1938 CBI 2-10-2 Steam Engine 800

Photographer unknown. Thanks to Gary Durr for finding the CBI pictures!

Engine info courtesy of logging engine expert Martin Hansen and John Taubeneck.

There were very few times in the age of steam that there was only one example built of a particular wheel arrangement. Well, here is one such example.

Built in July, 1927 by ALCO for the Sugar Pine Lumber Co. of Pinedale, California, this was the only 2-10-2T ever built. She was the 5th in a series of saddle tank rod-engines built by ALCO for the Sugar Pine Lumber Co. The first 4 were the very first 2-8-2T's built by ALCO and they proved themselves quite well after those 4 were delivered in 1923, 1924 and 1925.

Given the success of 2-8-2T's #1-4, SPL returned to ALCO and asked for an even larger version and thus, the 2-10-2T we see her was built in 1927. ALCO dubbed this unique wheel arrangement the "Minaret" after the SPL common carrier, the Minarets & Western RR.

Despite her long and ridged set of drivers, ALCo devised a means of still making her flexible enough to handle the rigors of the SPL logging railroad trackage. She was an impressive machine and her 52,800#s of tractive force was nearly 18,000#s more than her sister 2-8-2T's on the SPL roster.

Sadly, the Sugar Pine Lumber Co. shut down for good in 1933 and the assets, inlucing 2-10-2T #5, were sold off in bankrupcy in 1935. For the next 12 years, #5 worked for a series of construction contractor companies, with H.J Kaiser being her last owner as we see her at their yard in Fontana, California in 1947 as their #1119.

By the end of 1947, #1119 would fall to the scrappers torch. Thus would end the short 20-year life of the only 2-10-2T built for service in the U.S.

Alco

67371

07-27 2-10-2T 22x28 134 tons

Sugar Pine Lbr. Co. #5 Pinedale, CA

Pensacola Co. (D) Pinedale, CA 11-35

Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Kier & Co. #800 Mason City, WA (Grand Coulee Dam)

(tender added)

Consolidated Builders #800 Mason City, WA 03-18-38

H. J. Kaiser Co. #1119

Scrapped 1947

Baldwin

ALCO builders photo of Sugar Pine Lumber Co. #5, dated June 1927.

See more about the engines that helped build the dam here.