Re: The Answer

A book entitled "The North Bank Road" has some info on the Eccles interest in N.W. Oregon as it relates to the United Railways which was owned by the SP&S. This I suspect is historical quagmire country as WHEccles Lbr. is noted to have owned timber in that part of the state and had a std. ga. logging line somewhere over there. Eccles interests were originally behind the Oregon American Lbr. Co. It is not clear to me which parts of the family dynasty were actually behind some of this, and maybe both branchs. As I recall part of the story on the construction of the United Railways, Eccles interests threatened to build their own rr if someone else didn't. Apparently they got their way. If the timing is correct, this 3 engine order could have been part of the threat to build their own line. They probably had little worry of disposing of engines of this size without it costing them. I gifted the book mentioned above to a friend and have not replaced it, so others can check on the timing to see if I might be on the right track.