Skip to main content

Where did they go when they were booted out of the large metro areas?  (I think I read that New York City got rid of the

steam commuter roads due to smoke, etc., and it and other cities had used a lot of Forneys during steam commuter service)  A thread on here mentions the Bachmann Forney which reminded me that I had researched Forneys trying to find if they found second careers in the logging industry (I found one protoype photo that looked like a Forney, I think, on a logging operation in W.Va.).  I was looking for small power for a logging branch and was wondering if I couldn't kitbash some 4-drivered critter into a three rail Forney, if that was a realistic application for one  (should be a lot easier to kitbash some conventional drive chassis than to build a small two truck geared loco)   Used locomotives, then, as now,  often found uses in assorted industries.

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Coloradohirailer:

 

Yes, a few of the 0-4-4 Forneys wound up in the lumbering business in Michigan and Wisconsin. Most of those lumbering roads were very light rail and roughly laid. I don't know if they were any more prone to derailments than other steamers, but it seems like they would have been pretty nimble on the tight radius track.

 

Neil 

A logging RR I am familial with in upstate NY had two former Chicago Forneys in use as rod logging engines. Many others were used in commuter service and mining/logging/construction after the Els electrified around the turn of the century. There are three ex NY EL forneys abandoned in the tundra of Alaska.
You can look them up at the surviving steam website.

Many Forneys didn't have "second careers" in logging or plantation field--they were built for those jobs.

 

Two Baldwin Forneys are still in operation today:

Fred Gurley, 1894.

 

Ward Kimball, 1902

 

Both these locomotives were built for the Louisiana surgar cane industry. The Ward Kimball was actually one of the very first oil buring steam locomotive buit by Baldwin.

 

 

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×