I'm happy to share the news with RYPN of the rebuild project to return Hillcrest Lumber Co. Shay locomotive #1 to steam, at the BC Forest Discovery Centre, Duncan, BC, Canada. Hillcrest #1 was built in 1920 by Lima, builders #3147. It was built for stock as a narrow gauge (3 foot) class 28 - 2 wood burning locomotive, Hillcrest was looking for a small Shay in a hurry so Lima re-gauged the engine to standard gauge and converted it to oil burning, with a purchase price of $14,428.00. This locomotive is noteworthy as it spent its entire working life in the Cowichan Valley of Vancouver Island, working first for Hillcrest, then Export Lumber Co, then Mayo Lumber Co. It ended it’s working life in 1963 working for the Osbourne Bay Wharf Co. switching cars at the port facilities in Crofton. In 1964 the locomotive was donated to the newly formed Cowichan Valley Forest Museum (the forerunner of todays BC Forest Discovery Centre) and was converted back to narrow gauge in the Hillcrest Lumber Companies shop at Mesachie Lake. Hillcrest #1 became well known worldwide in the 1970s when a brass HO and HOn3 gauge model of the locomotive was produced, and appeared in steam at the SteamExpo exhibit during Expo 86 in Vancouver. Through the 1970s and 80’s the locomotive was operated for special events, but became the only engine operating on the Forest Museums railway from 1988 when the boilers on the museums two small Vulcan rod engines were condemned. Number 1 saw intensive use during those years untill Vulcan #25 was rebuilt in 1997. At that time Number 1 was taken out of service pending repairs which began in June of 2016. When completed #1 will be the only operational Shay in Canada. Donations toward the rebuild of the locomotive are appreciated and Canadian residents are entitled to tax receipts for donations of over $100, please follow the links on the BC Forest Discovery Centres website if anyone wishes to donate. http://bcforestdiscoverycentre.com/?page_id=145

A Facebook page has been started to document the historical and technical aspects of the rebuild, which should be visible to non Facebook members at https://www.facebook.com/CowichanValleyShay/

The pictures show the boiler leaving for rebuilding by GeoTech Industries of Crofton BC, passing Mayo Lumber #3, and Hillcrest Climax #9. And #1 in steam in early morning light back in 1993.

Pat Hosford
Volunteer Machinist/Tool & Die maker
BC Forest Discovery Centre

Well, this'll be just great. Neat little machine.

I saw & rode her in '68 while on leave from the USAF when I was on the Island riding Hillcrest and MacMillan Bloedel. A guy named Elmer Blackstaff was usually the engineer and like most Canadians, was pretty friendly to visitors. They even doubleheaded her at least once with one of the 0-4-0-Ts and I got slides of that.

Glad to hear the #1 is going to run again. I first saw her in September 1969. A few years later I got to fire here and one of the 0-4-0Ts. Anybody have any information on the two cranes that were at Osbourne Bay Wharf Co.?

Tom, It's nice to hear Elmer Blackstaffe remembered. I didn't know Elmer well but knew his brother Cliff. One of Elmer's sons and members of the extended Blackstaffe family are still involved in the steam community here.

Pat

Pat, he was a character is the best sort of way. I remember him visiting Hillcrest on a day that I was riding Climax 10 with Harry Wright. Harry let him take the empties back from Lake Cowichan. That was a wild ride.
A lot of loggers used to drop by Hillcrest, I met Gerry Wellburn and Spike Carson as well as Bob Swanson. Bob was a frequent visitor.

Tom

This information is from the Lima field service cards.

Hillcrest Lbr. Co. Duncan, BC
#1 C/N 3147
#3 C/N 3350
01-12-21 Will get 3147 through customs soon as possible
01-14-21 Trying to get 3147 through customs
01-15-21 3147 still in bond
01-17-21 Engine cleared will go to Saghtlam tonight
01-18-21 Engine set at noon today ready to unload
01-19-21 Engine unloaded and waiting for inspection
01-20-21 Passed inspection and ready to fire in AM
01-21-21 3147 accepted
04-19-21 Work on valves and rear L. S.
07-18-21 Engine doing good work
11-22-21 Plant closed
01-27-22 Company made changes in front end so as to get engine to steam with a stack
similar to the Radley Hunter made by the Vancouver Machinery Co.
01-28-22 Mr. Stone will not agree to anything without allowing all consessions, went
through steam ports today and found them free of any obstruction, valves all
OK
01-30-22 Engine 3147 has blow
02-01-22 Tests show that engine 3147 is developing all her power, dynamometer
applied to test drawbar pull, Stone claims incorrect
02-20-22 Went over Hillcrest situation with Mr. Dans. Stone in Hofius office and
wanted to know if they would take loco on a larger one.
03-20-22 Mr. Kittle arrived and endeavoring to prove to Mr. Stone that track conditions
are responsible for most trouble
10-23-22 3147 giving better service
11-15-24 Mills and camp closed, 3147 in good shape
03-19-26 Will need more power before long
04-27-27 New Climax dose not steam as it should
06-11-28 Bought new 70-ton Climax
02-17-48 TES advises that #3350 purchased about 3 years ago from Mayo Bros. Tbr.
Co.

Very interesting info from the previous post...

