Our group at Historical Museum of Fort Missoula, Missoula, Montana has been working on the restoration of Willamette Locomotive (c/n # 7, built 1923) originally Western Lumber Company # 3 at Milltown, MT in 1928 sold to Anaconda Lumber Company, Bonner MT as their # 7. As an early part of the process it was felt that a structure should be constructed to protect the locomotive and work completed.
This past winter a shelter was designed, in the “theme” of what the logging companies would have built. The permitting process was completed and our volunteer base raised the funds to construct the structure. As weather improved three weeks ago our volunteers started construction and yesterday, we finished except for the metal roof sheeting account of supplier delay. We are expecting sheeting to be delivered next week and will be installed upon arrival. The timbers were cut by a local saw mill with smaller boards cut by our volunteers on our saw mill at the Fort. All of the timbers were cut to size and trusses assembled on the ground by volunteers. A local contractor loaned us his Tower Crane and a couple of “high wire” guys help put up the structure which was completed on Friday.
We had a successful fund raiser this past winter, this part of the project has come in well under budget thanks to very generous local suppliers. Remaining funds will be diverted from the building to the locomotive restoration which is ongoing. Additional information can be found on the Fort’s Facebook Page under Groups for Steam Engine.
Larry Ingold
Project Coordinator
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Building Truss.jpg [ 221.52 KiB | Viewed 7773 times ] |