This powerful and operable, geared, 3-truck logging Shay was the first locomotive restored and operated in San Diego County by the Museum.
Built by: Lima Locomotive Works, Lima, Ohio, July 1923
Here is a short sound-clip (au) (wav) of #3 leading a demonstration train runby at the Miramar
Naval Air Station on August 22, 1981. The clip includes a 2-stroke
motorcar, whose putt-putt sound can be heard ahead of the steamer.
Recorded by Roy Pickering, digitized by Randy Houk.
Based on designs by Ephraim Shay, HL No. 3 has three vertical pistons that turn a flexible shaft (linked by gears that reduce its speed but provide more thrust at the rail) connected to every wheel on the right side of engine and tender. Its solid axles make all 12 wheels drivers. To offset the weight of shaft, cylinders, and gears, the boiler is on the left side of the frame. Geared locomotives were widely used on lightly-constructed logging lines where power and flexibility were more important than speed.HL No. 3 is a 90-3 Class Shay built as shop No. 3221. It weighs 204,704 lbs. (102.35 tons), has 36" wheels, three 14 1/2" x 15" cylinders, boiler pressure of 200 lbs., 40,400-lb. tractive effort, top speed of about 12 mph, a spark arrester and Pyle turbo-generator. The oil-burner's integral tender has a water capacity of 4,400 gallons.
Delivered new to Hutchinson, HL No. 3 was used from Oroville, California to Land siding via the Western Pacific Railroad, and then on HLC's own 21-mile logging railroad, which included a sharply-curved 5 1/2% grade as it climbed out of the Feather River canyon. The company became Feather River Pine Mills on April 22, 1927. In 1939 Georgia-Pacific took over and built a new mill at Feather Falls, California. The 17.5-mile Feather Falls to Land portion became the common-carrier Feather River Railway, and the rest remained a logging line. The "sidewinder" operated as FR No. 3 to March 19,1965, when it pulled its last train to Land. The FRR was then abandoned due to rising waters impounded by the Oroville dam. A photo of FR No. 3 appeared in the September 1965 Trains magazine.
On Friday, May 13, 1967 Georgia-Pacific donated FR No. 3 and a truckload of locomotive parts to the San Diego Railroad Museum. Sent to the Orange Empire Trolley Museum at Perris, CA for storage, it was rerouted to San Diego, as its length and weight prevented snap-tracking it into the OETM grounds. It arrived June 10th, 1967. Kept near Santa Fe's 22nd Street yard office south of Harbor Drive between Crosby and Beardsley Streets, and then at Miramar Naval Air Station, it was rehabilitated and relettered HL No. 3. Pushed by a diesel, it was used as a "dummy" at National City's 1969 Centennial. A photo of it was on the July 1969 Pacific News rail magazine cover. Fired up on July 5-6, 1969, January 1 and February 14, 1970 holidays and at other times, including use on the Museum's 1980 Miramar Chief, it was moved to La Mesa depot September 11-12, 1981, and occasionally steamed up.
Taken by the SD&AE to San Ysidro, on July 30, 1983 HL No. 3 pulled the Museum's 18-car "Great Freight" through Tijuana, Baja California in a great display of steam power. At Garcia station, 7.8 miles south of the border, a weld on the lower portion of its Johnson bar broke, causing cracks in two other parts, putting it out of commission. Diesel No. 7485 took the equipment to Campo, where HL No. 3 was fully restored in 1985-86. It was back in San Diego on May 6-8, 1988 as the noisy star of the museum's RAILFAIR '88 in Santa Fe's Wright Street yard. Later repainted (but not relettered), it pulled a few trains on the Museum's SD&A mainline, though not well suited for that service. HL No. 3 is on display in the Museum yards, and is occasionally steamed up for shuttle service.
WPS/SDRM/2/93
