The last I heard a small switcher still sits in the woods near Bandon Oregan. During World War II a welder with a pickup and a cutting torch started to take it apart. He was stopped before he got very far as he was on private property.
One of the elderly locals sent me a message to stop by for a visit. A lady asked me not to bother him at that time as he was very sick and bed ridden. He later died. I was told He had worked on that RR. His grandson told me part of the story. It was a new railroad that ran from the mill on the river over a large newly built trestle spanning a deep wide gully. Track was then layed from the trestle into the woods and a small yard was built where the small switcher was kept. A larger steam loco, I believe it was a 2-6-0 pulled the log cars to the mill each morning. One morning the engineer made an quick stop on the trestle. The trestle being new, still had loose fill at each end. With the hard braking, the train stopped but the trestle kept going. It pushed the rail and ties off the curve ahead and the trestle collasped sending the locomotive and a few loaded log cars into the gully. The logs crushed the train crew.
The law suits that resulted lasted for years and shut down the railroad and the sawmill, putting them both out of business. The courts didn't even let them clean up the mess in the gully. The small steamer did gather up the cars from the woods and put them in the small yard. The fire was then dropped from this little steamer and there she must still remain to this day. I have often wondered if the 2-6-0 is still in the gully. I had a chance to see the little lost steamer, but my time was too short at the time and I passed on the oppertunity. I still kick myself.
I wish I had been able to talk to the local before he pass on. I'm sure there is much more to this story.
On a simular note I read someplace, about another logging railroad on the coast of Northern Calif. This one had been in business for a long time and it also had a bridge problem. The engineers didn't trust an old large wooden bridge over an ocean inlet. The train didn't run often, but when it did they had a means of safely crossing this bridge. The engineer would stop just short of the bridge pushing his cars. His crew would get off and walk across the bridge. The engineer would then back away from the bridge uncouple from the cars and then give then a push toward the bridge. The loco would stop as the cars rolled slowly over the bridge. A crew member on the other side would jump on the last car and tighten the brake rigging to stop the cars well past the bridge. Then the locomotive engineer would crack the thottle a bit and release the locos brakes and jump off letting the locomotive creep slowly across the bridge while he waited. The locomotive always crossed safely and the crew would jump aboard and stop the locomotive. When the bridge stopped creaking the engineer would walk across recouple the train and they proceeded to the mill
The yard boss let me climb aboard that locomotive. The fire was out, cold and no longer in use. I believe it is still preserved today.
One last story told to me by a roundhouse worker. It may not be true as another worker said the first guy was a big story teller.
He said a large steam loco was in the roundhouse and had been serviced. One of the workers did not like the person who operated this locomotive. He put large metal Nuts in front and behind each wheel on the loco. The night crew fired the loco to bring up the steam pressure for the morning run. Very early the next morning, the sun was not yet up, the Locomotive engineer got aboard and got ready to pull out of the roundhouse and onto the turntable. The turntable had already been turned to accept the loco. The engineer pulled back on the throttle, but the locomotive didn't move. He pulled on the reverse lever to reverse the steam flow, but the loco wouldn't back up either. Then he moved the reverse lever back and pulled back hard on the throttle. The locomotive moved, first up and to the side an then down into the service pit.
This story teller didn't say what happened to the person who put the big steel nuts under the wheels. He just said they had one "H" of a time getting that locomotive out of the pit. It took them all day.
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