Ashland, Odanah & Marengo 2-6-2 "Prairie" Locomotives in the USA

Class 4 (Locobase 14319)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 52, p. 404. See also the summary of Wisconsin logging roads at [] . Works number was 43447 in May 1916.

Up in Northern Wisconsin, the Bad River had a reputation for being just that--bad for transportation. So the J S Stearns Lumber Company incorporated the AO&M to bypass the shallowest sections of the Bad. At first just a log carrier, the AO&M registered as a common carrier in 1905 and finished construction of its 15 miles from Odanah to Echlin by the end of 1906. (Another 15 miles were spurs.) The short distance included 7% grades, curves of 24 degrees (radii of 240 feet/73.1 metres), and 56 lb/yard (28 kg/metre) rail.

Beginning in 1910, the railroad ran mixed trains every day except Sunday. Since the 1915 and 1916 returns to the Railroad Commission of Wisconsin show income only from revenue freight, however, it seems that the service lasted for only a few years.

When Stearns moved its operation across the Mason-Dixon line in 1921, however, the only real reason for the AO&M disappeared along with the rails and the rest of its physical existence.

This small logging Prairie was practically new when the railroad vanished, so it was sold first to Miner Brothers Lumber, then to Mellen Lumber, also in Wisconsin. Mellen sold the engine to locomotive rebuilder/reseller Southern Iron & Equipment in 1928. SI&E soon found a buyer in the Oconto Company, which was the successor to Langlade County's Miner Brothers.