Jeff Moore Wrote:
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>
> A forest fire in 1944 eliminated all Hammond
> trackage north of Crannell, up the Little River
> south of Trinidad. This fire trapped the Hammond
> 2-8-2T #17 on the wrong side of the many burned
> out trestles, and it sat more or less abandoned in
> the woods until the Klamath & Hoppow Valley fished
> it out of the woods. The last Georgia Pacific
> (Hammond successor) log train from Crannell to
> Samoa rolled south on 17 February 1961. G-P tore
> out the northern half of the line in 1963 and the
> southern part in 1966.
>
> After the railroad, Georgia Pacific did have a
> private truck road that ran northwest out of the
> area formerly served by the railroad towards
> Orick.
>
> Jeff Moore
> Elko, NV

Also caught stranded in that fire was 90-3 class Shay 31. She ended up being scrapped on
the spot out there but reportedly gave up her crankshaft and some other parts for sister
33 who had been purchased by Pickering just a few years prior. I'm told by a friend
whose father and grandfather worked for the Pickering, that the crank that is in Pickering
8 now, came off of the Hammond 31. There was a third 90-3 class Shay, the 32 and she was
cut up in Eureka. A lot of Hammond engines survived...one of their 70-3 Shays was sold
to Camino, Placerville & Lake Tahoe and is at Traveltown, 2-8-2 15 is stored in Samoa along
with Shay 33, 2-6-6-2 12 is in Flagstaff, AZ, 2-8-2T 16 is in Chelatchie, WA and has
operated in the last 5 years, sister 2-8-2T 17 is at Mineral, WA getting an overhaul on
the Mt. Rainier Scenic Ry., where she is their bread and butter engine.
Did I forget any?