Silver Lake Railway & Lumber Company 2-6-2 "Prairie" Locomotives in the USA

Class 2 (Locobase 13822)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 39, p. 61. See Locobase 13471 for a biography of E S Collins. Works number was 37565 in March 1912.

This was another arrow in the quiver of lumberman E S Collins as he exploited the timber stands of Cowlitz County, Washington State. The SLR&LC was established in 1903. It featured light rail -- 35-40 lb/yard (15.5-20 kg/metre) -- and maximum grades of 5%. The front tank corners were cut off "8 inches deep and 60 inches long giving better view for engine men." The specs also mention an enlarged tank equalizing pipe (5/127 mm in diameter).

(See Locobase 4984 for an account of how these pipes might cause a locomotive to roll over while at rest. The engine in question was the Baldwin-built 4-6-0T used on the British War Department Light Railways.)

The company wasn't always seen as the benevolent provider of jobs and profits shown in much of the literature. [],4249874 shows the Spokane, Washington Evening Chronicle's 9 April 1910 story (p. 26) on a "land grab" perpetrated by the SLR&LC in 1906.