This video covers the little known about 2-4-4-2 Skookum Mallet locomotive built for logging operations. Only three of this wheel arrangement were built in North America, and this is the story of the one that survived.
I saw it run and of course the rebuild as well... But... it cost no less than $300 to get a media pass to photo or video the unveiling because Trains Mag made a big hoopla out of it. After that day the Loco was shipped out of the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad. Trains is selling video of that. Any video online that is not Trains, and is on the Oregon coast is highly copyrighted (enforced) and rightfully so... Simply because of the coast that these people paid.
Great video on the Skookum. I have been fascinated by this little mallet for years. I have lived in the Portland-Vancouver area for 73 years now and have watched the restoration of the areas steam locomotives starting with SP 4449. I used to climb all over it and the others (SP&S 700 & OR&N 197) when I was a kid and they were just on the old rail siding at Oaks Park which was the same one used to load and unload passengers to and from from Portland. I have ridden on SP 4449 & SP&S 700, even had a private tour of SP&S 700 in the old Brooklyn round house. But the one ride I enjoyed the most was not even steam but on a Budd RDC they had running from Portland to Astoria, the 2003-2005 Lewis & Clark Explorer Train.Traveled from Portland to Astoria for a weekend vacation for the family. The rain stopped 100 feet away from our motel, the trolley and bus system combined with walking got us anywhere we wanted to go in Astoria. Imagine arriving at your destination refreshed and ready to go, not worn out fro 2 hrs of driving. I did not miss my car one bit. I wrote a bunch of state and local officials about making it permanent but not one replied. Add a steam locomotive to the train and you have steam hauled weekend getaway that i am sure that many thousands would enjoy. It is also too bad th rail line from Portland to Garibaldi is cut because my mother would talk about riding the train to Rockaway to spend the summers with her grandmother. Too bad there are no Oregon Coast Steam getaways or even using diesel or RDC's.
I've been in Oaks Park several times to shoot 4449 running the Xmas trains.. In fact it's where I got the audio for the Steam Whistle at the beginning of each of my video's... It's 4449's :)
There is only one world wide of it's wheel arrangement and it's in New Zealand.. It's not related to anything from the U.S. so Skookum is the last of it's kind.
That is a pretty enginę, a very European wheel arrangement. Though they would have added side tanks to add adhesion, put a bunker on the back and got rid of the tender.
The Skunk Railroad used to run a little articulated loco. Never got to ride before they had to retire the engine. Gorgeous restoration of the traction.
I'm very familiar with Little River Railroad 110. Skookum bares a family resemblance with the LRR engines. It should be known that LRR had all their locomotives custom built.
I’ve volunteered for the Little River Railroad in Michigan. #110 is definitely quite the unique locomotive. I’m currently working on a documentary covering its entire operating career and some of the information I found about it was very interesting! 😊
Good video. Handsome engine! I find your background music a bit distracting, too quiet to actually hear it but loud enough to be annoying. Your commentary is interesting enough that you don’t need that additional noise!
I bought the Trains Magazine Skookum DVD for two reasons: 1: Its on the Oregon Coast Scenic, a tourist railroad in one of my favorite locations on the Oregon Coast, Tillamook County. 2: The story of Skookum had always fascinated me and I wanted something that I could watch it run whenever I wanted as travelling to California isn't feesable for me.
That is, head and shoulders, the single most amazing survival story I've heard (including NZGR K88 Rogers 1877 loco which spent decades in the mud of a Kiwi riverbank). With that many lives, evidently some cat DNA found it's way into Baldwin's design. I even love that shade of green!! 🙂
How a wrong decision of the fireman did lead to the survival of this very cute little mallet. Alco did also build at least one locomotive with this axle configuration, it's preserved in New Zealand on the Glenbrook Vintage Railway as their No.4, currently non operational. It had been built in 1912 for the Taupo Totara Timber Company and as such it also was a logging locomotive.
@@ramblerdave1339 It was strictly a logging design... But I wonder why not just use a Shay, Heisler or Climax rather than having a custom Mallet built...
Of all the locomotives I have seen, this one is my favorite. A curve radius of 150 feet is a curve of 38 degrees 56 minutes 32.789 seconds or to the closest second would be 38* 56' 33" in engineering terms. This would compare to the Uintah RR having curves of 66* or a radius of 91.804' or 91' 9 5/8" but on 3-ft gauge track and the No 7 SKOOKUM is standard gauge. The Uintah had 2 locos built of 2-6-6-2 articulated design as tanks for use on these curves on a 7 1/2% grade. Until No 50 was ordered, the Uintah used Shays only. The 50 and 51 were simple articulateds, sent to Guatamala, and returned to the US and are still in existence but as tender engines.
If I was an elected official I would put a stop to the Salmonberry project and I would reverse all projects related to the Salmonberry project and I would Give those a $1 Billion Project to Rebuild the Railroad between Banks and Tillamook and I would also Reactivate the railroad.
Uh, well ... Such a revitalization would have to prove profitable and I think the track along the way is now in poor condition. I have hiked it a ways and it's not good. One thing is for sure.. If they did somehow revive the RR in this way... The truck traffic on hwy 6 would be considerably less.
WOW .. I use to see her in Snoqualami , and felt so bad , that she sat there rusting in the rains , but she LIVES !! Oh I am so happy , as a North Western Boy , in the early 1960's our Father and mother took us up to Snoqualami to see the trains , and the trestle across the river was all there and trains ran. I so so very pleased she is Alive and resurrected , falling in the mud ... saved her from the scrappers and the love for this beautiful piece of living American history. How wonderful 🙏🏻