This is a rather unique locomotive. By design, an earlier unsaturated mallet logging steam engine. But really what makes it unique is it’s story. Built in 1909 for a Tennessee logging railroad, it was deemed unsuitable and sold to the Columbia River Belt Line Railway and given the moniker of “Skookum”. The Skookum worked for years in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, but in 1954 it derailed an rolled in to a creek. It was left there to rust away, but a determined railfan bought the unfortunate locomotive from the insurance company, and with several friends, they took it apart and brought it to the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie Washington. There it sat for decades, until the owner passed away. It was sold and moved in pieces to the Mt Rainier Scenic Railway shops in Mineral WA, where it again sat for a very long time until the second owner also passed away. Not that long ago, it was purchased by Chris Baldo of Roots Of Motive Power (Willits, CA) and was moved to Oregon Coast Scenic Railway where during the past 15 years, it has been meticulously restored. After a couple of false starts, you see it here on a training run with some of the folks who will be operating it in it’s next home at the Niles Canyon Railway. But before it is trucked to California, the Skookum will host 3 or 4 photo charters during the weekend of Wintrail 2019. You might see a few more photos in the weeks to come.
