A Climax Logging Steam Locomotive (4 of 5)

The locomotive featured on the front of this post card is a Climax locomotive. This engine was built by The Climax Manufacturing Company and was used by the Webb Logging & Timber Company in Washington State. The Climax locomotive is one of the three most popular designs of steam locomotives used in the logging industry. This post is continuing the theme of the various designs, so a quick glance back into the previous posts will catch you up, information-wise.

This is taken directly from a Wikipedia article: A Climax locomotive is a type of geared steam locomotive in which the two steam cylinders are attached to a transmission located under the center of the boiler. This transmits power to driveshafts running to the front and rear trucks. The invention of the Climax locomotive is attributed to Charles D. Scott, who ran a forest railway near Spartansburg, Pennsylvania between 1875 and 1878. A lumberjack of considerable mechanical ingenuity, Scott sought to bring an improved logging locomotive of his own design to market and brought the drawings to the nearby Climax Manufacturing Company in Corry, Pennsylvania. The first four Climax locomotives were built and delivered in 1888. The design patent was filed in February in the same year and granted in December. The invention was not patented in the name of Scott, as he had only a limited education, so he left the drawings to his brother-in-law George D. Gilbert, who was a civil engineer by profession and worked for Climax. Gilbert had the invention patented in his name without mentioning Scott. Many loggers considered the Climax superior to the Shay in hauling capability and stability, particularly in a smaller locomotive. This was due to its fully sprung truck arrangement; the Shay locomotive had no springs on the bogie on the drivetrain side and was therefore not fully able to compensate for twists in the track. The ride on the large class C Climax was characteristically rough for the crew, since the imbalance of the large drivetrain could only be compensated at one speed. Two Climax locomotives are preserved in Canada, both at the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan, British Columbia. Shawnigan Lake Lumber Co. No. 2 is a 25-ton Class B locomotive, and was built in 1910 as shop number 1057. Hillcrest Lumber Co. No. 9 was built to a larger, 50-ton Class B design in 1915, and is Climax shop number 1359.

This post also continues the displaying of some of the post cards in my collection from the Kinsey's Locomotives collection. The picture was taken by Darius Kinsey in 1920.

Logging Locomotive - Another Type (3 of 5)

As we have seen in the past few posts, getting through the steep grades of logging mountain sides was accomplished through many designs of steam locomotives. This engine is called a "Mallet" (pronounced mal-ay);

it was invented by a Swiss (think lots of mountains) engineer Anatole Mallet who lived from 1837 to 1919. A Mallet engine has one boiler that is connected to two sets of driving cylinders; this is also called an articulated engine. What makes this a Mallet engine is that the steam goes through one set of cylinders (rear) at high pressure, the exhaust from those cylinders is at a lower pressure, but strong enough to still be used in the second set of cylinders (front set) before it is sent out the exhaust. The picture on the front of this post card is of a Mallet 2-6-6-2 built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. It is being used at the Bloedel Donovan Lumber Mills in Sekiu, near Clallam Bay on the westen side of the Olympic Peninsula.

The photo was taken around 1930. The post card continues to show you some of the post cards in my collectioin that are from the Kinsey's Locomotive series. I will continue next week with another, different, design of steam locomotive also used in the logging industry.

Logging Train - NOT a Common Sight (2 of 5)

Last week I posted about a logging train, a common sight in many forests in North America. The logging train was the common sight; the type of locomotive being used on the train was not common. Last week I featured a "Tank Engine". This week I am featuring a gear-driven type of locomotive. The steam locomotive that is most familiar to people has a steam-driven piston on either side of the front of the locomotive. These pistons push a rod that is connected to cranks (bars) that are attached to the driving wheels of the locomotive. Each push and retraction of the piston equals one rotation of the driving wheel. The larger the driving wheel, the faster the locomotive can travel; the smaller the driving wheel, the more powerful is the locomotive. But, there is a limit as to how small the driving wheels can be without having a piston stroke that is just not practical. Logging in mountainous territory requires power to get up the steep hillsides. Moving up the mountain side requires power that would make the piston stroke unreasonable. The solution is to change how the steam’s power is transferred to the driving wheels from cranks to gears. There are three typical designs of geared locomotives: the not-so-common Climax, and the Shay were well known and used.

The Heisler locomotive, as shown on the front of this post card was the third. The following information was taken from the website: https://www.american-rails.com/heisler.html The Heisler steam locomotive was the other popular and well-known geared design built in the late 19th century. However, likely due to the fact that it did not hit the market until the early 1890s, a few years after the Climax and Shay had already begun production (the Shay was first built in 1880), it was not as successful. Despite this the Heisler did sell several hundred units and interestingly, remained in production until nearly the start of World War II (by comparison the Climax ended production in 1928). Additionally, just like its competitors the Heisler was offered in two and three-truck designs, although manufacturers also built them to nearly a dozen different specifications. Today, according to the book, West Virginia Logging Railroads, by William Warden at least eight Heislers are still in operation and more than thirty others are preserved around the world. A few places you can see them running include the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Railroad in Felton, California which has 2-truck #2, built for West Side Lumber; Roots of Motive Power in Willits which maintains Blake Brothers 2-truck #6; and Meadow River Lumber Company 3-truck #6 at the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad in rural Durbin, West Virginia. End of information from the website!

