SHAY LOCOMOTIVES

Bloedel Stewart & Welch No.1

Technical Data:

• Catalog designation: Class “B” Code Word “Balloon” (42 ton 2-truck)
• Weight in working order: 42 tons.
• Built: 1911, as c/n (construction number) 2475.
• Cylinder dimensions: 10x12.
• Boiler-pressure: 180 pounds per square inch.
• Hauling capacity on straight level track: 2070 tons
• Gauge: standard (56.5 inches)
• Fuel: wood.
• Braking system: Lima steam engine-brake (later fitted with air train-brakes).

History:

• Bloedel, Stewart & Welch was formed in 1911 by US lumberman Julius Bloedel and railway contractors John Stewart and Patrick Welch. Bloedel was attracted to BC by the availability of timber and pending relaxation of US import duties on Canadian lumber. The partnership proved sound, as Stewart and Welch quickly secured the company a 40 million board foot (1800 car load) contract to supply materials for construction of the Grand Trunk Railway between Edmonton to Prince Rupert. A similar contract was issued in 1912 for the first phase of construction of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway from Vancouver to Prince George.
• BS&W’s first logging operation was at Myrtle Point, near Powell River, for which the Shay was purchased new from the Lima Locomotive Works and assigned road number 1. At that time, wood was the standard fuel and 42 tons was large for a logging locie. This was also the era before air brakes were mandatory - when logging locomotives commonly had steam brakes and the detached trucks on which the logs were transported, had only hand brakes that were set by brakemen, in accordance with locomotive whistle signals from the engineer.
• By 1925, BS&W had purchased and was logging extensive holdings of prime timber in the Union Bay, Menzies Bay and Alberni areas on Vancouver Island. No.1 worked at the Menzies Bay, Great Central Lake and Franklin River operations. By 1937, when No.1 was transferred to the Franklin River Camp, 42 ton wood burners had been supplanted by larger oil burning engines, so No.1 was relegated to bull-cook (light) duties and saw very little service.
• Following the amalgamation of BS&W and H.R. MacMillan Export, creating MacMillan & Bloedel Limited, No.1 was taken to Vancouver in 1953 in preparation for sale to Philippine interests. When the deal fell-through, the locomotive was sent to the company’s Chemainus Division, where it was lettered as M&B No.1. Destined for scrapping, it was purchased by local lumberman and museum founder, Gerry Wellburn, as the first item of a large personal collection that evolved into the Cowichan Valley Forest Museum in 1964. The engine was put on display at the museum entrance in 1966 and remains there still.
• Toward the end of its working life, the veteran locomotive was known affectionately as “The Old One-Spot” and “The Last Of The Wood Burners,” NB: The “Spot” referred to the dot painted to the lower right of locomotive road numbers, and which loggers referred to as a “spot” and included with the number when speaking of a locomotives.
• The Old One-Spot’s working life spanned many evolutions in BC logging – the era of steam power, the introduction of high-lead yarding and duplex-loading (at Myrtle Point) and the use of chain saws and hard hats (at Franklin River).
• Julius Bloedel seems to have had a special affection for his “Old One Spot,” which may explain why it was never sold, scrapped or converted to burn oil. His final years were spent in the company of No.1’s bell, which was loaned to his family.

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Hillcrest Lumber Company No.1

Technical Data:

• Catalog designation: Class “B” Code Word “Bay” (24 ton 2-truck).
• Weight in working order: 59,700 pounds. *
• Built: 1920, as c/n 3147.
• Purchase price: $14,428.
• Cylinder dimensions: 8x8.
• Boiler pressure: 160 pounds per square inch.
• Hauling capacity on straight level track: 1193 tons.
• Gauge: narrow (36 inches). (was standard gauge)
• Fuel: (currently) fuel oil.
• Braking system: Westinghouse (air).

* Code Word “Bay” Shays constructed in this period were considerably heavier than their nominal weight of 24 tons. Shays tended to get heavier in later production, due to buyer-selected options, sometimes requiring an upward re-classification.

