Booth Kelly Lumber Company #2

Baldwin Class: 16-28/46-1/4-DD, 4

Type: 2-6-6-2T

Baldwin Code Word, RECTORADO

Tank or tender type: Split Side Tanks

Build date: January 1910

Baldwin Construction Number: 34215

Tractive Force:  37,800 lbs.

General Dimensions:   

Service History:

1910-1945:  Booth Kelly Lumber Company #2.  Wendling, OR.

Disposition after logging service:

1947:  Scrapped, Wendling, OR.

Summary:

    Built in January 1910, the Booth Kelly Lumber Company's #2 was the first tank-type Mallet built for logging service, and was also the first of Baldwin's more or less standard model 44" driver logging Mallets.  Like most Baldwin Mallets of the period #2 used saturated steam, and all four cylinders had slide valves.  The split side tank design used on #2, and later on Booth-Kelly #6 and the two St. Paul & Tacoma Mallets, was used to accommodate the steam delivery pipes to the high-pressure cylinders.

    Booth-Kelly Lumber Company's logging railroad operated in the area around Wendling, Oregon, northeast of Eugene.  Baldwin's Record No. 68 Mallet Articulated Locomotives notes that Booth-Kelly was operating #2 on fifty-six pound rails with six and one half percent grades and thirty-five degree curves, and #2 could be used on up to nine percent grades.  #2 was successful in service, although it was the only logging Mallet of its type until 1920 when Booth-Kelly #6 was ordered.  In his book A History of the Mohawk Valley and Early Lumbering, Booth-Kelly employee Louis Polley recalls #2 was used as a road engine, and would usually haul about twenty loaded cars to the mill per day.  By the 1940s Booth-Kelly generally used skeleton log cars, although before 1920 flat cars equipped with logs bunks were used.  #2 operated until 1945, when it and Booth-Kelly's other steam locomotives were retired.  The locomotive remained in storage until 1947 when it was scrapped.

Notes:

-Booth Kelly #2 was the first tank Mallet built for use in North America

-Unknown date, before conversion to oil.  Single-phase air pump added to engineer's side of smokebox.  Originally had single-phase air pump on fireman's side only.

-Unknown date, before conversion to oil: Portion of cab wall between door and second window removed.

-1913, converted from wood to oil firing.  Radley & Hunter stack replaced with straight stack.

-Unknown date: Dynamo added between bell and steam dome, headlights converted to electric power.

-Unknown date: Compound air pumps added to both sides of smokebox.  

-Unknown date: headlight moved from pilot deck to in front of stack.

-Unknown date: Rear light moved from back of fuel bunker to cab roof.

Drawings:

#2 as delivered

Photographs:

Booth-Kelly #2 in service, with Booth-Kelly #6 in background, at Marcola, OR - Martin E. Hansen Collection

Booth-Kelly #2 out of service at Wendling, OR in Dec 1947 - Martin E. Hansen Collection

Models:

-1975:  Northwest Short Line of Seattle, WA imported HO scale brass models of #2 as it appeared after modifications.

-1980s: Mantua Metal Products introduced their "Booth-Kelly Logger" variation of their HO scale 2-6-6-2.  It was offered in both kit and ready to run form, usually painted in various freelance schemes, but occasionally offered as Booth-Kelly #2.  An early 1990s version had a Radley & Hunter stack.  Mantua HO scale Booth-Kelly Logger, early 1990s version.

References:

1.  Baldwin Locomotive Works, Record No. 68: Mallet Articulated Locomotives.  Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, PA.  1910

2.  Schmelzer, Ken.  "Logging Mallets: Part 4."  Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette.  May 1976.

3.  LeMassena, Robert A.  Articulated Steam Locomotives of North America.  Sundance Publications, Limited, Silverton, CO.  1979. 

4.  Polley, Louis E., assisted by Sue Bailey.  A History of the Mohawk Valley and Early Lumbering.  Polley Publishing, Marcola, OR.  1984.

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