train of empties from "town" (Tuolumne) was at 1:00 am.

John Mills