Static Display #6: Willamette "Six Spot" Shay

Crown Zellerbach #6, Cathlamet, Oregon, June 10, 1962. On a family vacation to the Long Beach Peninsula, we found the “Six Spot Shay” on display. This locomotive is a Willamette Locomotive, built entirely from the ground up by Willamette Iron and Steel, who built a lot of logging apparatus.

There is an interesting story behind the Corporate decision to compete with Lima, Ohio, beyond the scope of this article. I refer you to the book “The Willamette Locomotive” by Steve Hauff and Jim Gertz.

Furthermore, the Willamette Locomotive cannot be correctly referred to as a "Shay," and is not to be confused with the “Pacific Coast Shay.”

"Shay" is a trademark owned by Lima Locomotive Works. Lima’s come back to the Portland upstart, was to incorporate all the changes loggers wanted in a locomotive, incorporating them into the "Pacific Coast Shay."

In all, 33 “Willamette’s” were built, with Car Number 13 built for Simpson Logging, delivered in October 1928 as road number 6.

Here is the text of the display board bolted on her tender:

“This 70 ton Shay locomotive built by Willamette Iron and Steel Company at Portland Oregon, first saw service at Crown Willamette Paper Company’s Young’s River logging operation near Astoria, Oregon, in December, 1923.

Shay Geared Locomotives were a familiar sight in woods from Maine to Washington during the first half of the 20th Century. Over 2,500 were manufactured in Lima, Ohio, while 33 were built in Portland. “Six Spot” was one of those “Western Made.”

Named for Ephraim Shay, a Michigan logger who built the first of the geared locomotives around 1879, this locomotive was sent to do the job where other engines could not venture – up steep grades; around short radius curves; across trestles spanning deep ravines in the forests.


Six Spot was transferred to Cathlamet shortly after going into service near Astoria, only to return to the Young’s River logging operations in 1928. Later, she was assigned to the Clatsop Railway Company, a common carrier line, operated by Crown Willamette to haul logs from its Lewis & Clark camp near Seaside, Oregon.

When the Clatsop Railway was discontinued in 1940, returned to Crown Zellerbach Corporation’s Cathlamet Tree Farm where it remained in service until December 1958, when log trucks replace the company’s last rail operation. ”

Railroad Stuff: Crown Willamette Paper Company #6. Construction Number 13, built at Willamette Iron & Steel, Portland, Oregon, delivered January 20, 1924. Known as model 70-3, she was a 70 ton 3-truck "Shay" type, built at a cost of $22,500!

See Also
The Willamette Locomotive (CN 21)