Lac La Belle & Calumet 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Locomotives in the USA

Class Lac La Belle (Locobase 11809)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 11, p. 176. Works numbers were 6733 in April 1883, 6749 in May.

Purchased by the Conglomerate Mining Company of Michigan, this pair of Consolidations went to work on the LLB&C. But that was a short-lived line covering 31 miles (49.9 km) between the Mendota and Delaware mines that closed in 1886. [The line would reopen as the Keweenaw Central in 1905; see Locobase 13497]

#1 went over to the Deerfield River of Vermont for a very brief tour, then to the Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington.

#2 stayed in the Copper Range by transferring to the Mineral Range with the name of Hancock and numbered 5. When the MR converted to standard gauge in 1902, the 5 traveled south to the Washburn & Northwestern lumber railroad in Wisconsin's Bayfield County where it operated for three years and wore #4.

Then came the move west to Washington State and the White River Lumber company, which bought the 4 in 1905 and retired the locomotive in 1913. But that wasn't the end. 10 years later in 1923, Western Lumber Company of Oregon bought the 4.