Steam & Excursion > ID of old engine at Shinn (Fremont CA)

For many years there has been an old steam engine stored in the back of an old Alameda County maintenace yard in Fremont adjacent to the UP Niles Sub. Can anyone supply me with any info on this old locomotive. I believe it belongs to the Pacific Locomotive Assoc. I belong to the Pacific Bus Museum which also uses this same old Alameda County facility but know one really know anything about this locomovtive.

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It took me a while to find the steam in the picture. Sorry, I don't know anything about it.

The locomotive in the right corner of your photo is either former Pickering Lumber Corp. 3T Heisler 1 or 5, both of which are the same class & virtually identical & are now owned by PLA.
While the 1 has not operated since the mid-50's, the 5 ran @ Castro Point in Richmond from 1970 on for some years. I helped put her together with a bunch of friends.
I think it is classed as an 85 ton Heisler, has 18" by 16" cylinders, 40" drivers, 180 lbs. boiler pressure & 32,500 lbs. t.e. The 5 along with the 1, Heisler 10 & Shay 12 sat in Connel Bros. Trucking yard in Stockton from the late 50's to the late 60's. The 1 was taken to Monterey & sat on Cannery Row for many years before the owner donated her to PLA.

The engine in the corporation yard is Pickering No.1. Came from Monterey so frozen up the wheels won't even turn. Pickering No.5 is in the Fiberboard warehouse at Niles just north of this location and it runs.

Here is the Heisler #5, same engine I believe, under steam at Richmond, CA. in 1969. She had a train consisting of the Yosemite Valley Ry. RPO #107 and one or two coaches that day. She is shown here at the end of the line, near the toll plaza of the Richmond - San Rafael Bridge which is seen overhead. The tracks are the end of the Richmond Belt Line and were used by the owner for which the locomotive is lettered - Castro Point Railway (now the Niles Canyon RR).

I may have some better shots of her in color. If so they are slides and I will post them at some future date.

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Thanks for all the replies. We had heard rumors that there was a steam engine stored in that wherehouse across the street but could not get any confirmation on it.

Here the #5 does some switching about 100 feet away from my previous photo on the same day in 1969. And no, that's not the bridge above. It is part of the aggregates plant which the Pacific Locomotive Assocation (owner / operator of the CP Ry.) used to store some of its equipment.

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I'll make a corection on the date of #5's photo @ Castro Point. It is sometime after July 1, 1970 & not 1969. We didn't have her running until then. The ex-Sierra Ry. 2-6-2T 6 was used in 1969, but not the Heisler. Very nostalgic pics. Diesel to the right of the Heisler is the 44 ton G.E. that originally was an ATSF locomotive.

Nitehostler Wrote:
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> I'll make a corection on the date of #5's photo @
> Castro Point. It is sometime after July 1, 1970
> & not 1969. We didn't have her running until
> then. The ex-Sierra Ry. 2-6-2T 6 was used in
> 1969, but not the Heisler. Very nostalgic pics.
> Diesel to the right of the Heisler is the 44 ton
> G.E. that originally was an ATSF locomotive.

What's a year among friends? Actually it could have even been 1971, but other photos I had taken on the same roll suggested it was probably 1969. Sounds like you have kept some good records, so I have no problem with your date. Once I go through my slides and have some prints made, I should have some color from the late 1970s through the 1980s that may include this same engine. I do have other prints that show her, but not out in front, like when she was shoving the SP #1269.