Charles R McCormick Lumber Company 2-8-2 "Mikado" Locomotives in the USA

Class 100 (Locobase 15478)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 80, pp. 122+. See also "Pope Resources' North Kitsap Lands" at [], last accessed 12 October 2013; and Dave Bohn & Rodolfo Petschek,Kinsey Photographer - The Locomotive portraits (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2006), p. 49. (Thanks to Steve Low for his 19 June 2018 email clarifying the engine's road number ID and toWes Barris of steamlocomotive.com confirming the citation. Thanks also to Scott Golding, Rayonier Inc company historian, for his 9 June 2022 email addng to the 4/100's history and his 10 November 2022 email telling us of the move to the Virginia & Truckee. Also thanks to Gunnar Henriouille for his 21 September 2023 email the following information about the GS-3. Works number was 59284 in June 1925.

This oil-burning logging Mikado is listed in the Baldwin specs as bearing the road number 100. According to Scott Golding, this 2-8-2 was ordered by Pope & Talbot after its Puget Mill contracted to buy the Port Townsend & Southern Railway's Southern Branch. As the agreement didn't include motive power, they sought the 59284.

According to the Kinsey book, the order was prompted by "extensive operation in the eastern region of the Olympic Peninsula."Before the engine could be delivered, the CRMLC bought the Puget Mill in a deal that included the #4. Golding reports that the 4 arrrived in December 1925, probably lettered on its tender as Puget Mill. CRMLC had its own numbering convention, which soon led to changing 4's number to 100 by June 1926.

Research by Steve Low unearthed a photograph (possibly the Darius Kinsey photo) that showed an immaculate locomotive in "pristine condition" numbered 100. Wes Barris confirmed the information.

McCormick had a long history in the Puget Sound area, where Charles R McCormick had struck out on his own a few years after the turn into the 20th Century. His Saint Helens, Ore sawmill was the core of his operation.

The company was incorporated in Delaware in 1925 and bought P&T's Port Gamble and Port Ludlow sawmills, in the process giving William H. Talbot and George A. Pope Sr. a large stake in the company. The new company then modernized Port Ludlow and replaced the Port Gamble mill altogether even as it expanded Saint Helens.

Like all of the others, the 100 had adequate (but not really generous) superheater area, 8" (203 mm) piston valves, and its firebox had no extra appliances to boost heating surface area. On the other, it was of a good size, reliable, and presumably there were many engineers and mechanics who could be consulted on any issues. It rolled on 60 lb/yard (30 kg/metre) rail and faced grades of a maximum 6% ascent over a 30-mile (48.3 km) railroad that had a total of 50 miles (80.5 km) of track.

Even so, the acquisition could little affect McCormick's declining fortunes in the face of the Great Depression. Fighting a losing battle, the company closed all of its logging camps, sold its San Francisco Lumberyard, and even shut down the Port Ludlow mill. All was to no avail and McCormick entered bankruptcy in 1938. At that point, Pope & Talbot reorganized to take over the McCormick assets.

A few years later in 1942, the 100 was sold to the Santa Maria Valley of Santa Maria, Calif . 20 years later, at the end of its commercial life, the 100 found a buyer in White Mountain Scenic Railroad. Its next stop was the Wasatch Mountain railroad in 1976, which operated trains from McNary, AZ at the end of the Apache Railroad to a former logging camp at Maverick.

As that line deteriorated and closed little by little, the 100 moved to Heber City, Utah to operate as the Heber Creeper. The now-aged 2-8-2 remained in service until August 1985. After lying idle for more than a year, the 100 was sold to Fred Kepner for his Great Western Railroad Museum. He moved it by flat car to Oregon and put it in storage.

In November 2022, Scott Golding told Locobase and steamlocomotive.com that #100 has now been sold from the Kepner collection and has been moved to the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, Virginia City, Nevada, and is to be restored for operation there.

Class 101 (Locobase 15479)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Vol 80, pp. 122+. See also Locobase 15478 for a summary of McCormick Lumber's history. Works number was 61159 in December 1929.

Fitted with split saddle tanks (i.e., tall side tanks) more usually seen on Baldwin's logging articulateds, this oil-burning Mikado had the same power dimensions as the tender-hauling 100 (Locobase 14578), but rolled on 2" smaller drivers and thus claimed a higher tractive effort and, because of the greater adhesion weight, a higher factor of adhesion . A smaller boiler and firebox meant less steam to send to the cylinders through the 8" (203 mm) piston valves. Although built to be "readily convertible to coal firing", there's no indication that the 101's operators ever took that step.

Over the next 15 years, as McCormick expired to be reorganized by its major stockholders, the 101 operated on the railroad. In 1944, however, the Pope & Talbot Lumber Company sold the 101 to Comox Logging of Headquarters, BC in 1944. Comox renumbered the engine as 16 and removed the saddle tanks and added a tender, compensating for the lost weight by adding concrete-block "tanks" on the running board.

Comox retired the 16 in 1960 and allowed the West Coast Railway Association to buy it in 1964. Although it hauled excursions as far north as Alaska's Cook Inlet and on the Victoria Pacific, 16's later career consisted mostly of lying idle until the WCRA responded to Kamloops Heritage Railway's offer to rebuild the engine under an agreement that would have WCRA fund much of the restoration (which included deletion of the concrete tanks and installation of new split saddle tanks) in exchange for KHR's operation and maintenance of the 101 for five years.

KHR's suspension of its Summer 2013 schedule because of mechanical problems with its only locomotive and the decision to move that locomotive's 15-year inspection overhaul up a year delayed the plan.