It looks like 2-8-8T #37 might have a new home.

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tgears1@comcast.net

> It looks like 2-8-8T #37 might have a new
> home.
Isn't that a "Minarets" mikado? I always wondered what it was doing there anyway. Glad to see it coming back to the region it operated in, and hope that it'll be back in operation soon.

schwartzsz@juno.com

As to #37 being a Minarets mikado the answer is yes and no. The book "Rails to the Minarets" covers this topic. The name Minarets was given to the 2-10-2T locomotives that looked very much like the 2-8-2T. Later the name Minarets was applied to both types of locomotives.

#37 is a great old girl and I hope she ends up with a good home and a fire in her belly once in a while.

Tom Gears

What's left on the PALCO property? I guess Heisler No. 9 may still be displayed at Scotia, but what about the enginehouse, etc.? I believe the woods trackage was removed in the 1980s. PALCO was the subject of environmental protests for some years after the original owners (who reportedly cut selectively) were pushed out in a hostile takeover. The new owners were said to be clear-cutters, with little regard for the forest, which sparked the protests.

Two other PALCO engines survive, with 2-6-2 No. 29 at Eureka and 2-8-2 No. 35 in Nevada, last I knew.

http://photos.nerail.org/show/?bydate:4
ryarger@rypn.org

Not sure how much of this is company baloney and how much of it is truth, but here's the PALCO website:

http://www.palco.com/
ryarger@rypn.org

Apparently they have a company tour. Anyone been on it to check out the remaining RR facilities?

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/places/scotia.htm
ryarger@rypn.org

Quick question for the east!

Several months ago I drove south on 101 from Eureka and I believe I saw a string of ex-SP passenger cars in Scotia. Is this the same place and company?

v-scarpitti@att.net

Yes, That is Pacific Lumber, but not the same mill that has the tour. That one is just up the road. I visited both last Fall.

wyld@sbcglobal.net

The Timber Technology museum is primarily the brainchild of the Northern Counties Logging Interpretive Association, an auxillary of the California State Park System (Fort Humboldt State Park in Eureka to be exact). NCLIA has long proposed the establishment of a museum on par with the CSRM in Sacramento in the Eureka area to feature the history and technology of the timber industry in California. So far the state has shown almost no interest in setting such a museum up, so NCLIA formed a partnership with a couple other local civic organizations to get the museum proposal off the ground. They have been doing a lot of scoping and laying the groundwork. The most likely place for the museum (from what I have heard) is somewhere on the Samoa penninsula, and the tourist train is a proposal to both bring tourists into the area and as a way to connect the museum with the city of Eureka.

NCLIA operates the two small Marshutz & Cantrell 0-4-0T locomotives (Bear Harbor Lumber #1 and Elk River Mill & Lumber Co. #1) that are owned by the state and operated on a couple hundred feet of track built on the grounds of Fort Humboldt State Park. The group owns a number of steam locomotives directly related to North Coast history. The locomotives are:

Bear Harbor Lumber #2 (2-4-2T)
Hammond Lumber #15 (2-8-2)
Hammond Lumber #33 (3T Shay)
Arcata & Mad River #7 (2T Shay)
Pacific Lumber #29 (2-6-2)
US Plywood home-built diesel (built on the frame and trucks of a scrapped 2T Heisler).

The group also owns more than 20 ex-Palco log cars, one or two cabooses, some m-o-w equipment, and a UP Boxcar. All of this equipment is stored on some leased private ground in Glendale, CA adjacent to the former Arcata & Mad River r-o-w. The site is strictly off-limits to the general public (and even NCLIA members have to sign their life away to gain access).

I don't think anything from the Palco logging railroad is left in the Scotia mill complex other than maybe a building or two. Palco closed it's logging railroad operation in the early 1970's but decided to keep the equipment on hand should the company decide to re-use it in the future. In the very late 1980's/very early 1990's they decided that the logging railroad would not be used again and scrapping of all remaining equipment began immediately. The only equipment spared was the three GE 80-ton centercabs switchers; they were sold to new owners and stored in the Eureka Southern/North Coast Railroad yards in Eureka until moved out (two of them were on the Oregon Pacific railroad in the greater Portland area last I knew). NCLIA got their 20 or so log cars, and the Feather River Rail Society picked up two to go along with the two Baldwins they purchased from the Oregon & Northwestern railroad.

The SP Daylight cars stored in Scotia were originally brought onto the railroad for use in the North Coast Daylight tours over the Eureka Southern that were fairly popular from about 1985 through to about 1989 or 1990, when deteriorating track conditions forced suspension of the operation. The North Coast Railroad may have inherited the cars, as they used them on excursions held in the area (several Eureka-Fort Seward and return excursions were held in 1993-1994, and through about 1996 the cars would see use on limited excursions around Humboldt Bay). The cars were being vandalized heavily in the Eureka yars, so they were taken to Scotia where they continue to sit to this day.

