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Climax Locomotive, The By Thompson Dunn & Hauff
The Climax Locomotive By Dennis Blake Thompson, Richard Dunn & Steve Hauff
Hard cover with Dust Jacket
Copyright 2002 First edition first printing
497 Pages
CONTENTS
Dedicationvii
Project History & Acknowledgmentsviii
Introduction xii
PART ONEThe Climax Manufacturing Company
Chapter OneThe Early Years1 Foundation of a Locomotive Builder
Chapter TwoClimax Builds a Locomotive9 Birth of the Class A
Chapter Three Company Growth and Expansion21 Birth of the Class B and Class C
Chapter Four The Corry, Pennsylvania Plant37 Manufacturing Facilities and Shops
Chapter Five Messengers and Roadmen49 New Locomotive Delivery and Customer Service
Chapter SixThe Climax Legacy63 A Successful Locomotive in a Declining Market
PART TWOLocomotive Evolution and Details
Chapter Seven Class A Locomotives69 Pictorial Essay
Chapter Eight Class B Locomotives103 Pictorial Essay
Chapter Nine Class C Locomotives221 Pictorial Essay
Chapter TenWrecks and Derelicts261 Pictorial Essay
Chapter Eleven Locomotives for Export289 Overseas Sales and Shipments
Chapter Twelve The Climax Locomotive in B.C.321 By Darryl Muralt
INTRODUCTION
It was almost four decades ago that I clambered into the cab of a working Climax for the first time. I was blissfully unaware that I was witness to a finale, the passing of an era. Within a short time of that excursion, there were no remaining Climaxes in revenue service, and only a few operating on tourist lines. Thesights, sounds, smells, and bone-jarring bounce of riding on a Climax are all, however, vividly etched into my memory.
In the years subsequent to that adventure, I have had the rare pleasure to talk with many people whose lives were touched by Climax locomotives-several who built or maintained them, a greater number who ran or fired on them, and an even larger group who remembered stories passed down from fathers and grandfathers about the -Climax lokie that worked at Camp...". In each conversation, there was a discernible level of passion. When someone spoke of a certain locomotive, a personality emerged-that of the locomotive. She was a "good steamer" or a "bad steamer," rode like a Cadillac or "I had to get new dentures all the time 'cause she kept shakin"em out." " She'd pull that Shay (... or Heisler ... or Willamette ... or rod lokie) right out of her socks."
The men who I talked to inevitably referred to the locomotive in the feminine. "She," "her," and "old girl" liberally peppered every conversation. The locomotive was never referred to as "it" by those who worked on or with her. She became an organism of steel, fuel, and water-as alive and as individual as the men who ran her. More than once, I heard from exasperated wives who, after recalling that their husbands ran the locomotive all week and then spent the weekends working on her, related, "I believe that he loved that locomotive more than me-he certainly spent more time with it!" (The women had no trouble referring to their metallic rival as "it.")
The story of the Climax locomotive is as much about people and industry as it is about the locomotive. The company itself did not have its origins in the locomotive business. Some of its principal leaders were bankers first and industrialists second. It is a story of invention, innovation, opportunity, and Yankee entrepreneurial spirit-about a company that stayed close to home, expanding only as necessary to fulfill a relatively modest demand.
The fortunes of Climax, however, rose and fell with the timber industry. While some Climaxes made their way into other industries, certainly the bulk of the sales were to timber interests-and that was to be expected: the timber industry is what the Climax locomotive was designed and built for. By the late 1920s, the industry had changed so drastically that none of the geared locomotive manufacturers was able to effectively compete. It is to Climax's credit that the company foresaw the inevitable and bowed out from the scene with grace-notably, just before the economic collapse that plunged us into the Great Depression.
Readers of this history should look beyond the charts and lists-past thestatistics and facts. They should study the sidebars, which are full of text written not by present-day historians, but by the people who experienced life in a different time. They should stare into the eyes of the men in the photos, look at their surroundings, and try to understand their existence, so different from our own.
The history of Climax is a wonderful nostalgia trip. We are transported to a different time and place-when you can feel the heat of the firebox on your face, smell the hot lubricator oil, see the plume of smoke rising from the stack, hear the rapid, sharp exhaust, and feel the rhythmic bounce of the cab floor underfoot. You are now in Climax country.
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