The Sierra Railway No. 18 is a standard gauge 2-8-0 Consolidation type steam locomotive built in 1906 by Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the Sierra Railway Company of California.
By 1916, #18 had been rebuilt with a SuperHeater & piston valves as an experiment to improve efficiency & for possible inclusion in future locomotive specifications.
No. 18 was retired from service in 1952 when the annual inspection revealed excessive sidesheet wear & it was judged unfit. It sat idle at Jamestown until 1966, when it was sold & moved to a sales lot near Lodi. Eventually, Fred Kepner purchased & moved it, along with former Sierra Railroad No. 36, to their current location, derelict in a field near Merrill, Oregon.
Trivia
- #18 was the Sierra Railway's first 2-8-0, and was the strongest engine on the line when purchased.
- The tender of #18 was sold to the Tidewater Southern in 1952 for use with their #132 and scrapped with the loco in 1955.
- Along with Sierra Railway No. 3, #18 appeared in several films: "The Cimarron Kid", "Bad Men in Missouri", "Texas Ranger", "MaineLine USA", "Dodge City", "Wyoming Mail", " Go West", "Duel In The Sun", "Take Me Out To The Ball Game", "My Little Chickadee", "Last Train From Gun Hill", "The Story of Trains", “Return of Frank James”, "Harvey Girls". It was usually "dressed up" with an old-style cab and a false smokestack and headlight to look older. It was sometimes lettered as AT&SF #18, and in "Go West" (starring the Marx Brothers) it was lettered as the fictional New York & Western Railroad #32.