History:

• The Hillcrest Lumber Company was founded by Carleton Stone, a British merchant mariner who came to BC to escape the hardships of life at sea. Entering the lumber trade as a sawmill labourer, he learned the business from the ground up. In 1917 he established the HLCo in the Sahtlam District, 4 miles west of Duncan on the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway’s newly constructed Cowichan Lake Sub-Division.
• By 1920, the post World War I building boom and Stone’s attention to the requirements of the British construction industry had increased business beyond the capability of his small homemade gasoline locomotive. He decided to buy a new Shay, but the only suitable one available was a narrow gauge model that had been constructed for dealer stock. Lima converted the locomotive to standard gauge in order to meet the rush order. NB: In 1920, a Class-24 (nominal weight of 24 tons) locomotive was considered to be in the correct size range for smaller operations such as Hillcrest Lumber, and narrow gauge logging railways were about to be prohibited by the Department of Railways.
• No.1 was converted from wood to fuel oil and served the company until the purchase of a larger locomotive in 1931. In 1934 it was sold to McNeil and Munn (later Export Lumber Co.), 2 miles down the track, as their No.1.
• In 1943, the locomotive was sold to the Mayo Lumber Company, which operated a used locomotive business. It then sat idle until 1947, when it was sold to the newly formed Osborn Bay Wharf Company, a consortium of mill owners (lead by Hillcrest Lumber Company), which operated a deep sea dock served by the E&N Railway’s Crofton Spur. While at Crofton, the locomotive was fired with coal.
• In 1963, the dock’s lease expired and No.1 was sent to Hillcrest Lumber’s new operation at Mesachie Lake to be converted back to narrow gauge and oil firing, for donation to the soon to be opened Cowichan Valley Forest Museum.
• The locomotive is currently out of service, pending boiler work.
• Two versions of the locomotive have been manufactured in HO Scale. The standard gauge version is known as the “Hillcrest Shay” and the narrow gauge version as the “Cowichan Shay.”

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Mayo Lumber Company No.3

Technical Data:

• Catalog Designation: Type “B” Class 50-2 (50 ton 2-truck).
• Weight in working order: 121,000 pounds (standard class weight 105,200 pounds).
• Built: 1924, as c/n 3262.
• Purchase price: $16,291.
• Cylinder dimensions: 11x12.
• Boiler pressure: 200 pounds per square inch.
• Hauling capacity on straight level track: 2770 tons.
• Gauge: standard (56.5 inches).
• Fuel: wood (later converted to oil).
• Brake system: air (Westinghouse).

History:

• The Mayo Lumber Company was formed in 1917, by a group of Sikhs from the Punjab region of India. Management rested with Mayo Singh and Kapoor Singh (unrelated). Kapoor was the only shareholder who could speak English. Like Hillcrest Lumber, Mayo Lumber was known as being a good company to work for. Both companies had large numbers of Chinese, Japanese and East-Indian workers.
• The company operated railway logging operations and sawmills at Paldi (originally Mayo) and at Kapoor. The Mayo Sawmill was on the E&N Cowichan Sub. near the Hillcrest Lumber and McNeill and Munn sites. The Kapoor Lumber Company mill was on the CNR line at Sooke Lake, now part of the Greater Victoria Watershed. Shay No.3 worked at Kapoor between 1928 and 1940. In 1942, Lake Logging bought the company’s Meade Creek timber holdings and Paldi sawmill. No.3 was leased to Lake Logging to service the Paldi mill from 1942 until 1945, when a fire at Lake Logging’s Rounds Camp destroyed 27 million board feet of felled and bucked timber, ending the surplus of logs that had been sent to Paldi for milling. Most of the Paldi employees then transferred to Lake Logging’s large new mill at Honeymoon Bay.
• No.3 was on display at Paldi until 1967, when Rajindi Mayo donated it to the Cowichan Valley Forest Museum, in memory of Pioneer Lumberman Mayo Sing.
• In 1995, No.3 was restored to operation by museum staff and volunteers for temporary loan to the (then) Kettle Valley Railway Historical Society. The boiler was converted to burn fuel oil at that time, but the Radley-Hunter stack was left on for appearance sake.
• No.3 was the first Shay in BC to use superheated steam. It also featured an enclosed steel cab, cast trucks and a girder frame. What was not modern was its use of wood as a fuel. Mayo favoured wood because plenty of slab wood was available from his sawmills, labour was plentiful and cheap and the hauls were relatively short. On an average day, the boiler consumed approximately 8 cords (1024 cubic feet) of wood.

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CLIMAX LOCOMOTIVES

Shawnigan Lake Lumber Company No.2

Technical Data:

• Catalog designation: Horizontal Style “B” Code Word “Card” (25 ton 2-truck)
• Weight in working order: 25 tons
• Light weight (no water or fuel): 23 tons.
• Built: 1910, as c/n 1057
• Cylinder dimensions: 10x12.
• Boiler pressure: 160 pounds per square inch.
• Hauling capacity on straight level track: 1250 tons
• Gauge: standard (56.5 inches)
• Fuel: wood

History:

