Wilwin Company 2-4-2 "Columbian" Locomotives in the USA

Class 100 (Locobase 14321)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 53, p. 9+. See also William Chesbrough, "The Story of Wilwin" at [] . Works number was 44503 in December 1916.

This unusual logging engine was essentially a Prairie with a missing axle. Its suitability for the hard life of lightly built logging roads is evident from its small drivers, short wheelbase, and a fuel bunker that held either three tons of coal or 2 1/2 cords of wood. On the other hand, the Wilwin's layout was pretty undemanding: 2% grades and 8 degrees of curve (radii of 717 feet/218.5 metres).

Wilwin Company, Ltd was founded by Abe Chesbrough on northern Michigan's Tahquamenon River. Overall, the company logged 35,000 acres from the mouth of the Tahquamenon on Lake Superior west to Newberry and north toward Whitefish point. The memorist responsible for the Story of Wilwin cited above repeats a description of the 1880s environment they found: "in talking about the beautiful pine forests, Abe Chesbrough ...used to tell a story of paddling down the Tahquamenon with an Indian in his birch bark canoe, around 1880. 'It was just like floating down the aisle of a cathedral. The dense pine trees grew down to the water's edge and were so tall and so thick that the river, about 150 feet wide, seemed like a ribbon of water cut thru a dense forest.'"

More than twenty years later, when the children of that first logging generation ventured from Bay City to Emerson, the last leg was substantially different from its appearance when Chesbrough drafted his memoir: "Today [1962], it is a macadam road, with little timber left to ride thru, but in those days, the narrow dirt or corduroy road wound thru miles and miles of dark, beautiful forests; huge trees rising on both sides, and the road running down thru it like a ribbon. Deer were plentiful and once in a while, a bear or a fox would ramble or dart across the road. We could hear the coyotes and wolves howl, but rarely saw one, even in those days."

The 100 was later sold to Hershey Gravel after the timber was logged out.