Mt. Rainier Geared Doubleheader

Washington State’s Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad is the location of this presentation which features the two rarest types of geared steam locomotives. Heisler #90, a 90-ton, 3-truck locomotive built in 1930 is joined by the newly restored Climax #10. The Climax is ex-Hillcrest Lumber Co. which operated on Vancouver Island, and was the last standard gauge Climax locomotive ever built. You will enjoy this video tremendously if you like logging engines, and great steam action on a scenic railroad. It sure is different from the big mainline excursion engines! You’ll enjoy the preparations at the Mineral, Washington shop, which includes a visit with an engineer, and ride in the Heisler, and a daring shot of the Climax from underneath it as we shoot from a drop-pit in the shop. You can see all the gears, and even the grease on them, from this scary location.

The real excitement is the actual excursion train which ran from Elbe, Washington south to Morton and it was the first run of the newly restored Climax which double-headed with the Heisler behind it. During the run, we are treated to a special runby with the Climax pulling a string of empty log cars, much like she did in her first tour of duty as a logging engine. There is fabulous action as these engines sound like they are going 5 times faster than they really are. They work a 3% grade southbound near Mineral, and more grades northbound from Morton. The Morton line has had track problems and trains no longer operate on this scenic mountain section.