Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad in August 1998

I took these pictures at the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad in Elbe, Washington, in August 1998, where our family stopped briefly on a trip to Stevens Pass. The Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad was established in 1981 on seven miles of the former Tacoma Eastern Railroad, a one-time subsidiary of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, also known as the Milwaukee Road. After the Milwaukee Road abandoned its western lines on February 29, 1980, the former Tacoma Eastern was taken over by the Weyerhaeuser Corporation. The Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad operates tourist trains between the towns of Elbe and Mineral.

Hammond Lumber Company #17 is a 2-8-2T that was built by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, New York, in September, 1929, as Crossett Western Co. #11 for use in Wauna, Oregon. In 1943, it was sold to the Hammond Lumber Company in Samoa, California, where is operated as #17. A forest fire in 1945 destroyed some of the logging railroad trestles and stranded the locomotive in the woods, where it was abandoned as the company did not consider it worth recovering. It was still there when Hammond Lumber was purchased by Georgia-Pacific in October 1956. In June 1965, the locomotive was sold to Gus Peterson of Klamath, California, who recovered it from the woods for use on his Klamath & Hoppow Valley Railroad, where it operated as #17 into the 1970s. In October 1982, it was sold to the Western Washington Forest Industries Museum and moved to the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad. It was restored to operation in 1994.

Pickering Lumber Company #10 is a 3-Truck Heisler that was originally built by the Heisler Locomotive Works of Erie, Pennsylvania, in May, 1912, as Blue Jay Lumber Company #10, named P.J. Lynch. This was the first successful 3-truck Heisler ever built, and would be the only 78-ton Heisler ever built. In May of 1919 it was sold to the Edward Hines Lumber Company in Lumberton, Mississippi. Later, it was sold to the Standard Lumber Company in Standard, California where is operated as #10. The Standard Lumber Company became the Pickering Lumber Company in 1926, and then the Pickering Lumber Corporation in March 1937. In January 1958, the locomotive was sold for scrap to the Connel Motor Truck Company in Stockton, California. In June 1966, it was donated to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association, and was sold in December 1966 to Gus Peterson for his Klamath & Hoppow Valley Railroad where it operated as #10. In October 1982, it was sold to the Western Washington Forest Industries Museum and moved to the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad in Elbe, where it was placed on static display, lettered for the Silver Creek Logging Company and named R.J. "Bud" Kelly.

Here is another picture of Hammond Lumber Company 2-8-2T #17 being serviced in Elbe for its next excursion trip to Mineral.

This old truck was parked near the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad in Elbe. I don't know if it actually had anything to do with the railroad or not. It appears to be a GMC CCKW 2-1/2-ton 6x6 cargo truck, used by the United States Army during World War II. The flat vertical windshield suggests this was originally an open-cab version from 1944-1945, with a solid roof and doors grafted on later.