• Shawnigan Lake Lumber operated a sawmill on the E&N Railway at Shawnigan Lake, between 1889 and 1943, when the company was acquired by H.R. MacMillan Export. Logging methods progressed from ground lead yarding, to a 6-foot gauge pole railway using first horses, then a homemade wooden locie and then a 15 ton Style “A” Climax (Betsy), then to a standard gauge railway, starting in 1905.
• No.2 was purchased when increasing hauling distance and production rate could not be met by No.1. Similar circumstances resulted in the locomotive being sold to Sahtlam Lumber in 1922, when a 70-ton Climax (2nd No.2) was purchased to work with Betsy. In 1924, No.2 was sold to nearby Channel Logging, on the CNR, 5 miles south of the community of Lake Cowichan.
• In 1929, Channel Logging encroached on timber owned by Cameron Lumber, and the locomotive was held as collateral at Cameron’s camp, just off the CNR at Deerholme, 3 miles west of Duncan. When the Great Depression caused both operations to close in 1930, No.2 was abandoned in the wilderness, until Duncan resident Granger Taylor plowed a road through one-half mile of forest to rescue it in 1969. By then the locie was in a sad state – the wooden cab having rotted-away, its trucks and drive shafts missing and trees were growing through its frame. NB: The trucks reportedly were salvaged by Hillcrest Lumber, during World War II, for use on company speeders.
• Taylor restored the engine to operation at his residence (known as the “Sleepy Hollow Museum), using freight car trucks and industrial power transmission components. In 1973, his interest had switched to airplane construction, and No.2 was sold to the provincial government, which at that time was interested in the preservation of historical artifacts.
• Following further restoration at British Columbia Forest Product’s Caycuse Camp, No.2 toured the province between 1975 and 1979 as a working display on a flat car of the (then) Provincial Museum’s museum train. Since 1980, it has been on display at the (now) BC Forest Discovery Centre.
• As well as being one of only two authentic Climax locomotives preserved in Canada (both at the BC Forest Discovery Centre), No.2 features the T-shaped, square firebox type boiler typical of early Style “A” and “B” Climaxes.

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Hillcrest Lumber Company No.9

Technical data:

• Catalog designation: Style “B” Code Word “Cass” (50 ton 2-truck).
• Weight in working order: 50 tons.
• Light weight: 44 tons.
• Built: 1915 as c/n 1359.
• Cylinder dimensions: 13x16.
• Boiler pressure: 180 pounds per square inch.
• Hauling capacity on straight level track: 2500 tons.
• Gauge: standard (56.5 inches)
• Fuel: oil.

History:

• Purchased new by the M.D. Olds Lumber Company of Birch Michigan, No.9 spent time with the Alberta Lumber Company (Vancouver), McNair Timber (Queen Charlotte Islands), the Canadian Robert Dollar Lumber Company (Courtenay area), Abernethy & Lougheed Logging (Port Haney area of the Fraser Valley) and Scottish Palmer Logging (CNR line, 10 miles south of Lake Cowichan), before coming to Hillcrest Lumber as No.2.
• When the timber supply at Sathlam was exhausted in 1942, the operation was moved from Wheatley to Mesachie Lake, over E&N trackage to Lake Cowichan and then 3 miles to Mesachie Lake over the Victoria Lumber & Manufacturing Company’s Robertson River Railway.
• To avoid confusion with other logging engines using VL&M trackage, No.2 was renumbered No.9. When railway logging at Mesachie Lake ended in 1949, No.9 became a backup to No.10, a newer 70-ton Climax that switched the mill and interchanged freight cars with the E&N terminus at Lake Cowichan, until the mill closed in 1968
• Hillcrest Lumber’s Stone Family donated No.9 to the (then) Cowichan Valley Forest Museum in 1968, where it was on outdoor display until 1989, when it was moved to a newly constructed locomotive shed and restored to operation by Museum staff and volunteers for RailFair 91 at Sacramento, California.
• For a number of years, No.9 was steamed-up on special event days and run up and down a very short length of standard gauge track. It remains in operational condition, but has not been certified in recent years, due to budgetary and other constraints.
• Although Climax switched from Stephenson link to Walschaerts valve gear in 1915, No.9 is fitted with the former. As the only operational (authentic) Climax in Canada, and one of a very few in the world, No.9 is a rare locomotive and a very important component of the BC Forest Discovery Centre collection.

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VULCAN LOCOMOTIVES

Cowichan Valley Railway No.24 (Susie)

Technical Data:

• Designation: Class C-4, 0-4-0ST (saddle tank).
• Weight: 12 tons.
• Built: 1900 as c/n 916.
• BC Dept. of Railways registration # 124.
• Boiler pressure: 150 pounds per square inch.
• Hauling capacity on straight level track: 682 tons.
• Gauge: narrow (36 inches).
• Fuel: originally coal - now oil).
• Original braking system: steam
• Original coupler type: link and pin.

