Well, it sure does exist. I found it. I will have plenty of photos and an article on my website in the next few days or so. I'll post back here when it's done.

There is a trail into the area, which also leads to several large partly collasped trestles. Once you reach the base of the incline, you follow the grade for a short ways until you locate the locomotive along the side of the grade. It appears to be a Climax, but much of it is missing.

The cab and rear 2/3rds of the boiler and the frame remains. I can't tell if the running gear under the frame is missing, because it's buried in dirt, but I think it is. The front part of the boiler and smoke box has been cut off with a torch and the pistons are missing. The steam dome has also been cut off for some reason. The boiler is almost completely empty. Someone cut out the tubes. Only the fire box and stay bolts remain. The cab is bare of any gauges and most controls. The johnson bar is still there, but that's about it. The rear fuel and water boxes are completely gone also. I can't tell if the frame rear of the cab was cut off or if it's just buried in dirt.

Basicly, there's just enough left to let you know what it was. The Forest Service doesn't seem to know what happened, but looking at the wreck it's pretty obvious. The cab is pushed way forward and bent all to heck from a major impact. The loco is pointing away from the incline and is located right next to the grade, about 1/4 mile down from base of the incline. It's obvious that the cables cut loose at some point and the loco ran down the incline, hit the bottom and continued a short ways before jumping the tracks and impacting a berm.

From the damage I saw, cab pushed forward and broken frame, I can see why they didn't bother to try to recover it. I'm guessing they salvaged what they could before they tore up the tracks and that probably accounts for some of what is missing. There were few roads into the area and lots of trestles on the line, making it not worth salvaging a decade later during WW2. Roads were built into the area in later decades, and I'm guessing some of the torching off of parts occured then.

Today it's about a 2 mile hike along a foot trail to reach the site.

I'll post some pics when I get my article finished. If anyone has any info on this locomotive, such as the build date or model, I would really appreciate it. The Forest Service seems clueless about it. They even told me it didn't exist when I inquired to them about it.

Brian;

I am sorry it has taken so long for this to sink in; but it finally has.

I realize now that this is the same locomotive that Wes Barris has listed as being abandoned at Marble Creek, ID, USA. He had a picture of it; it looked just like you descibed it in your picture. (It is not linked to that record on his website anymore.)

According to my records, it is a 48ton two-truck Climax, #916/1909. It was last owned by Rutledge Co.; and Izett Lumber before that.

I would be interested in a picture of it for a future update CD-ROM for my Surviving World Steam Locomotive Project.

Did you also find the Donkey Engine that Rumor Web reports may also be abadoned somewhere on the southside of the ridge?

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

I'm working on the article right now and I'm hoping to have it done by tonight. I'll post a seperate topic linking to it and the photos when I'm done.

We didn't hike to the other side of the incline. There is a bit of a rough road that allows you to drive to the top of the incline. We arrived after dark, but I didn't see anything of note at the top of the incline. The grade down either side was barely visible, lots of trees and brush, but no donkeys or tracks. Roads do exist on the south side of the incline, although I'm not sure if they are gated off, but I wouldn't expect much to be left over there.

At the north base of the incline is a bunch of cable buried in the dirt, which I assume was part of the incline cable system. Down the grade a ways is a giant steam donkey drum full of cable, and the frame parts of a donkey, but nothing else. Somebody definately scrapped that one out, but couldn't figure out to cut up the drum and haul it out, so they left it.

We did find an almost completely intact steam donkey abandoned in the woods, in the Hobo Creek drainage, which I also have pictures off. The nearest road is over a mile away and a moderately steep trail leads to it. Everything appears to be there, except for some small parts and gauges.

Brian (or anyone else)

I know you focus on abandoned equipment in the Northwest, but I was wondering if you could tell me anything about an abandoned shay supposedly located in a swamp near Port Gibson, MS. Reports say it's in a swamp, but I can't figure out where exactly it is.

Nobody knows where the Port Gibson shay is, though some have looked for it.

My understanding was that it was abandoned just before a flood. Was it washed into the Mississippi River, or buried in silt? No-one seems to know.

The location it was lost in was the vicinity of Entergy's nuclear plant near Vicksburg. I used to work for Entergy and have been to that plant; it is surrounded by marshy woods.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a
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