Industrial Lumber Co 2-6-2 "Prairie" Locomotives in the USA

Class 101 (Locobase 5039)

Data from [] . Among the tidbits in the specs are the number of firebox staybolts -- 560 -- and radial stays in the crown sheet -- 140. See alsoBaldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 41, pp. 17+, Volume 52, pp. 342+, and Volume 62, pp. 358. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 22 February 2015 email noting the differences in locomotive weights and the tenders' water and fuel capacity.) Works numbers were 38219 from August 1912, 43387 from May 1916, 52254-52255 in August 1919.

This Elizabeth, Louisiana company used light rail (35 lb/yard or 17.5 kg/metre) and had curves with radii as tight as 200 feet (61 metres) or 29 degrees. A wood-burning logging Prairie usually was the answer to such requirements (at least according to Baldwin) and so it was for ILC. They bought four over a seven-year period.

All had the same dimensions, but rolled with different weights. 101 and 103 put 77,000 lb (34,927 kg) on the drivers and 101,000 lb (45,813 kg) on all five axles. Both had Radley & Hunter stacks. Tenders held 3,000 gallons of water, 3 cords of wood. The last two put 1 1/2 tons more on the drivers, but only added 800 lb to total locomotive weight. Another detail change was the substitution of a Rushton Improved stack for the traditional R&H.

Elizabeth, in Calcasieu Parish, was founded as a company town in 1906 some 100 miles west of Baton Rouge. A 1922 advertisement for its "Calcasieu" timbers claimed that the company was running "Three modern mills, sawing annually 200 million feet."

By 1914, the town was advertising its cut-over pine lands in "small tracts to actual settlers,". Unlike many other such timber-dependent settlements, however, the town survived the exhaustion of nearby timber and numbered 532 inhabitants in the 2010 census. (See the blog [] for a tour of Elizabeth that shows many of the ILC buildings that still stand.).

Part of the reason for Elizabeth's survival, according to the application for National Register of Historic Places reproduced in the blog, lies in ILC's enlightened views: "Industrial was also quite proud of its motto 'Builders, not spoilers.' According to a 1923 company publication, Industrial devoted considerable attention to developing suitable cut over land for agricultural use."

ILC ended its mill operations in 1940, but the paper mill continued in business.

Locobase cannot determine when the ILC's rail operations ended.

The 101 and 107 were then sold to Gulf Refining and operated for them until October 1947. The 101 was sold to Calcasieu Paper Co as their #5. The 5 later operated for C W Witbeck and Alex Huff. Alex Huff sold the 5 to a dealer named Arthur LeSalle, who sold it to the Gaslight Village in 1974.

107 went to the Red River & Gulf, then to the Calcasieu Paper Company.

106 was moved to Edmonton Park in Alberta in 1977 by TW Graham, extensively overhauled and converted to oil-burning, and put in service on the Edmonton, Yukon & Pacific in 1978.