GARIBALDI, Ore. – In a poetic twist to the strained return of a well-known logging 2-8-2, privately owned Saginaw Timber Co. No. 2 will return to the Pacific Northwest, where it spent all of its working career. Its new home will be along the shores of the Pacific Ocean on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, sources close to the negotiations told Trains News Wire Wednesday.
Skip Lichter’s 1912 Baldwin locomotive will move from North Freedom, Wis., and the Mid-Continent Railway Museum it has called home since 1982, to Garibaldi, Ore., in late September, the sources said. Litcher chose the tourist hauler on the former Southern Pacific Tillamook Branch from 19 potential locations across the country to move the engine after he and Mid-Continent could not reach an agreement to run the engine at North Freedom again.
The locomotive, which last ran regularly in 2000, will travel on three tractor-trailers: one for the engine, one for the tender, and one for parts and supplies. The engine is ready to run, but most likely it will be 2018 before it begins operations at Oregon Coast Scenic.
Litcher, who restored the engine himself, went looking for a new home for No. 2 after an arbitrator ruled that the museum violated its agreement with him to run the locomotive for 15 years after it was back in service. As part of that ruling, the museum paid Litcher $200,000 in March and also must pay for the move to Oregon, an expensive journey that will most likely reach into six figures. The museum is disputing another part of the ruling, repayment of Lichter’s legal fees.
No. 2 has been in the Midwest since 1962 when it was moved east to Michigan’s Cadillac & Lake City tourist line. Its presence at Mid-Continent further burnished the museum’s status as a premier preservation operation, fielding multiple locomotives, wood cars, and a scenic route. The museum continues to work on its own iconic steam locomotive, Chicago & North Western 4-6-0 No. 1385, which is receiving a new boiler.
The arrival of the locomotive in Oregon places it back into its traditional Pacific Northwest territory, where it worked first for Saginaw Timber in Washington State, Northwest Lumber, then Polson Logging, and finally Rayonier Inc. before traveling east to preservation. Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad further establishes itself as a citadel of steam power with two-truck Heisler No. 2, Craig Mountain Lumber Heisler No. 3 (set to steam again this fall) and famous McCloud River Railroad 2-6-2 No. 25. In addition, it will soon host the much-anticipated return of “Skookum,” a rare logging 2-4-4-2. Now Saginaw Timber No. 2 will join this fleet, back home again, safe among her own.
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This is good news that the engine is returning to its historic territory but it is still sad that the owner and the museum could not come to terms. That is a lot of money that could have gone to restore 1385. And it would have been nice to have steam at Mid-Continent until the 1385 returns. I hope Mid-Continent has the resources to weather this storm.
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she will be also close to another sister. the mount rainer scenic also has a 2-8-2 like the 2. i think it iss polsen 2-8-2 NO.70
This is good news. Number 2 will be close to 90 sister #90, which is on display at Garibaldi, OR.
A grand piece of news!