I see they are shipping 2-6-6-2 from
Washington state to south Dakota for a rebuild to operations :) man rebuilt
Steam is everywhere
Sure, people love steam locomotives too much to let them all die.
May it always be so.
Your rightfire lock it seems to be a the year (s) of the steam loco.
Black Hills Central 110 (Weyerhaeuser Timber 110 - Baldwin, 1928)...
Future Black Hills Central 108 (Weyerhaeuser Timber 108 - Baldwin, 1926)...
110 is a split tank and 108 is a full saddle tank. Other than that they seem to be very close in all other aspects.
Is his the 2-6-6-2 that was stored at the Chehalis tourist railroad?
It was at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie.
Here is an interesting blog post from the museum about the topic.
http://www.trainmuseum.blogspot.com/2016/03/one-mallet-too-many.html
I suppose with 110 coming closer to the mandated 1472-day inspection time, the BHC needed to acquire another locomotive of equal power to continue to pull their longer trains while 110 goes through its rebuild.
What is a 2-6-6-2T tank steam engine anyway?
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Before the advent of modern truck and off the road caterpillar drive vehicles - bulldozer, shovel etc. - the small industrial railroad engine was the "industrial prime mover" for much of the mining and logging operations in the back woods and wilderness of America.
Small industrial steam engines were used about everywhere and many survive today. The 2-6-6-2T logging engine was simply two 2-6-0 locomotives joined to form a "coupled power set up" - called the Mallet or Articulated locomotive design.
One engineer could then control the power of two MU'ed steam locomotives operating under one engineer, one boiler, one firebox and with one set of controls. The saddle tank mounted on and over the engine boiler eliminated the need of a locomotive tender with water and oil fuel.
This is what the Weyerhaeser lumber company logging steam engines were - heavy back woods industrial power designed to run on small rail rough trackage at low speeds.
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In World War I many such small narrow gauge railroad steam locomotives were used by the military in combat. They ran throughout the battlefields of Europe hauling amunition, food, and soldiers because the trucking and caterpillar tank designs were not yet developed. The small industrial railroad steam locomotive was the high technology of the time 1913 -1920 the great age of the steel wheel on the steel rail of modern transportation.
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It's nice to see an engine such Weyerhaeuser #110 or #108 restored to run again!
Doc
SealBook27 ... how is it possible to operate such a large locomotive in this configuration?
Runs like any other locomotive that carries its water over the boiler (for convenience -- logging engines don't do well with unpowered tenders, or back up with them easily on typical trackage -- or for additional adhesive weight). Note the difference in tank size, and location, between the two locomotives: the smaller tank is roughly over the longitudinal center of mass, so the weight distribution won't change much as the water is used up, and on grades the water in a partly empty tank won't 'slosh' as much to the low end.
Visibility is of course not as good with the tank there, but probably not much worse than a similar 0-6-0 (the forward engine hinges out and doesn't block the sightline much)
Very large tank engines were built overseas, and I suspect some large American 'pusher' engines could have been built as tank engines if clearances had permitted...
Here are a few shots of 110 in action - per Steamlocomotive.com, it is standard guage, 44 inch drivers, 200 PSI, 42,517 lbs tractive effort and 4.94 factor of adhesion - good for that 4% grade on the Black Hills Central Line...
Not the prettiest locomotive around but I'll bet it sure can PULL!
If the fuel bunker wasn't so big it would almost look a little "Cab-Forward-ey" running in reverse.
You can definitely hear them leaving town, especially at Hill City where they parallel the main drag for a ways before turning east to get over the hill to Keystone. It is real steam railroading!
kgbw49,
Weyerhaeuser Timber Company owned two logging mallets with road number #110. The first one was built in 1928 (CN60561) and went to the WTCo Vail opertation. The second one was built in 1937 (CN 62064) and went to the WTCo Longview operation. The first locomotive was smaller (229,000 lbs, TE of 38,000 lbs) than the second (247,000 lbs, TE of 43,000 lbs). It is the first locomotive that is currently at the Black Hills Central Railroad (the second is at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo, CA). Unfortunately, the photo you posted is for the second WTCo #110 and not the one at the Black Hills Central Railroad. One way to spot the two is the front corner of the tanks. The first #110 has squared corners and the second #110 had (the tanks on the second #110 have been removed and replaced with a tender) "clipped" corners as shown in your photograph.
GYModeller
GYModeller - thanks for the information - I did not know that.
How does this one look?...
I believe that this is the original WTCo #110 that was at Vail, WA. The only "issue" I have with the image is the statement that it is at "Headquarters Camp", which is the name for the base camp on the Longview operation.
Firelock76 Not the prettiest locomotive around but I'll bet it sure can PULL!
As they say, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, to some of us, that is a prettier sight than the 611. But then I love any steam that says(or used to say) Weyerhaeuser Timber on it's side (even if it doesn't have a "Tender Behind" )
Doug
May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails
Challenger, I won't argue esthetics with you, this is a "big tent" with room for everyone.
In fact, let me pass along a bit a wisdom I got from a friend years ago...
"The racehorses may have gotten the glory, but it was the DRAFT horses that built this country!"
So true, so true.
Here is a short video of 110 in operation - a little over 4 minutes. It starts out with 42 seconds of GP9 63 pulling the first train in the morning, but all trains after that are hauled by 110.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_wDrEGJpts
Here is 110 in 2015 - about a 5:30 minute video. It includes footage rolling "cab forward", filling the tanks, and hitting the grade out of Hill City. It tells a good story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lonmaxco77Q
this is awesome!!!!! we will have 3 2-6-6-2t,s running in america!!!!! now what is gonna happen to the 2-6-2 no.7 or the 2-6-2t 104? and is the twin to 104.. the 103 gonna be restored? if not... are they considering to give the south dakota railroad museum an engine to run? as a former resident of that state for 12 years this makes me happy for the state and tourist railroad i loved.
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