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Braymill-White Pine Lumber Company Oshkosh Timber Company |
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Braymill--White Pine Lumber Company Shay #20, still lettered for the Verdi Lumber Company, sitting derelict at Braymill.
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History William Bray and his Oshkosh Timber Company owned several large tracts of timberlands straddling both sides of the California/Oregon state line. Bray's commercial lumber activities largely happened in California until 1922, when he bought the Sprague River Lumber Company mill three miles up the Sprague River from Chiloquin. Bray had talked at some length with Southern Paicific about a possible railroad line connecting his new mill to the SP main, but those talks never led anywhere until a major fire swept through his holdings on the state line in 1926. Bray's company, newly renamed Braymill-White Pine Lumber Company, immediately started construction on two railroad lines, one running from SP's Ivan station not far north of the state line northwest approximately six and a half miles into the recently burned timberlands and the other running a mile and a half from SP's Meva siding to the Sprague River mill. Both the SP Meva siding and the small community around the sawmill were shortly also renamed Braymill. Both railroads entered operation in 1927. A used two-truck Shay and a new three-truck Willamette worked on the logging railroad out of Ivan while a leased Shay hauled logs in and lumber out over the Braymill railroad. The main line of the logging railroad expanded further into the timber, eventually reaching about ten miles in length, plus several spurs into the timber. In addition to its own logs the logging railroad also handled logs for Long-Bell Lumber Company. Unfortunately, the addition of the railroad did not result in financial stability, as Braymill-White Pine declared bankruptcy in March 1929 and immediately suspended all operations. The two locomotives Braymill owned were brought into Braymill, but shortly afterwards the railroad connecting the mill to the SP mainline was scrapped out, stranding both. The Willamette locomotive was eventually sold and moved out, but the Shay remained derelict at Braymill into at least the late 1940s, then was finally slowly scrapped out over the next couple decades. |
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Maps |
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Map of the Braymill-White Pine railroads.
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Locomotive Roster ?- Lima 2-Truck Shay, c/n 1946, Built 1907. Cylinders 11x12, Drivers 32", Weight 45 tons. Built as Clearfield Lumber Company (Moorehead & North Fork Railroad) #2, Moorehead, KY; to Clyde Equipment Company, Portland, OR; to Anderson & Middleton Lumber #7, Cottage Grove, OR; to Wheeler-Olmstead Lumber, Kirk, OR; to F. Hill Hunter, Klamath Falls, OR. Hunter subsequently leased the locomotive to Braymill-White Pine Lumber; Shaw-Bertram Lumber; and finally Walker-Hovey Lumber at Macdoel, CA. Abandoned at Macdoel by 1936 and scrapped sometime thereafter. 2- Willamette 3-Truck, c/n 28, Built 1927. Cyliners 12x15, Drivers 36", Boiler Pressure 200 lbs., Tractive Effort 31,968 lbs., Weight 72 tons. Acquired new; to Bradley-Woodard Lumber Company #2, Bradwood, OR, 1932; to Stimson Lumber Company #4, Seghere, OR, 1942; to Dulien Steel Company #4, Portland, OR, 1952. Scrapped 1957. ?- Lima 2-Truck Shay, c/n 1829, Built 1907. Cyliners 12x12, Drivers 40", Weight 55 tons. Built as Stimson Mill Company (Marysville & Northern Railroad) #20, Bryant, WA; to Bureau of Air Products #20, Clatsop, OR; to U.S. Spruce Production Division #20, Clatsop, OR; to Verdi Lumber Company, Verdi, NV, 1919; to Oshkosh Timber Company/Braymill White Pine 1927. Stored at Braymill until late 1940s, then gradually scrapped on site through at least the middle 1960s. |
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Photos |
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The boiler of Braymill-White Pine #20 at Braymill. Jerry Lamper photo.
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Stimson Lumber #4, formerly Braymill-White Pine #2.
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The Shay Braymill-White Pine leased from F. Hill Hunter sitting derelict at Macdoel, California, on 15 June 1936. D.S. Richter photo.
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