History:

• Designed for mine service, CVR No.24 originally had a short stack, no dome and a low cab (flush with the saddle tank). Saddle tanks increase adhesion and shorten engine length by eliminating the tender.
• The locomotive was sold new as Pittsburg Eastern No.12, by the W.H. Mussens Co., of Montreal. In 1920, it was sold to Crow’s Nest Pass Coal, in Fernie, as its second
  No.9. CNPC sold it to Elk River Colliery (also in Fernie) as its second No.4, in 1926.
• While at Elk River Colliery a balloon-stack was installed and the wooden cab was replaced with a metal one, by a British engineer, who incorporated the porthole-type
  windows, used on British railways.
• In 1958, No.4 was saved from scrapping when Gerry Wellburn purchased it to be No.24 on his fledgling Glenora & Western Railway in Deerholme. In preparation for use on the GV&R, the loco was converted from coal to oil and a tender was added to carry the fuel oil tank, making it a 0-4-0-STT.
• In its present configuration, No.24 is very similar to the historic “Winnetonka,” the first locomotive of the Northern Pacific Railway, purchased in 1870 and now preserved
  as NPR No.1. From 1895 to 1948 the Winnetonka hauled logs for Polson Logging at Gray’s Harbour WA.
• Named “Susie,” in honour of a former conductor, No.24 has been out of service since 1989, in need of boiler repairs.

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Cowichan Valley Railway Locomotive No.25 (Samson)

Technical Data:

• Designation: Class C-6, 0-4-0 ST.
• Weight: 18 tons.
• Built: 1910, as c/n 1549.
• Cylinder dimensions: 10x16
• Boiler pressure: originally 140 pounds per square inch – now 150 psi).
• Hauling capacity on straight level track: 95 tons.
• Gauge: narrow (36 inches).
• Fuel: originally coal – now oil.

History:

• Samson was sold new to Grant Small & Company, a construction contractor based in Leavenworth and Spokane WA, as their No.25. S.S. Magoffin Construction purchased the locomotive from the Vancouver Machinery Depot in 1920 and used it to construct Great Northern Railway (now CNR) grade through the Fraser Canyon and then to transport fill for the construction of North Vancouver harbour facilities.
• On completion of the North Vancouver job, in 1926, No.25 was overhauled by Vancouver Machinery Depot, where the boiler’s lap-seam joint was replaced with a butt-strap joint, allowing the allowable steam pressure to be raised to 150 psi. Major boiler repairs completed in 1998 by museum staff, saw a welded barrel installed.
• The locomotive saw little service after the overhaul and was facing the scrappers torch when purchased by Gerry Wellburn in 1955, becoming first G&WR then CVR No.25. To satisfy the BC Forest Service, No.25 was converted to burn oil for operation at Deerholme. The tender needed to carry a fuel tank also carries a water tank and duplex-pump for fire fighting purposes.
• No.25 is very similar to “Old Curley,” the first logging locomotive used in BC.
• Named “Samson” (after the Hebrew judge of mythical strength), No.25 received a major overhaul recently and should be good for many more years of service pulling the BC Forest Discovery Centre’s passenger train.

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PLYMOUTH LOCOMOTIVES

Cowichan Valley Railway Locomotive No.22

Technical Data:

• Designation: 4-wheel, Model DLC6
• Weight: 8 tons.
• Built: 1928, as c/n 3048.
• Powered by: Climax “Trustworthy” 90 horsepower gasoline engine.
• Gauge: narrow (36 inches).

History:

• Purchased new by Bishop Buckingham for use in Quebec. Sold in 1929 to the BC Cement Company as No.4 worked the Bamberton Cement Plant until 1938 and then at Blubber Bay on Texada Island before being sold it to Capital Iron in 1953. Capital Iron used it at its Victoria harbour salvage yard until 1957, when it was sold to Gerry Wellburn, becoming G&WR No.21 and later CVR No.22.
• No longer operational, it had been coupled to a water tanker and kept on standby for fire fighting purposes.

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Cowichan Valley Railway Locomotive No.23 (Sandy)

Technical Data:

• Designation: 4-wheel, Model DLC6
• Weight: 8 tons.
• Built: 1924, as c/n 1894.
• Powered by: Climax “Trustworthy” 90 hp gasoline engine.
• Gauge: narrow (36 inches).

History:

• BC Department of Railways inspection certificate shows it undergoing its first inspection at BC Cement Company’s Blubber Bay operation on December 15, 1950, as locomotive No.1. This railway operation closed in 1953.
• It later became G&WR No.23, then CVR No.23.
• No longer operational.

