Wheel Arrangement: 2-6-6-2
Tank or tender type: Rectangular
tender
Build date: September 1934
Serial number: 61781
Cost: $53,250
Driver diameter: 51 in.
Boiler pressure: 225 psi
Cylinder dimensions: 20 & 31x28
in
Grate area: 57 sq ft
Tractive effort:
60,000 lbs
Weight:
296,000 lbs
Fuel: 2,500 gal oil
Water capacity: 7,000 gal
1934 -1952:
Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #4.
Klamath Falls, OR
1952 – 1955:
Sold to Sierra Railroad Co. #38. Jamestown,
CA.
1955 – 1967: Rayonier Inc. #38.
Railroad Camp, WA.
1969 – 1984: Display at Crane
Creek, WA. Sold in 1982 to Fred
Kepner.
1984 – October 2006: Stored dismantled
east of mill. McCloud, CA.
October 2006 – Present: Stored, Merrill, OR.
-Ladder added to fireman's side of
smokebox by Sierra Railroad.
-Rear headlight on tender placed on
raised platform by Rayonier.
-1958 – 1975:
Pacific Fast Mail of Edmonds, WA imported several thousand HO scale brass
models of this locomotive. The
model represents the locomotive as built for Weyerhaeuser.
This logging Mallet was built in September 1934 as #4 for the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company's logging operations at Klamath Falls, Oregon. After it was no longer needed at Klamath Falls #4 was sold in 1952 to the Sierra Railroad of Jamestown, California where it was renumbered to 38. The locomotive gained some fame from its three-year stay at Jamestown as Pacific Fast Mail would import popular HO scale brass reproductions of Sierra #38 from the late 1950s into the 1970s. #38 returned to logging service in 1955, this time in Washington State at Rayonier's Grays Harbor line. #38 would pull the symbolic last steam powered log train on the line during Rayonier's End of an Era ceremonies in 1962. However, #38 continued to operate at Rayonier until 1967 when it was retired.
After retirement, #38 was placed on display at Rayonier's Crane Creek office where it remained until being sold to Fred Kepner in 1982. Fred Kepner planned to restore #38 for use on the McCloud Railway as part of his Great Western Railway Museum, and #38 was dismantled and shipped to McCloud, CA in 1985. However, the planned restoration never came to pass and #38 remained in stored in pieces east of the lumber mill in McCloud.
Starting in early 1999, Fred Kepner began moving his various pieces of railway equipment to Merrill, Oregon. Number 38's tender was moved to Merrill in 2003, the frame in September 2006, and the boiler in October 2006.
Weyerhaeuser #4 in transit to Sierra Railroad in 1952 - Martin E. Hansen Collection
Sierra Railroad #38 at Cooperstown, CA in April 1955 - Martin E. Hansen Collection
Sierra #38 at Jamestown in 1955 - Warren W. Wing Collection
Rayonier #38 at Railroad Camp in 1956 - Warren W. Wing Collection
Rayonier #38 at Railroad Camp in 1962 - Warren W. Wing Collection
Rayonier #38 at Axford Prairie in March 1962 - Martin E. Hansen Collection
#38's tender at McCloud in June 1999.
#38's boiler at McCloud in June 1999.
#38's frame at McCloud in June 1999.
