Folks, The Roots of Motive is a timber heritage preservation group in the Northern California town of Willits. They have gathered a growing collection of steam and Diesel powered logging equipment and also several pieces of railroad equipment from logging roads. Their web site gives a good rundown of their preserved equipment. It can be seen at www.rootsofmotivepower.com. They are one of the handful of places that has a Shay, a Heisler and a Climax. Their latest arrival is Wharehouser Lumber 2, a 2-6-6-2 Mallat steam engine.Ted Miles

Ted,Where did their latest acquisition, the 2-6-6-2 Mallet, come from?Ken

Ted, the only Malley I'm aware of at Roots is the "Skookum" (an even more unique 2-4-4-2), built for (and subsequently rejected by) the Little River Railroad and last serving the Deep River Lumber Company in Washington State. The locomotive is not owned by Roots (but to be kept there), rather by Chris Baldo...who purchased it from the Mt. Rainier. (whose shop force previously rebuilt his 2-6-2T, ex-Mason County Logging). Perhaps this is the engine you heard of?

You may be right, the engine I am refering to is one that chris wrote about in the last issue of their newsletter.He did not say if it was actually owned by the group or his property on loan to them.The important thing is that they now have a building to get stuff in out of the weather. That is the reason that the WRM decided to send the Robeort Dollar shay to them.Ted Miles

As I remember correctly (as I sometimes don't!), Roots payed a decent sum for the Shay from the Rio Vista group....They, on the other hand, received it as a donation from the SF Maritime Museum Association, needing only to arrange transportation on their dollar as I understand it.