1.06 Olympic Peninsula Logging Company - Railroad Operations

The Olympic Peninsula Logging Company began logging railroad operations service with a US Spruce Division main line running into the woods and a small collection of old steam locomotives and maintenance of way equipment. 

A modest but interesting collection of locomotives served in the Olympic Peninsula Logging Company. More often than not they represented the typical and accepted practice of similar railroads across the country.

Locomotives

Locomotives on the OPLC are identified by their function: switchers, timber, or main line.

Switcher locomotives. 

0-4-0 four wheel switcher. With only four drive wheels it quickly proved to be too small for regular mainline service. Sold to Y. Knott Lumber Company.

0-6-0 six wheel switcher.  

Timber locomotives.

Shay

Over on the logging railroads, the Shay locomotive proved to be the master of its work. The three logging locomotives bought during 1919 were all 65 ton three-truck Shays. The boiler, engine, cab and fuel bunker were supported by two trucks, with the water tank perched on the third truck. With a relatively light axle loading and short wheelbase trucks, the Shays were very much at home on the woods spurs, and were often found on the main line as well. Additional Shays were purchased in 1920 and 1921. The last one was similar to the first, weighing 70 tons, and with many modernized details of construction 

The WWSL tried them out on the main line. Although it was not a long-term success, the big Shay made several spectacular trips between Sawmill and the Chehelis River log dump . One trip saw it pulling 27 empty log cars of 16,000 pounds each plus a caboose weighing 12,000 pounds, a net weight of 222 tons. On another well recorded trip, the locomotive pulled 41 empty log cars and the caboose, net 334 tons, to the Chehelis River log dump. The downfall of the Shay locomotive in main line service on the OPLC was its slow speed, coupled with high maintenance costs on the complex drive train. The difficulty of lubricating the gears and universals on a long run added to the problem. 

The Shay locomotive was a patented design built by the Lima Locomotive & Machine Company of Lima, Ohio. The boiler, cab, and tender were carried on four center-bearing swivel trucks. A large three-cylinder double-action steam engine was mounted on the right side of the firebox driving a longitudinal crankshaft. The boiler was offset to the left of the locomotive centerline to balance the weight of the engine. Power was transmitted from the crankshaft to all four trucks via a longitudinal shaft system running low on the right side of the locomotive. Universals and slip joints accommodated curves and uneven track. Bevel gears transmitted power from the shafting to the drive wheels. Strange looking and lopsided to the uninitiated eye, Shay locomotives proved to be very effective on logging railroads in particular and some 2770 were built between 1879 and 1945 (Koch 1971). Starting in 1899, the Alamogordo Lumber Company began using three 65-ton, three-truck Shays. 

They were quite successful on the logging spurs, and there was plenty of

 Main line locomotives.

2-6-0 six driver freight

2-8-0 eight driver freight

The fourth locomotives were of the "consolidation" or 2-8-0 type,  These locomotives were conventional if small freight locomotives of the same low-drivered 2-8-0 type. service  These were a pair of 2-8- 0 types obtained when the OPLC purchased them from in 19xx . 

2-10-0 ten driver freight

The WWSL made the headlines when in 1932 it took delivery of the largest rod locomotive in the county. Obviously an attempt to increase the overall capacity of the railroad, the locomotive was a magnificent machine weighing 291,000 pounds in working order. The OPLC wanted to increase speed and train sized over the main line between Sawmill and Brady Junction. In January 19xx trial runs were made, and they turned out to be dismal failures. Drive wheels were low, ranging from 46 to 51 inches in diameter. On the ten-driver locomotive, flanges were omitted on the x and y drivers and tires widened on the four intermediate drivers. This theoretically reduced friction on the sharper curves, although in practice it also reduced tractive power. The roadbed was not suitable for running at speed, The locomotive broke a total of eight rails, seven on the sharp curves of Schafer Prairie. The enormous locomotive proved to be too cumbersome for the sharp curves, before derailing completely and it demanded unreasonable quantities of fuel and water. It is likely that trains of this length also proved to be unstable on the numerous sharp curves.

Rolling Stock

 The OLPC inherited rolling stock from the US  Army's Spruce Division line's contractors, many dating from around 1890 or earlier. Found on spurs and auxiliary tracks along the main line, they included:

• a collection of bunk and dining cars, 
• various un-described "outfit cars" which probably included both box cars and flat cars for tools and supplies,
• five flat cars, a water tank car, a ballast plow and a pile driver
• five Rodger ballast cars and four cabooses. 

Most of these early cars were only used in construction work, though some certainly saw limited freight service.

Recognizing that the existing equipment wasn't enough for operations, the company initially purchased used skeleton framed logging cars. Purchase records are non-existent for the period but rolling stock historians believe that the cars were Russel skeleton frame cars built in the mid 1890s and used by the Alamogordo & Sacramento Mountain Railway. They were about 22 feet long with 22 or 24 inch wheels, and were intended to carry 20 foot logs. The cars were equipped with Westinghouse automatic air brakes.

Recognizing that there were no revenue cars,  the company purchased some used boxcars from the Fitzhugh-Luther Car Company. These were cut down into flat cars. A small number of truss rod flat cars were purchased from other equipment brokers. These cars were used to haul excess timber from the camps to sawmills in the Montesano area. One car was used by the car shop as a model for home made cars, the trucks, brake and couplers purchased used as necessary.

The company then built disconnected logging trucks using the xxx design. These disconnecting trucks were little more than a pair of heavy-duty four-wheel trucks with a log bunk mounted above the central bolster of each truck. Couplers were mounted on each end of each truck. Loads of logs were spanned between two of the trucks, the logs themselves substituting for the frame of a more conventional car. Chains or cables were run between the cars to keep them from pulling apart. OPLC used them for moving donkey engines and oversized timber.

In 1923, when the new sawmill was completed, the OPLC started building in their own shops skeletal flatcars. The car design was similar to the Pacific Coast skeletal flat design produced by xxxxxx.The skeletal flat consisted of a basic 40‘ wooden frame made of three 10 or 12 inch timbers bolted together and riding on two standard Arch bar freight car trucks. KD brake systems were installed. Log bunks were mounted over the trucks and couplers were fitted at each end – early design cheese blocks- later drop stakes were installed to allow higher loads of smaller logs.

When the company scrambled to fine work early in the depression, In 1930, the OPLC began building gondolas for sand and gravel service. They bought rights for the Hart Convertable Ballast and Gondola Car and built them in house.  using the flat cars in the 200 - 250 series and assigned them into the xxx - xxx series.

In 1935 When the OPLC created the WWSL for common service - they kept all the woods operations equipment and transferred all the non-woods rolling stock to the WWSL.

In the 1940's the OPLC bought from the WWSL a number of retired USRA single sheathed steel boxcar underframes and converted them to straight center frame skeleton flat cars. They also bought from the Pacific Great Eastern a dozen old wood sheathed refrigerator cars and converted them to fishbelly center frame skeleton flat cars

Refrigerator Car. The OPLC camps were originally supplied by an old supply car that rapidly wore out. The OPLC used one of the PGE refrigerator car frames to rebuild a refregerator car.

When the OPLC created the WWSL for common service - they kept all the woods operations equipment and transferred all the non-woods rolling stock to the WWSL.

Flat cars. Ramp car for bulldozer and ramp. Depressed center flat for

Tank Car. Used to transport gasoline and diesel fuel for logging operations. Fighting car equipped with pumps, hose reels and tool boxes .