Anyone Else Fascinated By Old Locomotives?

[LE BARON]

The date is July 7, 1915 and a small crowd of workers and on-lookers has gathered around Southern Pacific #2622 in the yards at Ashland, Oregon. They are inspecting the damage to #2622 following a collision she has clearly experienced.

There is plenty of activity in the background near the Ashland Depot as other trains are ready to depart. On the right we see the back of the brick Ashland roundhouse and then the huge oil tank that was needed to keep all these oil-burning steam locomotives fueled.

 

[LE BARON]

Beech Grove Shops
Supposedly around 1910. Engine in the foreground (Brooks 2401) appears to be having the port faces in the steam chest rescraped in order to get the valve sealing properly. Judging by the white paint above the pedestals on the frames the engine might also be getting re-trammed for squareness. A wonderful semi candid shot of a very much in use shop facility

 

[LE BARON]

 

[LE BARON]

Back in the early days of steam excursions, most all fans rode the trains rather than motorcade it as we see today. The availability of cars, gas and the crude roads of the day all attributed to most fans deciding to ride the trains in these early days.
Fortunately, for these fans, there was one trait peculiar to steam motive power that gave them the chance to stop for photos several times during any such excursion. That was the locomotive's constant need to stop for water to replenish it's tender before proceeding on. While only a few minutes long, the adventurous fan could quickly jump off the train he was riding with his folding camera and snap a photo or two of the train before the engineer would blow his whistle indicating all should be back aboard as they were departing.
We see just such a water stop on the NWP in the late 1930's with 4-4-0 #23 doing the honors on this fine day. One fan and his girlfriend have used this time to quickly explore the cab of #23 while our photo is taken by another passenger who has jumped off to grab this fine photo. All too soon, the tank will be full, the rods greased and the crew of #23 will signal they are ready to depart.

 

[LE BARON]

Richard W. Biermann stopped by the Weyerhaeuser Timber mill in Klamath Falls, Oregon on September 26, 1956 and he found WTC 2-6-6-2 #6 receiving some service on her throttle.

 

[LE BARON]

Photos of the 4 ALCO 2-8-2's of the Minarets & Western Railroad are difficult to find as the railroad folded in 1935 after only a few years of operation.
Here we see M&W #101 boarded up at the Southern Pacific roundhouse in Fresno. The SP had foreclosed on the M&W and would soon sell #101 and her three sister 2-8-2's.

 

[LE BARON]

 

[Dave91TM]

Beech Grove Shops
Supposedly around 1910. Engine in the foreground (Brooks 2401) appears to be having the port faces in the steam chest rescraped in order to get the valve sealing properly. Judging by the white paint above the pedestals on the frames the engine might also be getting re-trammed for squareness. A wonderful semi candid shot of a very much in use shop facility

View attachment 137222

Its a good thing this engine is here because, after that liquid lunch, standing up straight is not on the option list .

 

[LE BARON]

At the end of the steam era there were a fortunately few steam locomotives that found themselves donated to museums an to town parks in the area where they once operated. The dilemma was always how to get the heavy locomotive actually to the display site since most had no rail access. Here is how one such move was accomplished.

In the late 1950's Rayonier Inc. had brought Baldwin diesels to take over most of the logging chores on it's Clallam, Washington operation in Northwest Washington State. The meant the retirement of many of it's geared steam lokies. One of these retired at that time was Rayonier's big 3-truck Willamette #4 shown here. The company had decided, rather than scrap the locomotive, they would donate it to the nearby town of Port Angelas for display in a small park in the center of town.

This would require the locomotive to be loaded on trucks for movement to the rail-isolated display site. How to load the locomotive on the trucks was discussed with Rayonier's logging superintendent and this is what he came up with. Once #4 was given a fresh coat of paint for display, she was towed by rail up to the log reload site where heavy log loads were lifted off log trucks onto waiting railroad log cars by use of a huge "Hayrack" boom. Since there was a truck road already built next to the rail reload site, it was decided that the moving truck would be positioned there and the locomotive would be loaded on to the waiting truck by use of the same Hayrack that loaded log cars. The tender was loaded separately from the locomotive itself in this process. In this view we see #4 waiting for the arrival of the moving truck so the loading process can commence.

The move went well, and today #4 is still on display in Port Angelas as a testament to Rayonier and the logging history of the area

 

[LE BARON]

When the Southern Pacific opened up the Natron Cutoff in 1927 it did eliminate the steep grades and tunnels of the earlier Siskiyou line as the route from California to Oregon. However, even the new Natron Cutoff had it's challenges to SP train crews. The chief of those challenges was known simple as "The Hill".

