Humbird Lumber Company 2-8-2 "Mikado" Locomotives in the USA

Class 4 (Locobase 11017)

Data from "Logging Locomotives", Record of Recent Construction #96 (Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1918), p. 34-35; and DeGolyer, Volume 52, p.383. See also "Northern Counties Logging Interpretive Association", located at [] and Ralph Hidy, "Lumbermen in Idaho" at []; and Billie Jean Plaster, "Timber Town", reprinted from Sandpoint Magazine and archived at [] . (Thanks to Steve Low for his 28 May 2017 email noting an error in the 4's road number.) Works number was 43563 in June 1916.

Note the superheater, which was relatively uncommon in logging locomotives; 12" (305 mm) piston valves admitted the drier steam to the cylinders. This engine had 24 sq ft (2.23 sq m) of arch tubes to augment its firebox heating surface. A well-proportioned design, the 4 was rated to handle 3% grades and 20-deg uncompensated curves on 56 lb/yd (28 kg/m) rail. See Locobase 11018 for an identical engine that apparently did not have arch tubes and burned oil. Several other Baldwins-- Locobases 6581, 13047, 14053, 14312, 14324, 14714 ,15209, 15231, 15480, 15494--had essentially identical specs:

The HLC began operating its big mill on the lake near Sandpoint, Idaho, in 1901, when it owned 200,000 acres (312 sq m/809 sq km) of timberlands. According to Plaster, "They started cutting the valley floors first. When that was depleted, they moved into the mountains. When logging moved in the backcountry, lumber companies were faced with transportation problems. To transport logs into town, Humbird Lumber Co. constructed railways up several creeks. Rapid Lightning Road, for example, was the former railroad bed used by Humbird and later, Diamond Match Co."

Despite periodic setbacks due mostly to fires that levelled either the mills or some of the timber, HLC remained in business until the Depression forced it to close in 1931. It was probably then that this superheated logging Mikado was sold to Mason County Logging of Bordeaux, Wash and renumbered 12.

Several years later in December 1941, the 4 was sold to Hammond Lumber in Samoa, Calif as their #15. Last owned by Georgia Pacific, which donated the 15 to the City of Eureka in 1960. Twenty years later Eureka sold the engine to the Northern Counties Logging Interpretive Association (later the Timber Heritage Museum), which placed it on display in Redwood Park.