Climax Locomotive No 1694 Restoration Project

Why is it special?

Only 19 Climax locomotives survive, most of them being in North America. Of the 19 survivors, currently only four are in working condition, three in the USA and one in New Zealand.

Brief history of Climax locomotives

Climax locomotives were built by the Climax Manufacturing Company of Corry, Pennsylvania, USA. The origins of this Company go back to 1868 when it started manufacturing an improved - and very successful - mower and reaper under the "Climax" brand. At that stage the Company was known as the Corry Machine Company, and from 1870 as the Climax Mower and Reaper Company. It went through a number of name changes before becoming the Climax Manufacturing Company.

It expanded its production to include stationery steam engines, boilers, tanks and stills, and specialist equipment for drilling oil and artesian wells. The Company even made dynamos for a short time for the newly emerging electricity industry.

The Company had all the expertise it needed to be able to build specialized steam locomotives. The opportunity to do this came in the 1880s when a local sawmiller wanted a locomotive built to his own design, for use on his logging tramway. As the Company was seeking a niche market in which it could specialize it took this opportunity. The locomotive had a wooden frame on two wooden-framed trucks (bogies), with a vertical boiler providing steam to a two cylinder vertical engine. This powered the trucks by a two-speed gearbox and a central longitudinal telescopic shaft with universal joints, and skew gears transferring power to the axles. It weighed 10 tons.

The A Class

This was the basic design of the A Class Climax locomotive. It went through various refinements over the years, with horizontal boilers, steel frames and some improvements to the transmission. But the basic layout, and two speed transmission remained to the end. Its power to weight ration exceeded all the other well known American geared locomotives, making it ideal for use on very light rails.

Approximately 250 were built, on gauges from 2 ft to 8ft, and for use on iron and steel rails, wooden rails, and wooden poles. The broad gauge versions (from 6ft to 8 ft) were for use on pole roads. (In a pole road, the rails are made of wooden poles with the bark peeled off, and the wheels usually had cone shaped treads like a pulley). It was available in various weights from 12 to 22 tons, though very early examples weighed 10 tons, and there is a report of at least one built to 25 tons.

Several A Class Climax locomotives came to Australia, and worked in Queensland, New South Wales, and Tasmania. None survive - in fact the only surviving A Class is in Alaska, USA.

The four-wheel Climax locomotive

During the 1890s the Climax Manufacturing Company offered a four-wheel version of its A Class, weighing only seven to eight tons. It had a wooden frame, vertical boiler, two cylinder vertical steam engine, but only a single speed (low speed) gear box. It did not prove anywhere near as popular as the two-truck A Class, and not many were built.

The first B Class Climax locomotives

As the logging industry expanded, there was need for heavier, more powerful locomotives. At 25 tons the A class had reached the full extent of its practicality. A new design of geared locomotive was therefore developed by the Climax Manufacturing Company.

It retained the same design of trucks, skew gears and central longitudinal drive shaft, but had steel frames with a horizontal boiler, and two horizontal cylinders, one on each side of the smokebox saddle. These drove a transverse jackshaft, which connected to the longitudinal shaft by a two speed gearbox, similar to that on the A Class.

The first B Class of this type was built in 1891, and weighed about 28 tons. Not many of this type of B Class were built, for it was found that the two speed gearbox was unnecessarily complicated.

The improved B Class

The design was modified in 1893. The two speed gearbox was eliminated, and the cylinders were raised to an angle of about 22.5 degrees. This same basic design was used on all subsequent B Class Climax locomotives.

The B Class was available in various sizes from 17 tons to 62 tons, and was supplied in gauges from 2 ft 6 in to standard, though very few were built to less than 3 ft gauge.

B Classes worked in Australia, and they could be found in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. The first was 17 ton 3 ft 6 in gauge (Shop Number X47) unit for Laheys' timber tramway in Canungra, Queensland. It went into service in 1903

In Australia, only two are still in existence. One, Builder's No. 1653, a 28 ton 3 ft 6 in gauge locomotive built in 1923, is at the Tasmanian Transport Museum Society's Museum at Glenorchy, a suburb of Hobart. It is not in running condition. The other is the Puffing Billy Railway's Builder's No.1694, which ran from 1988 to 2000, but now requires extensive boiler work to bring it back to running condition.

