Booth & Shannon 1905
P & J Shannon Lumber
Pratt & Shanacy 1923-27
Biscotasing a.k.a "Bisco"
Brian Westhouse
Booth & Shannon 1, a unique 0-4-2T with a load of
ties. 1905
There was a small portable mill at Biscotasing operated
by Leech and Rowan, under contract to CPR in 1886, this was, however,
moved to Bright township near Algoma Mills, under order from the railway.
The mill built by Sadler and O'Neill in 1894 was constructed on land owned
by Canadian Pacific Railway and closed in 1898. I have no record of any
contract by them to supply to the CPR. Booth and Shannon who had been
logging the area since 1895, leased the mill site in 1901 and although
I have found no record of them supplying to the CPR either, in 1903 the
Booth and Shannon mill produced the lumber to build the Nicholson sawmill.
A fire at Biscotasing that consumed the sawmill June 12, 1913, is likely
why this locomotive was replaced. I suspect the boiler of this original
Biscotasing locomotive may have been used as a standby for the mill's
fire pump, when the larger boiler that would have been required for the
mill would have been shut down. I inspected an old boiler in 1992 behind
the Biscotasing Inn (former Pratt & Shanacy Co. boarding house), which
I was told, was part of the boiler of the sawmill, and its appearance
leads me to believe it was in fact what was left of old #1.
The Biscotasing mill was last operated in 1927 and the mill
was intact until 1938 when it was sold to Standard Chemical and moved
to Harcourt.
Pratt & Shanacy 6 (ex P & J Shannon Lumber 6,
nee Cavicchi & Pagano 8 (C)
MLW #49495 2/1911 Being rescued in 1958. MNR Chapleau
The second Biscotasing locomotive (#6) was donated to Algonquin Park (East
Gate logging exhibit) in 1958 by D. L. Pratt of Toronto, a son of the
Midland lumberman D. S. Pratt after laying derelict from 1927!
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