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| Lost locomotives in California and Oregon? https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12761 |
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| Author: | bobyar2001 [ Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:51 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Lost locomotives in California and Oregon? |
From the rumorweb discussion list: "Okay, here are the rumors as I recall them. #1: There is a lost locomotive on the south bank of the Klamath River, overlooking the Klamath River Canyon. Report A: Oregon State Police Lieutenant, since deceased, told my brother he found this loco while out hunting. It was in the vicinity of Dorris and Topsy Grade, on the south side of the river, and you could see the canyon from where the locomotive sat. There were trees growing up next to the locomotive. Report B: A former Klamath Falls resident, who was also an avid hunter, gave almost the exact same description to me. He said it was a Baldwin rod engine and had trees growing up against it. He located the locomotive on a map, on a hill top overlooking Iron Gate reservoir, where there never was any sort of railroad. Haven't yet followed this lead, as I am pretty sure it is a dud. Report C: A former Dorris resident told my brother that when he was a boy in Dorris, he saw the locomotive. He said he was able to ride his horse there and back in a day. Report D: Bob Edgar, a prominent Dorris resident who collects railroad and sawmill junk, has scoured the region over a period of 40 years without finding a locomotive. He reports that it is a "confirmed rumor" with his tongue in his cheek. Either he knows where it is and isn't talking, or he thinks it is a bunch of moondust. Plausability: The Kesterson Lumber Co. built a line north out of Dorris into Oregon, and they projected a branch line around the Chicken Hill and down the Klamath River Canyon, which was partially built. I have followed this old grade as far as possible until I lost it due to modern road construction and heavy forest growth. It is possible, though unlikely, that there could be a loco back in there. The site near Iron Gate is completely unlikely location for a grade or a locomotive. Verdict: Existance possible but unlikely. #2: There is a logging engine on display at MacDoel, right by the highway. (Found in a publication on Lost Locomotives of North America) Variation: There used to be a logging engine alongside the highway at MacDoel, CA., but it has recently vanished. Some parts of the truck are still there (told to me personally by the USFS ranger at Goosenest Ranger Station). The Facts: Both rumors used to be true but no longer are. The Peppers-Cotton lumber Co. built a standard guage line from MacDoel, south of Meiss Lake, to the foot of the mountains. They then build a 30" tramway (the existance of which was forgotten until I personally discovered it about three years ago) from their mill site down to the railroad. They went bankrupt and sold the mill and railroad to the Standard Lumber Co., which extended the line in a half loop through the mill site and up the mountain to a logging chute. Peppers-Cotton evidently used an old 4-4-0 rod engine, and Standard Lbr. Co. inherited this and also put on a geared loco - probably a Shay. Years later, the Walker Hovey Lumber Co. built an extension south from the edge of the hills, up the mountainside. They used both the rod and geared engines. When they finished, the engines were parked in MacDoel, alongside the highway, and abandoned. A friend of Jack Bowden (author of Lumbering In Klamath, a book I recommend) photographed the two locomotive in MacDoel in 1937! He says that the next year when he went back, 1938, the engines had been scrapped. I have seen his pictures, and have no reason to doubt that this is the true story. Verdict: Once true, but engines scrapped in 1938, and the resulting rumors are just bad scholarship. #3 There is a locomotive - a Shay - near Grass Lake, California, that fell off a trestle into a canyon and was so badly damaged it was left where it lay. Variant A - the lost locomotive is on the northeast side of Goosenest Mountain. I haven't given up on this rumor yet, however, I have driven every road on Goosenest without finding any traces of a railroad grade on the northeast flank, and without finding a locomotive. Jack Bowden and I have gotten in on the old railroad grades behind Grass Lake and checked out quite a few of them, concentrating on ravines where the line might have crossed on trestles. We were unable to find any trestle sites, much less locos at the foot of them. However, there are a few branches we have not yet checked out. There is an interesting logging camp site on a saddle between the NE flank of Goosenest and the mountain to the south, and the possibility of grade there under the road, but it seems to end. The road continues on, but there would have had to have been an impossible trestle for the railroad to have continued on. Verdict: Possible, but unlikely. The geography of the country presents few opportunities for trestling. Most of the railroad grade is driveable, and has no trestle sites. There could be an obscure branch with a trestle site - and locomotive. If so, I have not yet found it... So, those are the three separate lost locomotive rumors regarding the Dorris area - pretty amazing to have three within thirty miles of each other. I noticed that on the rumorweb site that the three reports got scrambled into one entry, so I hope this clarifies things a bit. Of course, if anybody really knows where the locos are, I am willing to be shown! Lead me to them! To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rumorwebdiscussion/ |
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