Standard gauge 50 ton B Class Climax locomotive, Builder's No. 1359, at Forest Discovery Centre, Duncan, British Columbia, Canada in 2001. Photo: Frank Stamford

The C Class Climax locomotive

The needs of large scale logging railway operations in north America called for even more powerful locomotives. To meet this need Climax Manufacturing Company developed the three-truck Climax locomotive, called the C Class. The third truck supported the water tank, and was on a separate frame from the rest of the locomotive. Power was transferred to the third truck by an extension of the central longitudinal drive shaft.

The first C Class was built in 1897 and was of 3 ft gauge, weighing 50 tons. All subsequent C Class Climax locos were of standard gauge, and varied in weight from 50 to 100 tons.

No C Class Climax locomotives were used in Australia.

Where they went

The Climax locomotive was developed to meet the needs of the logging industry, and the majority were used on logging railways. However the design suited any steeply graded sharply curved industrial railway, as a result they were also used on mining and quarry railways. A few were used on public freight and passenger carrying railways, but their low speed made them less suitable for this type of operation.

The records of the Climax Manufacturing Company have not survived, and the exact number of locomotives built is not known. However the approximate numbers built, and the countries in which they worked are as follows:

USA	Approx. 905
Canada	Approx. 95	(Ontario 3; Quebec 4; British Columbia, Approx. 87; Yukon 1)
Australia	10
New Zealand	8
Mexico	4
Philippines	4
Bahamas	4
Java	3
Puerto Rico	2
Total	Approx. 1035

Gauges of Climax locomotives

Standard gauge	About 621
3 ft gauge	About 290
3 ft 6 in gauge	About 93
Other gauges	About 30
Total	About 1035

Surviving Climax Locomotives

The location of the surviving Climax locomotives are as follows:

Australia	2
Canada	2
New Zealand	4	(1 operational)
USA	11	(3 operational)
Total	19	(4 operational)

Details of the survivors are given below:

Builder's No.	Year built	Class	Weight	Gauge	Location
313	1902	A	15 tons		Alaska, USA
522		B	20 tons	3 ft 6 in	New Zealand
932		C	75 tons	Standard	California, USA
1057		B	23 tons	Standard	Forestry Discovery Centre, Duncan, British Columbia, Canada
1059		B	55 tons		West Virginia, USA
1203		B	25 tons	3 ft 6 in	Shantytown, New Zealand
1237		B	40 tons		Strasburg, Pennsylvania, USA
1317		B	30 tons	3 ft 6 in	Te Awamuta, New Zealand
1323		B	40 tons	3 ft	Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, USA
1359		B	50 tons	Standard	Forestry Discovery Centre, Duncan, British Columbia, Canada
1551		C	70 tons	Standard	Cass Scenic Railway, West Virginia, USA
1603		B	50 tons		New Hampshire, USA
1621		B	60 tons		California, USA
1650		B	25 tons	3 ft 6 in	Bush Tramway Club, New Zealand
1653		B	28 tons	3 ft 6 in	Tasmanian Transport Museum, Glenorchy, Tasmania, Australia
1681		B	30 tons		Corry, Pennsylvania, USA
1692		B	50 tons	3 ft (originally standard)	Roaring Camp & Big Trees, Felton, California, USA
1693		C	70 tons		Mount Rainier Scenic Railway, Elbe, Washington, USA
1694	1928	B	25 tons	2 ft 6 in	Puffing Billy Railway, Emerald, Victoria, Australia

Standard gauge 23 ton B Class Climax locomotive, Builder's No. 1057, occupies pride of place at the Forest Discovery Centre, Duncan, British Columbia, Canada in 2001. Although standard gauge, this locomotive is a little smaller than Puffing Billy's No.1694. It was built in 1910. This locomotive was abandoned in the woods from about 1930 to 1971. Photo: Frank Stamford

Sources of information

The information contained above has been summarised from the following primary source:

Blake, Dennis; Dunn, Richard; Hauff, Steve; et al; The Climax Locomotive; published by Oso Publishing Co. 2002.

This 496 page book is the best general reference to Climax locomotives.