Former Santee River Lumber Company Heisler #3 arrived yesterday at the Southern Forest Heritage Museum, Long Leaf, LA on October 20. Owned by Mike Brown of Crown Point, LA, cafefully cared for by Mike and stored at the Whitewater Valley RR in Connerville, IN, the locomotive will be the first steam locomotive overhauled in the Red River and Gulf RR / Crowell & Spencer Lumber Co. shop in Long Leaf since 1951.

That is some kind of excellent, Everett, and I congratulate you all and wish all of you nothing but the best possible luck. I'm certain that you fellas are going to give it the best possible effort. Keep your fingers crossed. Sometimes there really IS justice in Life.

VIVA Santee River Hardwood #3 !!!

Excellent!
I like this tiny "old style" Heisler. See that locomotive some 20 years ago in Connersville.
Unfortunately I did not have measurement tools with me. So I have that neat locomotive
not fully documented in my database.

According to Kline's Heisler book Santee River Hardwood was not the first owner and the
serial number/year/1st owner is missing.

From my optical view it could be an 18ton, 20ton, 22ton, 24ton model form 1905-1908.
Did you research that? If yes can you share the info here?

If not I would appreciate when the restoration start that you can post the cylinder
dimension, wheel diameter and wheel base here. That would help to narrow the range
of serial number / original owners / year.

Diameter is either 10" 11" 12"
Stroke must be 10"
Wheels must 30"
Wheel base between ~ 18'-20'

Thank you for preserving. :-)

The location for the first photo should be St. Stephen, SC, where Santee River Hardwood was located. (There’s no Stephenville in SC.)

Tom Fetters’ book “Logging Railroads of South Carolina “ has some great photos of their locomotives and operations.

Does that mean an overhaul to restore to operating condition?

Whether operating or cosmetic, the Long Leaf facility is on my bucket list. What a time capsule it must be.

One of two ex-Santee River Hardwood Company Heislers that were at the Whitewater Valley, the other one is now at the Silver Creek & Stephenson Railroad in Freeport, Illinois. I believe one of the Heislers was used for a time at Whitewater Valley as power for their caboose train at Metamora, Indiana. Great to hear that 20-ton Heisler # 3 is now going to be restored.

Les

Sorry, St. Stephen is correct. I wrote this at 12:20 in the morning after coming back to Houston from Long Leaf.

Yes, overhaul means return to operation!

As far as its history goes, we (Mike and myself) are as much in the dark as everyone else.
What I can tell you is that it has 12" X 10" cylinders, and weighed 36,500# on the truck. Mike had removed about 1500# of weight before it was shipped so its empty weight was above 38,000# which coupled with the cylinder size makes it a 22 ton model. The cylinder size, wheel size of 30" and the weight all point to a locomotive which was either made by Stearns Manufacturing before 1903, or by the Stearns Co in 1906, before it became Heisler Locomotive Co. BUT, and it is a big BUT, some of the wheels have HLCO cast into the counter weights, but not all of them. Furthermore, it has the post 1914 universal joints but pre 1914 trucks. It has obviously been in a major wreck at one time, as there is a strongback on the firemans side cylinder to strenghen a weld repair on the crosshead assembly, and a wheel that is obviously home made on one of the trucks. The main I beam on the engineers side is a Carnegie Steel beam with a post 1920 Carnegie trademark.

Thus, It appears that it may actually be a combination of one or more locomotives, or its owner put a lot of effort into rebuilding it after the wreck (of which we know nothing).

J. David Conrad has the built date as "circa 1906" in his book.

Les

Yes, and there is some evidence for that but there is also evidence for an earlier date as well. Hopefully we will find something that will clarify the situation.

Congratulations on the move!

Please check PM.

Wesley

Greetings:
"Inquiring minds was to know" department:

What year did Mike Brown purchase this locomotive and from whom?

Thanks!
J.David

Mike bought the engine from the Whitewater Valley about 1978 as he remembers. I asked him tonight.