2 Narrow Gauge Shays On Fire!! Hard To Watch! 80 Years Ago!
| September 21, 2008 11:53AM |
On a quiet Sunday in 1930 fire struck Camp 21 on the 3' gauge Hobart Estate logging line out of Hobart Mills, CA. A small forest fire crept into camp and hit the shed where 2-truck Shay #7 and 3-truck Shay #10 were parked. The shed became engulfed in fire and then the oil bunkers on the 2 Shays exploded.
These amazing photos were snapped by a man named Joe Moir during the fire. As you can see the damage to the 2 Shays was extensive. Their frames heated to the point that they sagged to the ground.
Hobart Estate had 6 more years of logging ahead of them and the Shays were rebuilt and put back into service.
When the Hobart Estate mill was closed in 1936 all the narrow gauge equipment was loaded on flat cars and taken to a used equipment dealer in San Francisco. Their was no buyer found for Shay #7 and she was scrapped.
Shay #10 was luckier and she was sold to the West Side Lumber Co. of Tuolumne, CA as their #14. She survives today in steam at the Colorado RR museum. It is hard to see the scars of the deadly inferno she endured nearly 80 years ago in the high Sierra's.
Martin
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2008 12:33PM by LOGGERHOGGER.
These amazing photos were snapped by a man named Joe Moir during the fire. As you can see the damage to the 2 Shays was extensive. Their frames heated to the point that they sagged to the ground.
Hobart Estate had 6 more years of logging ahead of them and the Shays were rebuilt and put back into service.
When the Hobart Estate mill was closed in 1936 all the narrow gauge equipment was loaded on flat cars and taken to a used equipment dealer in San Francisco. Their was no buyer found for Shay #7 and she was scrapped.
Shay #10 was luckier and she was sold to the West Side Lumber Co. of Tuolumne, CA as their #14. She survives today in steam at the Colorado RR museum. It is hard to see the scars of the deadly inferno she endured nearly 80 years ago in the high Sierra's.
Martin
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2008 12:33PM by LOGGERHOGGER.
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.