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Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad Locomotive #4 |
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Builder's photo of the Weyerhaeuser #4. Jerry Lamper collection. |
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The Baldwin Magazine contained this report on the #4 shortly after Baldwin built the locomotive. Robby Peartree collection. |
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The new Weyerhaeuser #4 passing through Bend on its way to Klamath Falls. Jerry Lamper collection. |
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Another Baldwin Magazine piece on the #4 shortly after arriving in Klamath Falls. Robby Peartree collection. |
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The Weyerhaeuser #4 at a log camp west of Klamath Falls. Jerry Lamper collection. |
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Weyerhaeuser #4 at a log camp somewhere in the woods. Note the nose of 2-8-2 #1 to the right of the #4. Photo from the Marc Ruesser collection. |
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Weyerhaeuser #4 crossing a trestle out in the woods. Jeff Moore collection. |
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The #4 sitting outside the Klamath sawmill with a snowplow in 1954. J.L. Watson photo. |
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One last shot of Weyerhaeuser #4 in Klamath Falls. Photo by and courtesy of Jerry Lamper. |
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Weyerhaeuser placed the #4 up for sale shortly after the new S-8s arrived from Baldwin. The Sierra Railroad in the California foothills was then evaluating diesels but needed some more time before taking the plunge and bought the locomotive, where it worked until replaced again by new Baldwin diesels in 1955. D.S. Richter caught the former #4, now Sierra #38, in Sonora, California, in August 1952. |
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The former Weyerhaeuser #4 would have a third act After being replaced by Baldwin diesels for the second time. Rayonier, a big steam logging show on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, already had several large articulated locomotives on its roster and deemed the #38 a solid addition to the fleet. The locomotive kept the #38 on the Rayonier roster. C.G. Heimerdinger Jr. found the locomotive at Railroad Camp. |
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Charles Heimerdinger also caught the #38 with a log train somewhere on the Rayonier railroad during his visits. The locomotive's third operation would also come to a close when replaced yet again by Baldwin diesels, this time former Southern Pacific AS-616s Rayonier acquired starting in 1962. |
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After being displaced by diesels for the final time Rayonier placed the #38 on display at its Crane Creek reload at the northern end of its logging railroad, where it remained until the early 1980s. Rayonier decided it wanted the locomotive gone and was on the verge of scrapping it when Fred Kepner and his Great Western Railway Museum stepped in and bought the #38. Fred had to disasemble the #38 to get it out of Crane Creek, and by the middle 1980s the three main pieces had been moved to McCloud, California, where Pat Driscoll found them. |
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By the middle 1990s Fred had moved the pieces of the #4/#38 to some land he owned in McCloud, where they are seen here in June 2003 along with a former Pickering Lumber tank car and some other equipment Fred owned. Note the former Rayonier and Weyerhaeuser lettering are starting to show through on the tender. Shortly after the date of these photos Fred moved the pieces of Merrill, Oregon. |
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As of the time of this posting (December 2025) the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad has started moving the pieces of the #38 to their operation in northwest Oregon. Part of the frame and running gear are seen here at Garibaldi, Oregon, in September 2025. James Hughes photo. |
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