This referred to the heavy climb up from Oakridge to Cascade Summit. The climb back from Crescent Lake, Oregon to Cascade Summit was not nearly as steep. SP crews knew they had their work cut out for them when the tried to tackle "The Hill".

Here we see Train #20, "The Klamath" has stopped at Crescent Lake before proceeding eastbound and up "The Hill". SP 4-8-4 #4431 is the power for The Klamath on this day. He is passing the freight train that day headed by Cab-Forward #4267.

Both crews have a few minutes to rest before they get back to the task of mounting the steep grades ahead

 

[LE BARON]

Classic Triple Mallet Locomotives Hauling 175 Hoppers Of Coal

 

[1st Vette]

Classic Triple Mallet Locomotives Hauling 175 Hoppers Of Coal

View attachment 137354

That's an impressively large fuel tank........

 

[Steve 67]

beautiful

Southern Pacific "Daylight".

 

[1st Vette]

This image captures a moment in time featuring the Bernina Express train operated by the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) traveling through the Swiss Alps.

The train shown is specifically a Stadler Allegra ABe 8/12 electric multiple unit, known for its ability to handle steep gradients on narrow-gauge tracks.
The scene is set near the Bernina Pass, which is part of the Rhaetian Railway's route that connects Chur, Switzerland, and Tirano, Italy.
This route is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its engineering marvels, including numerous bridges and tunnels.
The train service operates year-round, offering scenic views of glaciers and alpine scenery.

 

[LE BARON]

The Great Depression caused many older steam locomotives to be sidelined for the last time. These gallant old machines were parked waiting for the economy to improve but often that call never came before their tube time expired and they were deemed too old to invest a rebuilt in. Such was the fate of the engines we see here.

The date is September 1935 and our photographer has ventured into the Northwestern Pacific's yards in Tiburon, California. Here he has found parked in a line some of the original motive power for the NWP.

The first engine in line is one of the most notable of all parked here. She was erected by the Grant Locomotive Works in 1888 for the NWP predecessor line, the San Francisco & North Pacific Railroad. NWP #14 is part of the large fleet of 4-4-0's that once were the signature locomotive for the NWP as it ran from San Francisco Bay all the way to Eureka and back.

Unfortunately, the call back to duty for #14 and many of the other engines in the long line parked her on this sunny afternoon never would come. On September 26, 1936 #14 would be stricken from the NWP roster and would then be sold to a scrapper.

 

[LE BARON]

There are certain rail lines that had success so far beyond the dream of their original founders that they had the enviable job of needing to be rebuilt to handle the unexpected new traffic levels. This is one such line.

The Monarch Branch of the Denver & Rio Grand Western was originally built in the 1880's as narrow gauge as that was expected to handle all the traffic ever planned for that line. However, as the years went by and other portions of the D&RGW narrow gauge system in area around Monarch, Colorado dwindled, the shipments from the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company kept up in such heavy volumes that even when the rest of the Salida to Gunnison narrow gauge mainline was closed in 1956, the decision was made to standard gauge the Monarch Branch to keep it in service.

In this photo, taken in the early 1950's, D&RGW K-36 #483 leads a loaded train of narrow gauge gondola cars down the steep grade of the line before the conversion to standard gauge had begun.

Unfortunately, in the early 1980's the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company finally shut down which caused all traffic on the standard gauge Monarch Branch to cease and it was finally town up after nearly 100 years of operation.

 

[LE BARON]

Great Northern 2-10-2 #2124 stands at the ready at the GN enginehouse at Klamath Falls, Oregon in May, 1952.

 

[LE BARON]

On July 14, 1922 the Skagit Iron & Steel Works of Sedro Woolley, Washington turned out this Model 4-40 Rail Firecar for the Pacific States Lumber Company. She had 24" wheels and weighed 13,500#s with a 67-HP motor and 2,700#s tractive effert.

 

[LE BARON]

Canadian National No. 3254 and Canadian Pacific No. 2317 sharing the Steamtown Yard tracks with Rahway Valley No. 15 between them back in September of 2025.

 

[LE BARON]

Canadian National No. 3254 and Canadian Pacific No. 2317 sharing the Steamtown Yard tracks with Rahway Valley No. 15 between them back in September of 2025.