Black Hills Central No. 110 is a 2-6-6-2T (Tank) articulated mallet steam locomotive that runs on the Black Hills Central railroad.
History[]
It was built by Baldwin in 1928 for the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company to work on its Vail, WA, line. It was the first of Weyerhaeuser's many logging mallets, and one of a total of thirty logging mallets built by Baldwin between 1910 and 1937.
After over twenty-five years working at Vail, #110 was sold to Rayonier Incorporated in 1954 where it operated on the Grays Harbor line. It and another mallet, #111 were acquired to replace aging shays that hauled log trains to and from Camp 6, in the mountains east of the Grays Harbor main line. They operated that spur until camp 6 was closed in 1966. In 1962, it was fitted with a tender from Rayonier 2-8-2 #101.
Rayonier retired the 110 in 1968 and it was sold to the Promontory Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. In 1971, the locomotive was transferred to the Wasatch Railroad Museum and placed on display at Heber City, UT. Then, in 1993, it was sold to the Nevada State Railway Museum and was placed in storage at Boulder City, NV.
In 1999, it was sold to the Black Hills Central and trucked from Nevada to South Dakota on four semi-trailers. Work then began to restore the mallet to operating condition.
Trivia[]
- Six other articulated single-expansion logging locomotives were also built by Baldwin, but these are not true mallets like the 115
- No. 110 is one of the only two true Mallets operating in the US today, with the other being it's nearly identical twin also on the BHCR, No. 108.
- It returned to steam in January 2001.
