Re: West Side Lbr. Co. question

Tom,

It's entirely possible to have come from the West Side, but it would be next to impossible to prove. There were an enormous variety of whistles on the engines over the years, especially in the earlier years where photos reveal many types of single and three chime whistles on all the engines, both Shay and Heisler. I'm sure this also reflects the personal side of an engineer and his whistle, so there would likely be many whistle changes over 60 years.

In the later years, most all the Shays had 5 and 6 chime whistles, some of which were picked up from the SP. I'm no whistle guy to point out which was which, but with the exception of Shorty Maddox's Lunkenheimer, they all looked similar to a whistle dummy like myself. However, as much as Shorty's Lunkenheimer is so synonymous with the #10, that was only after Ed Sullivan gave up the #10 to be roundhouse foreman in the 40's and the #10 became Shorty's engine.

Still, SP's comments are quite valid and a buyer would have to rely on the sellers word. I have a Lunkenheimer that is identical to Shorty's, but despite the fact that the original is at the Tuolumne City Museum, I could easily make the claim to an unsuspecting buyer by simply pointing to photos. ;-)

Tim McCartney



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2014 08:12PM by Tim McCartney.