Re: The Climax

The locomotive in question was the last new Climax sold by the original company. It was owned by the Elk River Coal & Lumber, a sister company to the Buffalo Vreek & Gauley RR. In later years, ERC&L was acquired by W.M. Ritter Lumber. The engine was actually numbered "E-3" while in the employ of Elk River. There are photos of it in work train service in Bill Warden's book about the BC&G, as well as some dynamite action scenes in the video "Shays Lumbering & More." I saw the engine on a flatcar traveling to Bloomsburg via the Reading's Catawissa Branch on July 4, 1963, and in the spring of 1964, had my first cab ride in a geared lcomotive aboard #3 at the Carroll Park & Western RR, which by the way was actually 48-inch gauge. I believe the whole tale of how the railroad was built to that gauge, which required regauging of virtually every piece of equipment save one, has been related here before. I also have photos of #3 departing from Bloomsburg on a Penn Central flatcar on its way to California.