A question came up this past weekend at the Southern Forest Heritage Museum, where I put in some volunteer work on weekends. It really is in two parts.

First, How many wood burning steam engines are there in the US that are active on occasion. I can think of the Eureka, but after that, I am sort of lost.
The second was, of those active engines, how many are still serving on the original railroad for which they were built?

Any help would be appreciated.

Everett Lueck

The William Mason is steamed up a few days per year at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. It was built for the B&O in 1856 and still operates on the first mile of "commen carrier" railroad track in the United States.

I've fired the wood-burning Climax at Clark's Trading Post many years ago.......

I had heard that the William Mason was converted to an oil-burner and just burned (melted?) foam logs for show. Don't know if that's correct or not.

But it brings up a "splitting hairs" question for the original poster - many wood-burners were later converted to oil. Do you want to know about engines that were originally wood-burning, or that still burn real wood?

The Mason currently burns wood. Smells great too! Particularly compared to coal.

I am really only interested in actual woodburners, that still use wood for a fuel. As you say, many logging locos that were built as woodburners were converted to use oil and ended their days as oil burners. I am also trying to locate active woodburners. For instance, Louisiana Longleaf Lumber #7 is in storage at Reader, AR, but is not active, and is not on it's original rails. The William Mason then has to be the premier loco of a very small group!

Cool! Glad to hear that! I was a little disappointed when I had heard otherwise.

As I recall, the Shay at Hesston is a true wood-burner, and remains so:

http://www.hesston.org/

Makes for a fun ride, too. It really shows off the advantages of a Shay with how steep the grade is.

HI All

At Clark's trading post in Lincoln,New Hampshire,,you have Heisler # 4,

Climax # 6,, East Branch & Lincoln # 5 2-4-2T & Koppers Co. # 2 0-4-0T the

EB&L & Koppers only run for special event's..

Loon Mountain also in Lincoln , New Hampshire at the J.E. Henry Railway runs

a 0-4-0 only during winter,, as a ski shuttle,, see March issue 2009 of Railfan &

Railroad on article on Loon Mountain...

I hope this is of help...Pat.

The California State Railroad Museum has "Sweeny" from the Mattole Lumber Co. built by Vulcan in 1908. It recently ran at the Hillcrest & Wahtoke Railroad http://www.5inchsteam.8k.com/tf.htm in Reedley, CA for the annual Railfest that is held each October. I had the pleasure of operating this locomotive that weekend and she is truly a wood burner.

As I remember the William was indeed converted to oil but was converted back to wood during her most recent rebuild. Did she also burn coal? Might she be the only engine running that burned all three at one point or another?

Joshua

W. H. Eccles Lumber Heisler #3 at Sumpter Valley is a wood burner, isn't it?

Virginia And Truckee "Inyo" was also converted back to burn wood during its restoration in the 1980s and runs a few times a year at the Nevada State RR Museum.

Yes, SVRy #3 is definately a wood burner. The downside is, often, due to fire danger, it can't operate in the late summer!

Steve

Not only is SVRy Heisler # 3 a wood burner, but it always has been. Plus it started on the SVRy and was owned by the W.H. Eccles Lbr. Co. at the time. You're right in that we do not operate her much in the summer due to fire danger. She gets fired up during the Fall Foliage Photo runs in October.
dan

http://www.svry.com

Depends on how you define "running". Hasn't for a few decades now, but GENERAL burned wood, converted to coal after the post War reconstruction, converted to oil during the 1961 rebuilding (using Vapor Clarkson steam generator hardware). The coal grate is preserved in the old cotton gin in Kennesaw.

There's a lot of coal to oil conversions out there, but wood would appear to be the limiting factor in this set of criteria.

dave