Builder Construction No. Date Type Cylinders Drivers Boiler Pressure Gross Weight Tractive Effort

Heisler Locomotive Works 1268 February, 1913 3-truck Heisler 18 x 16 inches 40 inches 180 psi 172,000 pounds (85 tons) 32,500 pounds

Marc Reusser Collection

 –  Built new as Sugar Pine Railway No. 5, Standard, CA
 –  Standard Lumber Co. No. 5, Standard, CA
 –  Pickering Lumber Corp. No. 5, Standard, CA
 –  Connell Bros. Trucking Co., private owner, Stockton, CA
     (for proposed sale to Cuba)
 –  Acquired by PLA, May 1966
 –  In service, Castro Point Railway, 1970 to 1985
 –  Stored serviceable, Niles Canyon Railway, Sunol, CA

Note: This is one of only two 85 ton, 3-truck Heislers ever built.

Heisler No. 5
The Club Car, August 1995

By C. G. Heimerdinger, Jr.

In 1903, the Sierra Railway created a subsidiary called the Sugar Pine Railway, which served as a logging railroad feeding the Standard Lumber Company's mill at Sonora, even though it was created as a common carrier (the present mill at Standard was not built until a number of years later).

Initially, Sierra locomotives were assigned to handle Sugar Pine trains, which heavily taxed the existing motive power. To relieve the pressure, Sierra purchased two 2T Climax locomotives, but only one, the 21; ever saw service as a Sierra locomotive. The other was delayed in construction, and when it arrived on the property, Sierra refused to accept it, and it was resold to another party as a "new" locomotive.

There was an economic recession in 1907, and at that time, the management of the Sugar Pine Railway was turned over to the Standard Lumber Company. Included in this transaction was Sierra's lone Climax, which became the Sugar Pine Railway's Number 1. While initially Sugar Pine supplemented its locomotive needs with Sierra power, it was not long before they started to order additional power. The first two locomotives to be obtained were Shays; in 1913, two Heislers were obtained. The second of these Heislers was to be a large three-truck model Numbered 5. The 3T Heisler still exists today under the ownership of the Pacific Locomotive Association, and it is still numbered 5. Originally, the number 5 was lettered for the Sugar Pine Railway, but around 1918, when the Pickering Lumber Company purchased the Standard Lumber Company and the railroad, the locomotive was lettered for Standard Lumber Company (while Pickering owned Standard Lumber, they continued to use the name).

It was while lettered for the Standard Lumber that the locomotive received the "red" paint scheme for the first time. The cause of the "red" scheme was a fire near Ralph on the Sierra Railway where the Standard Lumber Company also had trackage rights. All that was known was that the locomotive that started the fire was painted black, and somehow the Standard Lumber Company was blamed for the fire. Not wanting to have the same situation develop again, the Standard Company started painting their locomotives red. Never again would there be a question as to which railroad started a fire. When, in 1926, the Pickering Lumber Company consolidated all of their holdings under the name of Pickering, the Number 5 received a new name on her tender (Pickering). However, she retained the red paint scheme.

The Pickering Lumber Company picked a bad time to consolidate all their holdings and to take on new debts (they had purchased the West Side Lumber Company), as the Great Depression was to follow only a few years later. As a result of the Depression, the Pickering Lumber Company failed. When the company was reorganized a few years later (without the West Side Lumber Company), the name was changed to Pickering Lumber Corporation, and the end of the red paint scheme.

After World War II, the Number 5 was primarily assigned to handling trains between the mill at Standard and Schottegen Pass. Beyond Schottegen Pass, large three truck Shays handled the trains. In 1956, Pickering Lumber Corp. dieselized the "lower" end of the railroad, and the Number 5 was out of a job, along with the other large three truck Heislers Pickering had picked up over the years.

The Number 5 was to have one last fling when in 1957 she was used in connection with two Central Coast Railway Club trips over the Sierra. For the most part, the 4-6-0 Number 3 handled the train, but between Standard and Ralph, the Number 5 was used. Why the Number 1 was not used is unknown, as she had been completely rebuilt just before the new diesels arrived. The only operation of the Number 1 after the rebuilding was a test run to Ralph.

In 1958, the Number 5, along with two other Heislers, and Shay Number 12 were sold to an individual who had plans to resell them to Cuba. [Fidel] Castro changed all that, and the locomotives ended up sitting in a field in Stockton. At the same time that we acquired the Number 12, we also acquired the Number 5. The initial goal had been to obtain the Number 1, but she had already been sold. Because we were aware that the Number 5 had operated in 1957, she was selected.

It is interesting to note that it was the third Heisler, the Number 10, which was to operate first. She had been sold to a small operation at Klamath, California, and was in operation in 1968.

The Number 5 was moved to Castro Point in 1967, and work started at restoring her to service in early 1970, and she was back in service on the July 4th weekend of that year. It seems ironic that the "best" of the three Heislers, the Number 1, was never returned to service. For almost twenty years she sat in Monterey waiting for a call that never came. She was still sitting there when the Pacific Locomotive Association acquired the locomotive and moved it [to Fremont].

The Number 5 was to see plenty of action at Castro Point. She was still in service when that railroad shut down at the end of 1985. Like the Number 12 and several other locomotives, the Number 5 was delivered to a storage site [in Fremont] at the end of 1986, where she joined the Number 1. It should be noted that the Number 1 is an identical sister to the Number 5. Of the four 3T Heislers on the Pickering roster, only the number 1 and 5 were identical. The other two Heislers had different specifications.

Today the number 1 and 5 await a move to Niles Canyon that will surely come. Of the other two 3T Heislers that were owned by Pickering, the Number 10, which had gone to Klamath, is now in Washington State, and the Number 2 is on display at Travel Town in Los Angeles. The Number 2 had been donated directly to Travel Town by Pickering and was not one of the locomotives to end up in the field at Stockton.