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Old 08-27-2015, 02:10 AM   #21
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...I bet that Shay you're sittin' in did time in WA and OR for different outfits.
...
No "the "Dixie," as she is affectionately called, was built by Lima Locomotive Works, Shop No. 2593, on October 12, 1912. She served on six different short line railroads before coming west to California. Although she saw service on the famous Smokey Mountain Railroad in Tennessee, it was a little narrow-gauge mining railroad (now abandoned) in Dixiana, Virginia, that gave her the name "Dixiana."

"A two-truck engine, the Dixie weighs 42 tons with a tractive effort of 17,330 lbs. and has 29 ½" drivers. Three 10 x 12 inch cylinders can maintain 180 pounds working pressure."
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Old 08-27-2015, 02:32 AM   #22
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Hawgwash-- My wife and I take our fishing boat to Telegraph Cove every June to go salmon and halibut fishing. A few years ago we got to talking to one of the engineers of the log train locomotives that work from Woss down to the Beaver Cove dry sort and he ended up giving us a ride in the cab. I took this shot this past June.
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Old 08-27-2015, 02:59 AM   #23
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Hawg-thanks for the pics and the history lesson. We sometimes forget that those scenes were not that long ago!
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Old 08-27-2015, 11:28 AM   #24
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"A two-truck engine, the Dixie weighs 42 tons"
The Shay in the pictures up above was either 70 or 90 tons.
At one time they brought in a Mallet, pronounced "Malley," a big rod 120 ton engine for way back in the bush. The tracks down to the chuck couldn't handle it so they dismantled it on the barge took in pieces to Nimpkish Lake, floated it up the lake and reassembled it. New, heavier, straighter trackage was needed because it was not articulated.

There were 2 Shays at the beach. One had a very proud engineer (Krofty), always dressed in clean engineers clothes head to toe and always polishing. His loci sparkled.The other engineer was a pig and so was his engine.

Krofty loved the camp ladies...always toot tootin' at them and they loved him. If any were walking along the tracks he'd let go a PHISH of steam when he went by. They'd all jump and giggle; he'd give them a ding, ding, ding and carry on.

Those were the days.
Haircuts in the bunkhouse.
Hotcakes from the cookhouse fed to the bears.
Playin' house under the trestle.
Jiggin' for stickleback off the booms.

Give a kid a stick and he'll float on it. None of us swam and I think almost every one of us was fished out of the drink just before going down the last time. I say almost because some didn't get the pike pole through the collar.

We burned wood for heat.
Every camp had a wood cutter.
They hauled blocks up the tracks on flat cars and just rolled them off at each house. We all knew when they were coming and scattered because sometimes the blocks would go astray and take out anything in its path, mostly the back end of the woodshed.

Better quit now and get some cloths on...
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Old 08-27-2015, 11:40 AM   #25
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Thank you for the great photos and stories. We just returned from 6 weeks in BC and visiting some of the old mills sites along the way. Really enjoyed the Shoal Bay Area. Look forward to more photos and stories.
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Old 08-27-2015, 12:22 PM   #26
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A few years ago we got to talking to one of the engineers of the log train locomotives that work from Woss down to the Beaver Cove.
For a lot of years the Nimpkish was in the way so they hauled to the lake, floated the logs down the lake and reloaded them onto the rails. Great employment maker but not too productive.
Punched a line around the lake in '57 and sent half the crew home.


The first car I ever saw was an old woody wagon, belonged to the "Push" at Nimpkish. Had flanges instead of rubber and ran the tracks.
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Old 08-27-2015, 12:29 PM   #27
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I believe the Woss-Beaver Cove show is the last railroad logging operation in North America. The engineer told us that every year the company management says they want to get rid of the trains and do everything by truck, but when the finance department runs the numbers switching to trucks would be staggeringly more expensive than using the trains. So the railroad survives for another year. The engineer said this has been going on for several decades now.

The locomotives, which they've been using forever, are a very old model of switch engine which was uniquely fitted with dynamic braking to allow control on the long downhill run from Woss to Beaver Cove with extremely heavy trains (they go back up empty, obviously). These two and the other two which are no longer used are the only ones like this in the world. Looking at them, inside and out, it's hard to believe they are as old as they are.
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Old 08-27-2015, 01:28 PM   #28
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I believe the Woss-Beaver Cove show is the last railroad logging operation in North America.
I believe you are right.

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The engineer told us that every year the company management says they want to get rid of the trains and do everything by truck, but when the finance department runs the numbers switching to trucks would be staggeringly more expensive than using the trains.
Big cost.
Been in the wind a long time.
When the rails go, regulations say everything has to be put back to the state it was before. No rails, no trestles, no sign of them ever having been there...nothing. Too costly added to the fact one engineer hauls 30-40 loads instead of 30-40 drivers and all the trucks that go with it.

Was the engineer Larry?

We've gotten a long way from a dinghy debate haven't we? That was a smoke screen anyway...make the boss think it belongs here like a coffee machines and a drones.
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Old 08-27-2015, 02:34 PM   #29
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I don't remember his name. He was a jolly looking fellow, not fat but round-ish.

I think lapstrake boats, particularly the rowing skiffs like Whitehalls, are some of the finest looking craft in the world. While our little Montgomery is fiberglass, it's nice that the mold was made to resemble lapstrake planking. Our cabin cruiser is not large enough to carry a full size rowing skiff on board but it would be very cool to have a craft like that.

I've always wondered how long it took a skilled shipwright to build one. They look very complicated but I know that the fellows who made things like this for a living could turn them out in a surprisingly short time.

While not lapstrake construction I've always admired the traditional fishing dories used by the New England and Canadian Maritime cod fishing fleets off their big schooners.
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Old 08-27-2015, 04:21 PM   #30
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I don't remember his name.
Good, 'cause it wasn't a fair question; not fair to him.

That old clinker we had was held together with really thick paint. Every spring scrape the loose stuff, fill it with water 'til it swelled and quit leaking then just layer more paint on. If that boat weighed 300 pounds 200 of it was paint.

The Alburys in the Abacos built incredible wooden boats.
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