Oregon Iron & Steel 0-6-2 Locomotives in the USA

Class 2 (Locobase 11677)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 14, p. 196. See also Ann Fulton, "Oregon Iron & Steel Company' in the Oregon Historical Society's Oregon Encyclopedia at [], last accessed 29 October 2022. Works number was 9519 in September 1888.

Fulton wrote that the Oregon Iron Company began to smelt the rich iron ore on the west bank of the Willamette River in 1867. By 1882, a group of investors headed by such luminaries of Henry Villard bought the Oswego Iron Furnace as part of its intent to create a "Pittsburgh of the West."

This was no idle dream. According to Fulton, the location "appeared to be a perfect site: ore containing approximately 44 to 54 percent iron was available, the Willamette River provided transportation, Sucker Lake provided water power, and a dense forest yielded charcoal to make iron." The new owners erected an iron works outfitted with the latest technology and laid a company town.

By the year in which this radial tank locomotive came on the OI&S property, Fulton wrote, the company "operated a canal, railroad, and mines and owned approximately 23,000 acres (9,583 ha) of land in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia." The small engine seems clearly to have been meant to serve the Oswego Iron Furnace.

Perhaps the projected competition with such as Andrew Carnegie may have been over-optimistic in any case and local shortcomings including poor iron ore quality and higher operating costs took the bloom off the rose. But the stake in the heart of the project was plunged by the worst "Panic" of the 19th Century plunged the nation's economy into a deep depression in 1893. "Oregon's 'iron dream'", wrote Fulton, had ended.