Nostalgia & History > Sierra 2-6-6-2 #38 - Before She Was Famous!

I find it amazing that one of the most famous steam locomotives in the West spent her first of 3 "lives" in such obscurity.
Built for Weyerheauser Timber Co. in 1934 as #4 she was almost entirely overlooked in the first 18 years of her service years on the Klamath Falls branch of WTCo.. Even though she was the largest of the several mallets on the K-Falls logging line and very unique in her design, only a handful of railfans got photos of her on the West-side line of WTCo. for all those years. The company photographer did manage to catch her in a stunning scene in the spring of the late 1940's but they never identified which engine is in the photo.
In the late 1940's she was rebuilt in the Company shops only to be caught in the disastrous engine house fire at Camp 4 a few weeks later. From the photos I have of her being towed back to K-Falls, it is apparent that the damage was extensive. Even today her frame shows signs of the
straightening that was done both at WTCo. and later the Sierra to make her track properly.
Only when this engine was purchased by the Sierra RR in 1952 did get "discovered" by the railfan community. She was famous from the very start.
Guy L. Dunscomb made sure he was on hand when she first was delivered by the SP to the Sierra at Oakdale, CA in August, 1952. In this scene she is being cut-off from her delivery train for delivery to the waiting Sierra steamer to be towed to Jamestown for re-building.
Her fame continued to grow in her 3 short years on the Sierra and grow further in the 12 years she spent back hauling logs, this time for Rayonier in Washington State.
All in all, she is and amazing engine who has twice now barely out-lived the scrapper (unlike her only "sister engine" the #120 of WTCo). Lets all hope we see her steam again!

Martin

---

Are the rear drivers smaller than the front?

millerdc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Are the rear drivers smaller than the front?

They better not be. Are you referring to the cylinders? Then yes they are, given that 38 is a compound locomotive with high
pressure steam going to the smaller rear cylinders, then exhausting into the larger, low pressure front cylinders.
Driver diameter with new tires was 51".

Tom

Certainly agree that the west side of KF was very obscure. After reading Jack Bowden's book about the area I was amazed at how little I had heard of the many, many logging operations in the area. Good find.

Most of the Weyerhauser woods crew of the early 70's all had been around & worked with the steam including Don Huck, Tommy Thompson and Rusty Arnett. They liked the articulateds for that operation and didn't have much use for the 3T Heisler. Don Huck gave me the whistle off of 2-6-6-2T 7.

Tom

Tom,

Interesting you mention the Heisler. This is the former Shaw-Bertram Lumber Co. #3 that WTCo. picked up when they bought out thier timber lands.
I have over 10-years of Heisler records from thier West Coast distributor, The Whitney Engineering Co.. In those records I have the letters sent back from Ray Warnock, the mechanic that was sent by Whitney to "set-up" new engines. He spent WEEKS in Kirk, OR trying to get the center truck of #3 not to run hot. He returned 3 seperate times tof fix "issues" this engine had. Heisler had some real issues with the center truck of thier early 3-truck engines. I think WTCo. inherited the problems Warnock said he coule not fix.

Martin

A friend recently gave me some excerpts of some 1898/1899 correspondence between the McCloud River Railroad and Heisler/Stearns dealing with the many problems surrounding McCloud River #2, one of the first two 3-truck Heislers built. Nothing but problems...

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Jeff,

The fist 3-truck Heislers were clearly DIASATERS. My correspondence shows that. Unfortunatley, even the later versions had "issues".

Martin

It sure says something that 14 years passed between those first two and the next models to come along. Sounds like even that may not have been enough time.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

This was a long time ago...1971 or 72, but I do remember that Don Huck joked about Heisler's penchant for shedding parts while waddling down the ROW. I experienced this once myself in '72 when one broke an eccentric strap on a backup move.

Tom