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Cowichan Valley Railway Locomotive No.26 (The Green Hornet)

Technical Data:

• Designation: 4-wheel, Model Tl2.
• Weight: 10 tons.
• Built: 1928, as c/n 2856.
• The original gasoline engine was replaced by a 4-cylinder Hercules diesel engine, which has in turn been replaced by a Buick 340 cu in, V-8 gasoline engine.
• Gauge: narrow (36 inches).

History:

• CVR No.26 was purchased new, as No.3 of the British Columbia Electric Railway Company, for use at Victoria and after 1940, at Jordan River. The BCER, an arm of the BC Electric Company (now BC Hydro), built a narrow gauge railway in 1909, to construct the dam and transmission lines of its Jordan River hydroelectric power plant. Until 1970, 6 miles of railway was operated to access and service the dam site.
• In November of 1970 the locomotive was purchased from the Nelson Machinery Company of North Vancouver, with funds donated by the late Timothy Eaton of Eatons Canada, as a good, reliable backup to the steam locomotives.
• Named the Green Hornet by railway staff, No.26 serves as the railway’s work engine and alternate passenger train engine.

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WESTMINSTER IRON WORKS “HANDY ANDY” SPEEDER

Crown Zellerbach Canada Crew Speeder (CVR No.27)

Technical Data:

• Description: 8-wheel, model “Handy Andy” crew speeder.
• Built: 1940
• Gauge: narrow (36 inches).
• Current engine: Ford 360 cu in V-8.

History:

• CVR No.27 was speeder No.6 on the BCER Jordan River railway. Records show it was a Westminster Iron Works “Handy Andy” design built to BCER specifications.
• Following closure of the railway, it came to be owned by Crown Zellerbach, likely acquired specifically for donation to the (then) Cowichan Valley Forest Museum. After a re-work at the BC Forest Service Maintenance Depot, at which time it was converted from 4 to 8 wheels, it was donated in July of 1974.
• This speeder is typical of those used in the later years of railway logging to transport workers and materials to and from job sites. In the case of the more remote camps, they also transported workers and their families between camp and town. Capable of speeds of up to 45 miles per hour, they were much faster and more comfortable than hitching a ride with the usually slow moving log trains.
• Many logging speeders were built to Department of Railway standards at the company repair shop, by the camp master mechanic. While most service was as a railway bus (crummy) and ambulance, some also worked as light locomotives.
• No.27 is operational and supplements the passenger train on busy days during the open season and transports special groups during the off season.

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WHITCOMB LOCOMOTIVE

British Columbia Forest Products No.9

Technical Data:

• Specification: 80-DE-7-B (80-ton, 0-4-4-0, Double Power Plant Diesel Electric).
• Weight: Light – 157,000 pounds Fully loaded: 161,000 pounds.
• Built: 1943, as c/n 60634.
• Engines: 2 Buda Model 6-DCS-169 (Supercharged), 325 hp each at 1200 rpm.
• Generators: 2 Westinghouse Model 197-A – Railway Type. 305V, 650A @1200 rpm
• Motors: 4 Westinghouse Type 970-A Railway Type. 300V, 180A.
• Dimensions: Length – 43’ 2” Width – 9’ 10” Height – 14’ 0”
• Maximum tractive effort: 53,330 pounds (Hauling capacity 6660 tons).
• Maximum speed: 40 miles per hour.

History:

• Built for USA military service in WWII. It is believed to have been intended for duty in North Africa, but was not sent due to early victory in that campaign. NB: Most USA military locomotives sent overseas were coal fired – except for those intended for North Africa or Italy, where coal was not readily available.
• Worked the Oakland Naval Supply Depot as US 65.00342, road number 9.
• Purchased by BCFP from the Pan-American Engineering Co. of Dallas TX in August of 1956, for use at the Crofton Pulp Mill. The locomotive had been declared surplus and was being stored at Oxnard CA. A larger than normal mill switcher was required due to the steep grade between the deep-sea dock and the mill.
• No.9 served the mill until increased production and heavier freight cars required more power and it was placed on standby service in 1985. In 1989 it was donated to the (then) BC Forest Museum.
• The original Buda engines were replaced with Cummins L1-600s, which were in turn replaced by Caterpillar 353s.
• No.9 is significant in that it represents the change from steam to diesel power in BC’s pulp and paper industry railways. BCFP had 4 Pacific Coast Shays, 2 Climaxes and a West Coast Special Heisler available as surplus from its logging operations, but chose to make the change to diesel power. As still remains common, the company chose a used diesel-electric locomotive over a (more costly) new one.

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Wayne Nolan