The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., April 9, 1964, page 1
Includes photograph titled:
SHAY NO. 7 at the reload station on its excursion run Saturday, April
4. An overflowing crowd of more than 400 made the trip.
MANY PEOPLE FROM DISTANT PLACES TAKE SHAY RIDE
Over 400 railway enthusiast, loggers, rock hounds, and
others interested in the scenic beauty of the Klickitat River canyon enjoyed
the last run of the Shay locomotive No. 7 last Saturday, April 4. The Shay,
pulling four open gondolas and two cabooses left Klickitat at 11:30 a.m.
and arrived at the loading station at 3:30 p.m. Coffee and doughnuts were
served to the crowd by the Goldendale Chamber of Commerce. George Klein served
as master of ceremonies. The train returned to Klickitat reaching that city
at 6:30 p.m.
According to Art Hamilton, representing The Dalles office
of the Puget Sound Railway Historical Association 417 tickets were sold and
refunds were made on seven tickets. Sy Reich, editor of the Railway Magazine,
New York City, made a special trip out to the west to take the last ride
on the Shay.
Railway men, both active and retired, came from Seattle,
Bremerton, Tacoma, Chehalis, Vancouver, B.C., Portland, The Dalles, and other
Washington and Oregon points. In addition to the close-by communities being
well represented, San Francisco and Burlingame, Calif., and Provo, Utah were
represented.
Ron Downer, San Francisco, said that he left San Francisco
on Friday, took the Shay trip on Saturday and would return home the following
day. Mark Walker, Seattle, was an interested passenger, having fired a Shay
on the Elk River and Grace Harbor run in 1927.
Another Seattle man reported that he had a model Shay
engine built to the scale of three-fourth inch to a foot running in his backyard.
Other enthusiast reported that they had been on many of the excursions and
that the hospitality shown by the Goldendale Chamber of Commerce on this
trip had not been surpassed on any other trip.
The train took a leisurely trip up the river, stopping
at the many scenic points for the camera fans to take pictures. At the various
stops, the train would whistle, the people would get off the train, get their
cameras ready, then the train, with another whistle, would send up a dense
cloud of black smoke, giving a realistic setting for the shutter bugs.
The tracks will soon be torn up and the road bed will
be widened so that the logs can be delivered to the mill by trucks. The hauling
by trucks will enable the company to shut down the reloading station as the
logs can be brought into the mill without unloading enroute.
The Shay No. 7 was built in the shops of the Lima Locomotive
Works, Ohio, and started working in the timber in 1929. She was brought from
Montana to the Klickitat Log and Lumber company in 1942.
The Shay has called some 200,000 car loads of logs from
the reload station to the mill since it began service 42 years ago. In addition,
sheep, mail, water and supplies were hauled to the camps along its route.
Definite plans as to what will become of No. 7 have not
been made at this time, however, the old timers and residents of Klickitat
hope that it will be left as a tourist attraction in Klickitat.
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© Jeffrey L. Elmer