Locomotives of the Ilwaco Railway & Navigation Company
Oregon Washington Railroad & Navigation Company (after 1915)
Index For This Page
Compiled By Randy Hees (October 23, 2015)
There were three numbering systems used on the IRy&N/OWRR&N locomotives
1888-1910 -- Ilwaco Railway & Navigation Company/Ilwaco Railroad (Numbers 1 through 6)
1910-1920 -- OWRR&N (Numbers N-1 through N-4)
1920-1930 -- OWRR&N (Numbers 1 through 4) (as shown in OWRR&N folio diagram book)
Locomotives are presented here based on their IRy&N company numbers.
There are a number of discrepancies in the published rosters (Best, Feagans, Strack) as well as between the published rosters and manufacture’s records. In all cases the manufacture’s as built specifications have used, with others noted below.
From 1900 to 1930 the Ilwaco Railroad was controlled by the Union Pacific Railroad through subsidiaries Oregon Railway and Navigation Company later via Washington Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. From 1902 to 1912, the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific (including the South Pacific Coast) were jointly owned by Harriman. Locomotives 3 (1st and 2nd) through 6 and a number of cars were all acquired used from Union Pacific controlled companies.
IRY&N No. 1,
2-6-0, Baldwin, 8-18d-41, c/n 4564, March 1879, 12x18, 40" drivers, 39,000 lb
Built new for Utah & Northern, No 15, renumbered U&N 19 in 1885, to Ilwaco Steam Navigation Company, June 1888, scrapped 1911
IRy&N No. 2,
2-6-0, Porter, c/n 1155, April 1890, 12x18
Built new for Ilwaco Railway & Navigation Co., scrapped, 1908
IRy&N No. 3 (1st),
2-4-0, Porter-Bell, c/n 289, Feb. 1878, 9x16, 40" drivers,
Built new for Walla Walla & Columbia River Railroad as No 5, Mountain Queen
Sold to Mill Creek Flume & Manufacturing, as No 5, in June, 1881
To ORy&N as No 5 in 1887, to ORy&N No 286 in 1889, to ORy&N No 2 in 1894
Sold to IRy&N as No 3 in Feb. 1900, Vacated and sold 1906.
The Porter order sheet shows 9x16 cylinders and 40" drivers, while, most other sources report that the locomotive 10x16, 42" drivers, possibly the result of re-boring the cylinders and thicker driver tires.
Later history – Sold to to A. J. McCabe Lumber Company in July 1906 (A. J. McCabe later became a contractor and used equipment dealer, with offices in Portland, Oregon); at some later time it was converted to an 0-4-0T; later sold Edgar Brothers at McIntyre, Georgia, then sold to Southern Iron & Equipment (dealer) in September 1912; sold to W. T. Griffith at Bealville, Maryland in December 1918; returned to Southern Iron & Equipment and scrapped.
IRy&N No. 3 (2nd), OWRR&N No. N-1, No. 1.
4-4-0, Baldwin 8-18.5c-6, c/n 4224, Dec. 1877, 12x18, 48" drivers (see note below), 45,500 lbs
Built for South Pacific Coast, No 7, to SPC 26, Jan 1905,
Sold to IRy&N Feb 1907 as No 3 (2nd) Renumbered OWRR&N No. N-1 in 1915,
to OWRR&N No 1 c.1920. Vacated in 1930 when railroad is abandoned,
scrapped in Portland OR 1931
Driver diameter and cylinder size from Baldwin Specification sheet. Drivers are reported also reported as 43" and 42", Don Stack reports the cylinders as “later 14x18". It is possible that both sets of specifications are correct, due to rebuildings, alternately, the specifications for IRy&N 3 & 5 have been confused. Gerald Best reports that SPC 7/26 was IRy&N 5, and SPC 9 was IRy&N 3, which may have contributed to this confusion.
IRy&N No. 4, OWRR&N No. N-2, No. 2.
2-6-0, Baldwin 8-18d-49, c/n 5121, May 1880, 12x18, 40" drivers, 39,000 lbs
Built for Utah & Northern, No. 19, renumbered U&N No. 23 in 1885
Sold to Portland & Willamette Valley, No 1, Feb. 1888,
Stored out of service after P&WV was standard gauged in 1893
Sold to IRy&N, No. 4, 1906.
Renumbered OWRR&N No. N-2, 1915, to OWRR&N No 2 c.1920
Vacated in 1930 when railroad is abandoned,
scrapped in Portland OR 1931, boiler sold for reused in Astoria OR
Driver diameter listed as 40" with 36" centers by Baldwin,
42" by UP in 1885, later reported as 43"
likely reflecting 36" centers with tires which may have been as thick as 3.5" to make
43" total diameter
IRy&N No. 5, OWRR&N No. N-3, No. 3.
4-4-0, Baldwin, 8-22c-41, c/n 4956, Feb. 1880, 14x18, 43" drivers, 50,400 lbs
Built for South Pacific Coast as No. 9, sold to IRY&N No. 6 July 18, 1908
Renumbered OWRR&N No. N-3 in 1915, to OWRR&N No 3 c.1920. Vacated in 1930 when railroad was abandoned, scrapped in Portland OR 1931
Gerald Best reports that SPC 7/26 was IRy&N 5, and SPC 9 was IRy&N 3
Don Stack reports that the drivers were 45" diameter, Baldwin order/specification sheets show 43" drivers (with 38" centers), this discrepancy could be a result of thicker tires.
IRy&N No. 6, OWRR&N No. N-4, No. 4.
4-6-0, Baldwin 10-26d-103, c/n 11925, May 1891, 16x20, 48" drivers, 74,000 lbs
Built for South Pacific Coast as No. 23, sold to IRy&N, No 6, arriving in Aug. 1908
Renumbered OWRR&N No. N-4 in 1915, to OWRR&N No 4 c.1920. Vacated in 1930 when railroad was abandoned, scrapped in Portland OR 1931
Drivers are later reported as 50", cylinders as 16x24, driver size could be thicker tires, but the increase in cylinder stroke would require a new cylinder casting and new drivers which seems unlikely.
Sources and acknowledgments
This roster of locomotives is based on 4 published rosters, found in or at:
Feagans, Raymond J., The Railroad that Ran by the Tide, The Story of the Ilwaco Railroad & Navigation Company,San Diego, Howell North Books, 1972, (2nd printing 1981)
Shaw, Fredrick, Fisher, Clement Jr., and Harlan, George H, Oil Lamps and Iron Ponies, San Francisco, Bay Books, 1949 (I suspect that the roster published here is based on Gerald Best’s roster) p 182
Robertson, Donald, Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, Vol III Oregon – Washington, Caldwell Idaho, Claxton Printers Ltd, 1995, p 222
Ilwaco page on Don Stack’s UtahRails.net site -http://utahrails.net/up/ilwaco.html (Don references G. M. Best's "UP Notebook" on several occasions.)
The rosters listed above were checked against Baldwin specification sheets (Baldwin Locomotive Works engine specifications, 1869-1938 held by DeGoyler Library at Southern Methodist University, found on line at (http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/rwy/id/32) and Porter Records (including order books for locomotives built before c/m 1136, Sept. 1890, or via NMRA Roster or the Bob Lemuth list. Porter order books and Lemuth list found on Steam Locomotive Builder’s List Collection published on CD by Taplines (www.taplines.net)
Southern Pacific records (held by California State Railroad Museum) were consulted to confirm details of the three locomotives purchased from the South Pacific Coast.
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Draft 10.23.2015
This roster compiled by Randy Hees for Pacificng is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
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