I have to step in here for a moment...
1. The Willamette steam locomotive was indeed made by someone other than Lima...specifically, the Willamette Iron & Steel Works in Portland, OR. Willamette had been making replacement parts for Shays and doing other major work for many years, and as a result they were both very familiar with the Shay's weaknesses and their customers wants. When the original Shay patents expired they started building a copycat model that incorporated the various modernizations and advancements made in steam locomotive technology that Lima had not applied to the Shay yet. The appearance of the Willamette locomotives caused Lima to re-engineer the Shay, resulting in the Pacific Coast Shay- this was a Lima product, not someone else's as pgandw implies. The Pacific Coast Shay and Heisler's answer, the West Coast Special, limited Willamette's total lcomotive production to around two dozen locomotives, all three truck models except for two 2-truck machines. However, the "big three" in the geared locomotive market needed the threat of competition that Willamette provided to finally get around to upgrading and modernizing their products.
2. The Rivarossi Heisler is proportionally larger than any Heislers built in the real world. The Rivarossi model is a giant stride forward as compared to the original AHM model, but it still has the "way too large" look to it. That being said I got one of the Rivarossi models when they first came out and have been pleased the few times I have had it out to run.
3. The Bachmann Shay is about the best steam locomotive model available, in my opinion. Bachmann did a beautiful job with them. I have one of my own and strongly recomment it to anyone. Bachmann never did make a two truck Shay, and with MDC's Shay still widely available they have gone on record that they are not likely to bring one out.
4. If you can wait Bachmann is supposed to be following the two truck Climax with a three-truck model at some point in the next year or two.
5. Books on upper California. I assume you are looking somewhere in the Redwood belt? There are a couple good ones- perhaps the most comprehensive is Steam in the Redwoods by Linn Carranco and Henry Sorenson. This book covers all operations large and small in Humboldt County with a great amount of detail and is very well worth it. Carranco also had a hand in a book titled Logging the Redwoods that covers the redwood lumbering industry up and down the North Coast region in more general detail...its railroad coverage is not as great as Steam in the Redwoods but it also spreads out coverage to include Mendocino and Del Norte county railroad operations. The two "classic" logging railroad books that you should definately get your hands on are Logging Railroads of the West by Adams and Steam in the Woods by John Labbe & Vernon Goe. Both books are full of pictures of all the various types of steam locomotives used in the western Woods plus a lot of detail shots of the specialized equipment used in the industry. And then there are a good many books about individual companies that are worth it if you have an interest in that company or in that area of operations.
6. JOIN THE 4L LIST. Go to
www.yahoo.com, register yourself as a member (if you have not already done so), and then go into the "groups" section and search for and join the 4L group. 4L stands for Loyal Legion of Logged-on Loggers, and it is hands down the most informative e-mail discussion group I know of. It has members from all corners of the US (including Alaska and Hawaii) plus quite a few other places around the globe, including a couple Australians and New Zealanders. If you ask a question, any question, about logging someone, or more often more than one person, will not only have a thorough answer but many of them will also have first hand knowledge...there are quite a few people on that list who have worked long careers in the lumber industry all over the world.
7. There are two quarterly magazines that you should look into as well, Tall Timber Short Lines and Timber Times. Oso Publishing (
http://www.osorail.com) publishes Tall TImber Short Lines, and Timber Times Press (
http://www.timbertimes.com) publishes Timber Times. Both publishers also produce high quality logging books...if it is about loggers and in print right now you can get it through them.
8. Your locomotive roster looks good and is fairly prototypical. It was not uncommon for lumber companies located away from mainlines to have their own common carrier railroads to transport their finished products to the nearest railhead. There are many examples of such companies scattered around the west.
9. All this being said, I am mostly a diesel guy. I love watching steam locomotives, and especially geared steam, but a brightly painted Baldwin or EMD switcher trailing logs through the woods appeals to me in a strong way.
10. Lets all write letters to the manufacturers of plastic steam requesting a 80- or 90-ton Baldwin logging mikado, shall we? In my opinion one of the largest holes in the model steam market, considering how prominant they were in the logging, mining, and shortline worlds but they have only been produced a handfull of times in HO brass and never in plastic...
Jeff Moore
Elko, NV
http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
http://www.trainweb.org/highdesertrails