The post card is, again, part of my collection that includes the photographs of Darius Kinsey from Washington State. This picture was taken in 1922. Kinsey, born in Maryville, Missouri, moved to Snoqualmie, Washington, where he took up photography in 1890. He worked as an itinerant photographer for several years, until meeting Tabitha May Pritts at Nooksack, Washington. The couple married in 1896. The following year, they set up a photo studio in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. In 1906, the couple moved to Seattle. Darius gave up studio work and focused instead on the lumber industry and scenic photography. Tabitha developed the negatives and made the prints, which were sent back to the logging camps and sold to the loggers. Darius used an 11" X 14" Empire State view camera with a custom made tripod that could extend twelve feet high. He used glass plates until 1914, when he switched to film. The major collection of his work is held by the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington. The University of Washington Libraries also has a collection of his work.

Logging Train - a Common Sight! (1 of 5)

The picture on the front of this post card takes me back to my youth in northern Arizona. For two weeks each year we would live at the family summer cabin in Oak Creek. In my memory, every morning we would drive toward Flagstaff and wait for the logging train to cross the highway with its consist of empty logging cars. Then, again in my memory, each afternoon we would watch as the train brought its treasure to the sawmill just outside town. The locomotive on this post card looks nothing like the one we saw; it is much larger and more powerful.

It is a 2-6-6-2 T locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The "T" in the configuration tells me that this steam locomotive is carrying its own water in one or more on-board water tanks instead of in a tender. This locomotive is owned by the Bloedel Donovan Lumber Mills. Julius Harold Bloedel (March 4, 1864 – September 21, 1957) was an American businessman and entrepreneur who operated primarily in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Bloedel moved from Wisconsin to Fairhaven, Washington (later Bellingham) in 1890, where he became president of Fairhaven National Bank. He engaged in several frontier business ventures, including the Samish Lake Lumber and Mill Company, Blue Canyon Coal Mines, and, as mentioned, the Fairhaven National Bank. He partnered and worked closely with the Bellingham pioneers. Although many of these operations folded eventually, Bloedel's financial know-how managed to keep him afloat through a series of boom-and-bust economic trials. In August 1898, he founded the Whatcom Logging Company with fellow frontier businessmen John Joseph Donovan and Peter Larson, which would later become known as the Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mills. During their time on the Olympic Peninsula, Bloedel Donovan operated the Sappho, Hoko, Beaver, and Calawah Camps, logged several thousands of acres of timber, including federal forest timber, constructed over a hundred miles of rail lines, and were known to operate more than 9 sides at once to get the logs for their mills. Today, there is hardly anything left, except for some rails here and there, and other stuff if you know what you're looking for. A park with this name exists today in Bellingham, which sits on the site of Bloedel's first lumber mill, which he dedicated as a park in 1946. The photograph of the locomotive was taken by Darious Kinsey. It is part of a series of post cards that are in my collection called, "Kinsey's Locomotives". Darius Kinsey (1869–1945) was a photographer active in western Washington State from 1890 to 1940. He is best known for his large-format images of loggers and phases of the region's lumber industry. He also photographed locomotives and landscapes and (especially early in his career) did studio work. Kinsey, born in Maryville, Missouri, moved to Snoqualmie, Washington, where he took up photography in 1890. He worked as an itinerant photographer for several years, until meeting Tabitha May Pritts at Nooksack, Washington. The couple married in 1896. The following year, they set up a photo studio in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. In 1906, the couple moved to Seattle. Darius gave up studio work and focused instead on the lumber industry and scenic photography. Tabitha developed the negatives and made the prints, which were sent back to the logging camps and sold to the loggers. Darius used an 11" X 14" Empire State view camera with a custom made tripod that could extend twelve feet high. He used glass plates until 1914, when he switched to film. The major collection of his work is held by the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington. The University of Washington Libraries also has a collection of his work.

The post card was published and distributed by the company, Pomegranate. Wikipedia tells us that Pomegranate Communications is a publishing and printing company formerly based in Petaluma, California, having moved to Portland, Oregon in 2013. The company, founded by Thomas F. Burke, began by publishing works of psychedelic art from San Francisco in 1968 under the name ThoFra Distributors. It distributed posters for concerts at Avalon Ballroom and The Fillmore. Anchored in visual arts, Pomegranate was active in book publishing in the past as well, especially during the 1990s. Adjustments in that sector caused it to reduce involvement accordingly. Currently calendars - long a mainstay - remain a strong part of their catalog, along with coloring books for all ages, nature books and puzzles. In its current form, Pomegranate is best described as a museum publisher, collaborating with institutions such as the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Sierra Club, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is the licensee for artists M. C. Escher, Edward Gorey, Charley Harper, Wolf Kahn, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Gustave Baumann. Pomegranate’s own website tells us this: Our Mission Art is an essential part of the human experience, and sharing knowledge is crucial in strengthening community. Pomegranate publishes images and concepts that enrich the human spirit of creativity and connection. Who We Are Founded in 1968, Pomegranate is an award-winning independent publisher based in Portland, Oregon, where we handle all editing, design, and distribution of our publications. What We Do We publish books, calendars, puzzles, games, and stationery that bring art, culture, and new experiences to people of all ages. Our products focus on art, nature, history, science, and popular culture. Why We Do lt At Pomegranate, one of our core values is to make art accessible to everyone. To achieve this, we partner with museums, artists, and writers to integrate their works into illuminating products that art lovers, travel enthusiasts, and avid learners are excited to share with others.