Mr. Stone would have been Carlton Stone, the founder of Hillcrest Lbr. Co. He was an extremely well respected man, especially by his employees. I had the honor of meeting two of his sons, Paul and Hector. I still have a letter from Hector written on Hillcrest stationery and had dinner with him at one of the Rail Fairs in Sacramento when he paid a visit. He was the driving force for having Climax 9 back in steam and attending. Both sons were real gentlemen like their father was.

TES was likely Ted Satra, a West Coast Lima rep.

Lima 3350 became a Hillcrest locomotive but had a relatively short career there. Hillcrest had at least one 80 ton Climax and they liked that model well even though it was 70 ton Climax 10 that lasted to the end of the operation in August of 1968. I was able to ride her in August of '67 and June of '68 and even got to run and fire her some there, the first steam locomotive that I had any real time on.

After her time at Hillcrest, 3350, a Pacific Coast type Shay, went to Canadian Forest Products at the North end of Vancouver Island. After steam was done there Bob Swanson saved her and she went to Vancouver Wharves on the mainland as Railway Appliance Research 115 where she worked as a switcher with sister 3320 (number 114) until around 1970.

Thank you for your post John, again very interesting info.

John and Tom: Thanks for all the great information and stories. Harry Wright from Hillcrest just passed away a couple of years ago, he had gone on to have a career as a power engineer in a local pulp mill after Hillcrest closed down. It's almost certain he was the last person to get his steam locomotive engineers certification on "real working steam" in Canada, possibly the last in North America, I think he got it around 1968 at the age of 21. Thanks again John for the info on #1's early years. I've heard stories that Hillcrest were unhappy with the engine as delivered and this seems to confirm that, there was a story that the engine was delivered with no rings on the pistons, but I find that a bit hard to believe. The mention of attempts to improve the draughting with the Radley Hunter stack are also interesting as there was a swaged nipple found screwed into the blast pipe to raise and reduce the orifice, I wonder if it dates from that modification.

Pat

115 is currently at Fort Steele Heritage Park in Cranbrook BC, it has not run in around 25 years now, unfortunately due to a corrugated crown sheet.

Hope that I'm not getting too far afield here, but since Pat mentioned Hillcrest engineer Harry Wright, I'd like to add that I first met him in 1967 when he was running, He had fired for George Grant when he was a couple of years younger. At that time, the fireman was Gus Bergman and brakie was Pete Watson.

When I got there in '67, Harry was running, Earl Gravelle was his fireman and Preston Belcher was the brakie. Both were older than Harry, in fact Earl had spent time just up the line at Western Forest Industries firing their 75-3 Willamette in the 50's.

These guys were regular pranksters. Earl would snatch big green leaves off of the vegetation while on the way to Lake Cowichan, wad them up and then fire them at Harry who would just chuckle and then turn the dynamo on and lengthen the cutoff to use more steam. This went on incessantly.

One day when coming back light engine from town, Harry stopped the Climax out in the woods just beyond the One Mile Crossing where you could not see her from the road. We all sat on the rear footboard and swapped lies for about 40 minutes. Harry had her spotted right over a small bridge and you could look down and see the trout below. Anyway, we rolled into the yard at Hillcrest around 5PM which Harry had timed perfectly he thought, so that we could hit the bar in town after we tied up. But Paul Stone came running out of the office wanting to know where we'd been. Harry conned him some saying he'd had to stop to adjust a hanging brake. Anyway, we had to go up to Honeymoon Bay to work WFI and take some of their loads to town. Two trips in a rough riding Climax and we didn't get back until around 7, but we still made the bar ok. It made for a nice evening after a long day on the Kidney Cruncher.

Harry & I stayed close friends for many years, up until his death. I was able to repay his favors to me and invited him down to Rio Vista Junction near Sacramento in the early 70's and let him run the former Pickering Lbr. Corp. Pacific Coast Shay 11. This was just like the 5 of WFI. Harry had been able to get on the 5 spot when she was taken to the Hillcrest shop around '63 for an upcoming charter. They really liked her for switching and the improved riding qualities over the Climax.

Several years ago I was given copies of the Lima field service cards for the west. I broke out the information for BC, Washington, Oregon and California. If anyone wants any of these lists just let me know.

Hello there; it's my first time here. I definitely don't challenge any of this information. If Harry Wright was the last to get his ticket on " real working steam", I think my late father would be a close second. He did his firing time for his steam ticket on MB #1055 and #1077 at Nanaimo river in 1968 until they shut down the steam operation in December 1969. He did however get some of his firing hours in at the Forest Museum so maybe he doesn't qualify. I sure am enjoying these posts! Keep up the good work.

Regarding Harry Wright, he was the engineer in 1967 when I first visited Hillcrest.

To the second poster, was your relative at M-B Fred Lawes? I rode M-B in 1968 and again in 1969, the last month of woods logging. Pete McGovern was the woods engineer, Fred was fireman and Jack McAdam was the brakie.

If it was Fred, you can send me your address and I'll be happy to send you a photo of him. All those guys were wonderful gents and that includes the gang at Chemainus, Bob Strang, Ed Marty and Onni Parta. Parta got off the 1055 one day in 1971 and told Strang that he had some shopping to do and let me finish the shift firing.

Tom

I have attempted to reply with a private message, but I am not sure if it has gone through...

It’ll stay in your out box until the recipient opens it. That’s how you know when or if they got it.