Bloedel Donovan Lumber 2-6-6-2 "Mallet Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class 8 (Locobase 4043)

Data from [] and DeGolyer, Vol 73, pp. 225+. See also Robert E Ficken, The Forested Land: A History of Lumbering in Western Washington (University of Washington Press, 1987), p. 102. Works numbers were 58064-58065 in November 1924.

North of Bellingham Bay, three investors--Peter Larson, John Joseph Donovan, and Julius H Bloedel--came together in 1898 to form Whatcom Logging Company. (The name came from a nearby lake which is still (2013) the home of Bloedel Park.) By that time, Donovan had lived in the northwest for ten years, having arrived as chief engineer of the Fairhaven & Southern Railroad. Larson Lumber Company formed three years later to harvest the timber, but upon Larson's death in 1913, the two were merged to form Bloedel-Donovan. Four years later, BD acquired Skykomish Lumber Company, adding several mills and 133 million board feet of standing timber.

Ficken wrote that Donovan was known as "one of the most honorable men in the Northwest" and a man devoted to Catholic charities. As for his partner: "Resembling a gay-nineties barber in his well-groomed sleekness, Bloedel carried a contrasting reputation," Ficken continued. "'You can not always put your finger on him,'" said Will Talbot, a competitor.

Two of several Prairie Mallet tanks built by Baldwin for Northwest logging roads. The design's four cylinders were all served by piston valves, the HP cylinders using 8" (203 mm) valves, the LP cylinders 12" (305 mm) diameter.

The pair came together to the BD. Jon Davis notes that #8 served Bloedel Donovan for 40 years, the last 19 as Rayonier, Inc #8 when the latter bought out BD. As of 2000, #8 remained in storage for eventual restoration. #9 did not fare so well -- after a career paralleling that of her sister, she was scrapped in 1959.