Cranes and trains
A piece of local history moves on from Railtown
Aself- propelled steam locomotive log-loader, complete with its own firebox, oil-fired boiler, operator’s chair, hand levers, and foot pedals, built in 1925 and kept nearly a century in Tuolumne County, is on its way to Baldo Locomotive Works in Willits, about 250 miles northwest of Jamestown, for preservation and restoration.
Getting old Pickering Lumber Corp. Crane No. 2 ready for transport from Railtown 1897 State Historic Park took some doing Monday. The crane with its boom, house, and frame weighed 75 tons total. Baldo Locomotive Works employees removed the boom last week. On Monday, the 76,000-pound house was hoisted off its frame, and the house and frame were lifted onto separate flatbed trailers for transport to Willits.
Pickering Lumber Corp. Crane No. 2 was built 97 years ago by American Hoist & Derrick in St. Paul, Minnesota for the Standard Lumber Company, which merged with West Side Lumber Company in 1926 to become Pickering Lumber Company, said Michael Ninneman, an interpretive park aide at
Railtown.
No. 2 could lift up to 25 tons, and it could move itself and a small number of other rail cars around. The crane was primarily used out in the woods at various logging camps, lifting logs onto flatcars for their trip down the hill to the Standard mill via the tracks of the old Sugar Pine Railway and the Sierra Railway, Ninneman said. Pickering Lumber Corp. Crane No. 2 was kept in use until 1965 and it came to Railtown in 1971, where it’s been parked and prominently displayed at Fifth Avenue and Reservoir Road for more than 50 years.
Over the years, old No. 2 became an icon for Railtown visitors, volunteers, and railroad historians. It served its entire working life in Tuolumne County, Ninneman said.
“So many of us have passed by it at the end of the tracks here,” Ninneman said. “It’s been parked in the same place for decades since I was a kid.” Ninneman added he is 27 years old. “It’s been parked at 5th Avenue and Reservoir all this time. Now it’s going to a better place, to be restored to working order some day.”
The place where Pickering Lumber Corp. Crane No. 2 was parked was also where a ceremonial golden spike was driven to mark completion of the Sierra Railway in 1897, Ninneman said.
Part of the task Monday morning was lifting the crane house off the crane frame. Baldo Locomotive Works employees nearly called another trailer out but decided the pair they already had were adequate when they determined the house by itself weighed about 38 tons.
When they lifted the house off the frame, it most likely exposed the ring gear and its ancient grease to air and sunshine for the first time since it was built 97 years ago by American Hoist & Derrick. Contractor Steven Butler and a worker with Baldo Locomotive Works took care to preserve exterior pieces of the ring gear.
Before they lowered the house onto a flatbed trailer, they spent a lot of time eyeballing the house and how it would fit on the trailer. The new crane and the old crane share similar operator controls in the form of hand levers and foot pedals, even though the old crane was built 97 years ago.
A hundred years ago, Standard Lumber Co. operated several facilities in Sonora and Standard for milling and processing finished lumber. The Standard mill complex established by Standard Lumber Company is still in use — and the facility and operation are considerably more modern today — under the ownership of Sierra Pacific Industries, Ninneman said.
Old No. 2 was primarily used as a log loader, though it had other functions, including steamshovel capabilities, to clear fallen debris from railroad tracks, and as a wrecker, to help lift derailed locomotives or derailed railcars back on the rails.
Pickering Lumber Co. went into receivership in 1931 due to effects of the Great Depression on the national lumber market, and old No. 2 sat idle for several years. In 1937, the company emerged from bankruptcy as the Pickering Lumber Corporation, and No. 2 was put to work again clearing the railroad of debris to reopen the line for the logging season, Ninneman said.
Old No. 2 remained in operation until Pickering’s sale to the Fibreboard Corporation in 1965. Fibreboard’s directors were intent on abandoning all railroad operations and converting entirely to truck logging, so No. 2 was retired and placed in storage, Ninneman said. By 1971, the crane along with a few other pieces of former Pickering railroad equipment had been moved to Jamestown on the Sierra Railroad for long-term storage.
In the mid-1980s, Old No. 2 was acquired by the late Fred Kepner, who intended to incorporate it into a proposed Great Western Railroad Museum in Mccloud, which never materialized. Old No. 2 remained at Railtown and when Kepner died in late 2021, Kepner’s collection of historic railroad equipment was acquired by the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad of Garibaldi, Oregon.
Then Chris Baldo, owner of Baldo Locomotive Works, purchased Old No. 2 for restoration. Baldo was a key player who helped with the generous donation of Sierra Railroad steam locomotive No. 34 to the California State Railroad Museum Foundation for transfer to Railtown 1897 earlier this year. A donation ceremony for locomotive No. 34 occurred in tandem with Railtown’s celebration of the Sierra Railway’s 125th Anniversary in April.
“Pickering No. 2 is one of the last reminders of the critical role the Pickering Lumber Co. and the local logging industry as a whole played in shaping Tuolumne County,” Ninneman said. “Even today, nearly sixty years after the Pickering Lumber Corporation faded into history, the old Pick and Ring logo still holds meaning to the families of those who worked in the woods. Pickering No. 2 will be well-cared for at its new home in Willits under the skilled hands of Chris Baldo and his restoration crew.”
David Cover with Cover & Sons in Tuolumne said he was planning to drive the bigrig hauling the Old No. 2 house on a flatbed trailer, 160 to Williams by Monday night, and the rest of the way to Willits on Tuesday.