Seldom found in 1918:
Pics of a steam locomotive in the year of manufacture in three different locations from different photographers.

Heisler c/n 1373 36ton for Spruce Production Division in Yaquina, OR
Built May 1918

1. Factory in Erie, PA
2. Arrival in Yaquina, OR
3. Operating in Lincoln County south of Yaquina, OR

What get my attention is the delivery on a T&NO (SP) flatcar.
Heisler Locomotive Works had direct rail access to the New York Central RR and the Pennsylvania RR.
Also New York, Chicago and St. Louis RR (NKP) go directly through Erie, PA just south of the factory.
It would be more logical to use a flatcar from one of these railroads?

My question - was in 1918 something like a national pool for special cars like it was for box cars?
Or did during USRA controlled rail operations nobody care and they take everything available on any location?

If that's the same locomotive in the same year, it sure didn't take them long to get the trucks apart and then mis-matched. They will operate ok like that, but most owners made an effort to skid the truck along until it would mate up with the shaft and have the side rods in the same position.

I had experience with this in the summer of 1970 at Castro Point on ex-Pickering Lbr. Corp number 5. All we had at night was a single incandescent light to work with, but a lot of sweating and swearing got the engine back together in time for a July 4th operation.

This is an interesting situation. The US government was directly involved in managing the harvest of quality spruce for use in the mass production of airplanes for Work War I.

But, what's interesting to me is that the loco is lettered for the Army Signal Corps and not the US Army Quartermaster Department, which was usually the proponent for railroad equipment and operations. I wonder why.

Thanks!

Curious if it had anything to do with supplying timber/maintaining cable and telegraph networks, like the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System. Spruce for aviation use could be a possibility, as until May 1918 all U.S. military aviation was run through the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps.

Since the Spruce Division was all wrapped up by the end of 1918 all three photos were most likely taken in that year. As to the TO&E flat car, the probably used the car that was available.

Sorry! That should be T&NO flat car. For the full story on the US Spruce Production Corp. read Soldiers in the Woods by Rod Crossley.

Car service rules called for a foreign road car to be loaded (preferably) and moved to or at least toward its owning road. T&NO was, of course, in Texas and Louisiana, but it was a SP subsidiary. This move to Yaquina Ore. took it to the SP in Oregon.

As to the Signal Corps, they need trees for telegraph poles.

Phil Mulligan

The Signal Corp's association with aircraft production goes back to their use of balloons as early as 1892. When aircraft became a hot topic, the Signal Corps were the only military branch in existence that had anything to do with flying. In 1907, under pressure from President Teddy Roosevelt, the War Department created the Aeronautical Division in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer.

In 1914, Congress created the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. Two years later the "Council of National Defense" was created which then established the Aircraft Production Board in 1917. Later that year the Signal Corps made some organizational changes, one of which created the Spruce Production Division on November 15th.

The complete story of the Spruce Production Division is convoluted and fascinating. I highly recommend "Soldiers in the Woods: The U.S. Army's Spruce Production Division in World War One" by Rod Crossley.

here is the wikipedia on the Spruce Production Division:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce_Pr ... n_Division

For the location where this Heisler operated the Army built a sawmill in Toledo, OR. After the war the sawmill goes to
1 Pacific Spruce Corporation (woods operation called Manary Logging Co.)
2 C.D. Johnson Lumber Co.
3 Georgia-Pacific Corporation
and is still there and operating.

The rail line to Toledo, OR (the former Southern Pacific Toledo Branch) is still there and busy.
Now operated by the Portland & Western RR (Genesee & Wyoming) out of Albany, OR via Corvallis, OR to Toledo, OR.
After leaving the outskirts of Corvallis that line is one of the most beautiful scenery possible.
I wondering why nobody serves this line with excursion trains from time to time?