Last week, a friend & I drove to Washington to ride behind former Rayonier, Inc. Willamette 2 @ the MRSR. I had photographed this machine stored out in the woods @ Hoko Camp on the Clallam County Operation in 1968 & have always hoped to be able to see her operate again. After a rebuild that was completed last year, she is out getting some miles on her. I realize that beauty is a subjective term, perhaps more so when applying it to locomotives, but I think this model of geared loco has really nice lines...the restoration and paint job doesn't hurt either.
An added bonus to the short trip was that the Willamette was also on the regular train on Friday, so we got to pace her then. Jim Abney was kind enough to give me a short ride on her in Elbe. There are very subtle differences between her and a Shay and I think that the design engineers in Portland accomplished what they wanted on a number of things.
A fair amount of work was done to the 3 cylinder engine and it is pretty quiet, even though still running in at this early stage. Machinist Stathi Pappas keeps a close eye and ear to her and makes adjustments as necessary...just like they had to do out in the woods years ago.
She has what looks to be a shop made 3 chime whistle that sounds great at a distance...the area up there is great for echoes & makes for nice recordings.
There were 4 types of Willamettes:
50 ton 2 truck Superheated (only 2 built)
70 ton 3 truck Saturated
70 ton 3 truck Superheated
75 ton 3 truck Superheated (only 4 built...the 2 is one of this type and also the last one constructed. They had a modest cylinder bore increase from 12" to 12.5").
If you want to photograph and see something really unique, try to visit and ride here when
the Willamette is scheduled to operate. Right now, the railroad is running only its geared locos while fomer Rayonier 2-8-2 70 from the Grays Harbor Operation nears completion from a rebuild. The big modern Heisler 91 sees most of the duty now. When she gets her 3rd truck
re connected and the boiler pressure raised back up to where it normally runs, she is a very substantial locomotive with a t.e. of around 43,000 lbs. That's huge and only using the figure of 75% of boiler pressure. If you go with 85% like some manufacturers did, then it's up around 49,000 lbs. Nonetheless, another modern example of geared logging power.