Palco has almost completely pulled out of Scotia; they still have smaller mills in operation at Fortuna and Carlotta.

jamoore@elko.net

I for one will miss seeing #37. Don't get me wrong, I am glad it may be moved to it's old home and be restored AS A SADDLE TANK. It had it's saddle removed years ago, and sits on a siding in Marshallton, Delaware with an old Reading tender.

But #37 is like an old friend. I remember it sitting on a siding on the old Wawa and Concordville in Delaware County PA, when I was young. (This was a tourist line on an old Octoraro Railroad branch). I am 39 now, and we used to go there when my older brother was in cub scouts and ride behind 0-6-0 #3 (Now in Lewes Delaware. For any in depth questions on the Wawa and Concordville go to our resident expert on the matter, Kurt Bell.

Anyway, #37 followed me to Delaware and just knowing it is there (along with #3) has always been a comfort. I will miss her, but I am glad she will be restored where she belongs.

Paul

plc95@yahoo.com

Yeah, I'll miss the 37 as well. A lusty machine, but she kind of took the fun out of W&W's Hockessin Hill... the hill seemed no match for 37's T.E., unlike with 98! Hard to believe it's been, what Tom G.?, a decade since she last steamed. Glad to hear 37 has a shot at going home and has a chance at running again.

See the below link for a photo (I'm guessing c.1968) of the 37 operating on the Wawa & Condcordville RR. It was posted by Bill Waller on the railfan.net ABPR image archive.

Regards,
Jim Robinson


37 on the W&C

I found the W&W way too late to see #37 on the line. I'm glad to see I might someday get a chance to see it run somwhere.

> It looks like 2-8-8T #37 might have a new
> home.


acp19809@yahoo.com

Jim, thanks for the great picture!!!!!!
Do you know where on the W&C that is? It could be just approaching the Wawa terminus, and if it is, then the track to the left is the spur heading to WAWA tower. I never rode behind #37 on the W&C, only 3. It was a push pull operation, but 3 faced east, and went forward to Wawa, and backed up to the starting point. #37 always faced west when it was on a siding when I saw it there, so I imagine it always faced that way, so the picture would show the locomotive backing up towards WAWA.

Thanks

Paul


plc95@yahoo.com

When I was a teenager I volunteered on the W&W during the era of No. 37 (1987-1990). She was a chunky, powerful locomotive with a melodious SP 5-chime whistle and throaty stack talk. Even thought she burned oil, you'd swore sometimes the smell of bituminous was wafting about.

No. 37 came east from California in 1966 when she was purchased by Lawrence S. Myers of Springfield, Pa., founder of the Wawa & Concordville RR in Delaware County. He bought the locomotive from Frank Bayliss in Scotia, California; the engine had been rebuilt by PLCo. in 1956 and stored, so she was in very good condition at the time of purchase. The engine received some repairs at the PRR Wilmington Shops before venturing to Chester Tidewater Terminal and was maintained by PRR boilermaker Weldin V. Stumpf, a Wilmington veteran who also maintained Tom Marshall's iron horses at the nearby Wilmington & Western in the 60's. She was usually paired with an ex-RDG camelback tender used as a canteen. The ulitmate plan was to remove 37's saddletank and run her as a tender engine but this never transpired. She also powered the W&C's last trip in November 1968 before slumbering into hibernation until 1980. That year she was purchased by Melvyn "Skip" Small, a W&W volunteer, and moved it there. By 1987 her restoration was completed and with 98 down with a broken drypipe after a runaway incident, 37 became the primary motive power.

I'm glad to hear that "the California refugee" may again head west. She'll be back home like old times.

K.R. Bell

> I found the W&W way too late to see #37
> on the line. I'm glad to see I might someday
> get a chance to see it run somwhere.

A few notes about #37.

One side of her saddle tank was replaced at W&W. The steel came from the large natural gas storage tank that was located next to the Com. Barry Bridge.

She had a warped rear tube sheet that dated back to her days at PALCO. It was documented and inspected by both RR and Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance inspectors and approved for operation.

When we sandblasted the saddle tank we uncovered the old Pacific Lumber lettering.

The nuts on the steam dome were soaked everyday for a month with penetrating oil. When we went to open the dome we used a 3/4 inch drive breaker bar with a 10 foot cheater pipe to get them started.

There is a dent in the boiler drum from the spring rigging. Something ugly must have happened to put the spring rigging through a heck of a test. This is also from it's SPL or PALCO days.

Her running gear was in excellent shape and required little or no rework to run at W&W. Her boiler also did not get tubes but ran on extensions using the tubes from her days at W&C or maybe even PALCO?

She had a leaf spring replaced at W&W. Rear upper one on the engineer side. New one was made by the Chester Spring Works in Chester, PA.

The Reading tender was never used at W&W. We used a C&O tender #T-215. A tank from an old weed sprayer was cleaned out and placed in the coal bunker to add oil capacity. That has since been removed. She never ran without her saddle tank.

I hope this information is interesting.

Tom

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