A smokin' Climax!

Our 1919 Climax (c/n 1551, 70 ton class C) CSRR #9 is finally up and running! First time she's steamed in well over 50 years.

First fire up.


Before.


Hydro test earlier this year (FRA inspection) certified for 200 psi working pressure.


Running.


Climax locomotive shop number 1551 was built by the Climax Locomotive Works in Corry, Pennsylvania, in 1919 and delivered new to the Moore-Keppel Company lumber operation in Ellamore (Randolph County) West Virginia. It operated there until the lumber mill closed in 1946. It was then used as standby power on the coal hauling Middle Fork Railroad before being retired in 1960. It was the one of the last Climax locomotives in U.S. commercial operation.
Purchased by the State of W.Va. in 1970 for the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, restoration work had just started when a massive fire destroyed the Cass shop complex in July, 1972. Restoration was taken up again in 2002 by a group of dedicated volunteers working a couple of weekends a month at the CSRR. In 2015 the Railroad part of the state park was taken over by the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad and the restoration was continued by the crew of the Cass Locomotive Shop (CSRR) under the direction of the DGVR.
09-05-2019 marked the first day it moved under its own power, today it ran for a special Heritage event here at the CSRR State park. Pulled a few log cars around for photo shoots and will (God willing) run again Sunday, and more in the future!

Nice job! I think there is a non operating one at the Pennsylvania railroad museum. Weren't they a sort of "budget" brand so to speak at the time and a bit cheaper than machines from other companies? I remember reading a bit about it at the museum but that's about all I remember. Good to see stuff like this being restored and operating. It's a tough situation with that sort of thing in a lot of places because of the money involved and all the safety stuff that's required.

Also welcome to the forum. Do you do a lot of machine work ect?

What a beaut! She has definitely come a long way!

I have to admit I never figured I see a steam engine on a off road lawn tractor forum...


Thats really neat. There is a local guy around here I think is supposed to be getting an engine that ran the rails through a property he owns.

Old steam locomotives are so cool.

Steam engines designed specifically for logging operations were made to negotiate tight turns and steep grades of roughly laid temporary track. Sometimes even going through streams as the one in this pic is doing. Their kinda like the off road version of the normal steam engine. As close as you could get at least. The climax pictured in this thread I believe has a driveshaft under it to connect all the wheels. Shays are another type which have all the cylinders on one side connected to a driveshaft and then to the wheels through a bevel gear on each wheel. Never my favorite engines just because they're a bit odd compared to the conventional arrangement but still cool machines with well thought out designs.




Some pretty impressive temporary bridges were built out west for logging railroads. There's a lot of cool pics online if you look. When you compare the size of the logs stacked up to the person standing on the engine (or the engine itself) you can see how massive they are. I don't know how they stacked them up that way but it must have taken a lot of winching and maneuvering. Especially back in those days without any heavy equipment.