Draft:Hillcrest Lumber Co. Ltd. 9

Hillcrest Lumber Co. Ltd. 9 is a 45-50 ton 2-truck Class “B” Climax locomotive built in June 1915 by the Climax Manufacturing Co. its Valve gear has Stephenson link (shifting link), though by 1915 Climax had switched to the Walschaerts valve gear. Purchased new by the M.D. Olds Lumber Company of Powell Township, Michigan, No.1 was too light for their requirements.The locomotive was sold to the McNair Lumber Co. for use at their Queen Charlotte’s operation, and shipped to Vancouver by the Canadian Pacific Railway. Before it arrived WWI ended, and so did the demand for aircraft grade Sitka Spruce.The Canadian Robert Dollar Lumber Company (renamed the Smith Dollar Lumber Company) purchased No. 1 for their Deep Bay and Union Bay operations on Vancouver Island. Deep Bay ceased operation in 1922, and Union Bay in 1931.There is a possibility that the locomotive may have worked for the Alberta Lumber Co. who had operations in the False Creek area of Vancouver before being purchased by Abernethy & Lougheed. Sold to Abernethy & Lougheed Logging Co. (renumbered No. 44) for their extensive operations in the Fraser Valley (Mission, Ruskin). For a time, A&LL was one of the largest operations in the province, boasting 9 camps, 1000 loggers and 7 locomotives.There’s also a possibility that the locomotive worked for the Scottish Palmer Lumber Company before acquired by Hillcrest.No. 44 was sold to the Hillcrest Lumber Co. in 1936 (renumbered No. 2) for its operation at Wheatley, 4 miles west of Duncan, where she switched the yard and worked the logging grades of Mount Prevost and Shatlam. By 1942 the timber supply was exhausted, and the operation was moved to Mesachie Lake. Using E&N trackage to Lake Cowichan, and the final 3 miles to Mesachie Lake over the Victoria Lumber & Manufacturing Company’s Robertson River Railway. To avoid confusion with other logging engines using VL&M trackage, No.2 was renumbered No.9. When railway logging at Mesachie Lake ended in 1949, No.9 became a backup to No.10, a newer 70-ton Climax that switched the mill and interchanged freight cars with the E&N terminus at Lake Cowichan, until the mill closed in 1968. Hillcrest Lumber’s Stone Family donated No.9 to the (then) BC Forest Discovery Centre in 1968, where it was on outdoor display until 1989. On May 1991, the locomotive was moved to a newly constructed locomotive shed and was restored into operating condition by Museum staff and volunteers for RailFair 91 in Sacramento, California and participated at Railfair 1991 alongside with V&T 22 Inyo, UP 1243, SERA 3, Dunrobin (2nd), GNR 1247, HLC 9, IID 151, JK&Co. Gwen, Tom Thumb (1927 Replica), Lafayette (1927 Replica), SP 4449, UP 3985, UP 844, and especially two newly restored steam locomotives SP 2472, and Eureka (locomotive) where Gov. Stanford, C. P. Huntington 1, V&T 13 Empire, V&T 12 Genoa, V&T 21 J. W. Bowker, NPC 12 Sonoma, AT&SF 1010, NWP 112, UP 4466, SP 4294, AT&SF 2925, and AT&SF 5021 live. For a number of years, No.9 was steamed-up on special event days and run up and down a very short length of standard gauge track. It remains in operational condition, but has not been certified in recent years, due to budgetary and other constraints. As of 2024 the locomotive is on static display at the Forest Discovery Centre Museum in Duncan BC.