Poitevent & Favre Lumber Company 2-4-2 "Columbian" Locomotives in the USA

Class 1 (Locobase 14032)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 45, p. 8 and Volume 48, p. 247. See also Russell Guerin, A Creole in Mississippi, "Lumbering in Hancock County" at [], entry of 2010-07-15 05:49:4 , last accessed 14 November 2016.. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 17 March 2015 email tracking down the wood capacity and his 12 March 2020 clarifying the tender capacities and weights and overall wheelbase.) Works numbers were 40596 in September 1913, 41102 in January 1914.

P&F ran a cluster of sawmills in Pearlington, Miss. on the Pearl River from 1867 to 1904. By 1870, the P&F was described as running the largest mill in Mississippi. "Big Jim, which opened in 1890, was a sawmill designed and built by Asa Hursey, who was, according to Russ Guerin,"said to be the finest mill builder in the country." It could cut 200,000 board feet a day.

At that rate, the available timber disappeared quickly and by 1904, the Pearlington mills had shut down for lack of work. As former employer Sam Russ noted: "The mill was built to last 100 years, but ... [they] overestimated the supply of timber upriver."

Poitevent & Favre relocated to Mandeville, Louisiana in 1913 and these wood-burning bi-directional tender engines trundled along the company 40 lb/yard (20 kg/metre) rail. #1's specification (confusingly found in the later of two volumes of Baldwin's specs) doesn't include a fuel capacity. A note in the #5's specs advises setting the wood rack as far back as possible to accommodate as much wood fuel as possible. The tender was considerably bigger than that of the earlier engine, carrying 1,000 US gallons (3,785 litres) more water, imposing 20,000 lb (9,027 kg) more in loaded weight, and extending the engine and tender wheelbase to 48 ft 3 1/2 in (14.69 m).

Both locomotives remained on the road until 1924 as the company logged long leaf yellow pine. When the P&FLC closed. 2 was sold to Hammond Lumber as their #1. 5 first went to locomotive rebuilder/reseller Georgia Car & Locomotive, which found a buyer in R L Dowling & Sons. The 5 soon joined its sister engine at Hammond Lumber of Oak View, Wash.

"Today", wrote Guerin, "many of the acres which once boasted huge stands of virgin cypress and pine are barren; others are cultivated for the purpose of growing and harvesting pulp wood. Life as it was known in the communities along the Pearl does not exist anymore. People had begun moving away even before the Stennis Space Center required several of the towns to be razed and reduced to ground level."

He added: "But the passing of an industry is not to be mourned ...Memories remain, and cannot be erased by clear-cutting, burning, construction or hurricanes. History rightfully records that a great industry contributed to the building of the Hancock County we know today."