SOUTH CAROLINA LOGGING LOCOMOTIVES
During the 1800s and early 1900s, many South Carolina logging and timber companies had their own steam-powered railroad operations. In some cases, temporary tracks were laid deep into swamps and timber was hauled out by small work engines.
Forestry Commission Staff Forester Bill Lawrence (retired) obtained this pictorial archive of South Carolina logging company engines in 1987. The photos are from the collection of Mr. John B. Allen, a noted railroad collector from Owensboro, Kentucky.
Descriptions, nomenclature, and ownership history of each engine was transcribed directly from Mr. Allen’s handwritten notes on the back of each photo.
Alcolu Lumber Co. #6 Alcolu, South Carolina, 1936 Anderson Lumber Corporation #4 South Marion, South Carolina, 1920 Engine identified as Glover 121641, built in 1920 Argent Lumber Co. #3 Hardeeville, South Carolina, 1955 Engine identified as Porter 3165 built June 1905 (Formerly owned by Tilghman Lumber Co.) Argent Lumber Co. #4 Hardeeville, South Carolina, 1955 Engine identified as Porter 4234, built 1909 Argent Lumber Co. #5 Hardeeville, South Carolina, 1955 Engine identified as Lima 1116, built June 1910 (Formerly Williamson & Brown Land & Lumber Co. #3) Beech Island Lumber Co #3 Twiggs, South Carolina, 1933 Engine identified as Porter 6665, built April 1921 Brooklyn Cooperage Co. #16 Sumter, South Carolina, 1919 Engine identified as Baldwin 34964, built July 1910 (Originally Genesee & Wyoming #9; then Southern Iron and Equipment #1498; then Brooklyn Cooperage Co. #16, 1919; then BR & L; then Tennessee & North Carolina #206,1929; then Smoky Mountain #206; then Rebel Railroad #206 at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.) Brooklyn Cooperage Co. #202 Sumter, South Carolina, 1929 Engine identified as Baldwin 58446, built February 1925 (Originally Current River Lumber Co. #101; then Salem, Winona, & Southern #101; then BR & L; then Brooklyn Cooperage Co. #202 in 1929; then Sumter Lumber Co. #202; then Esdorn Lumber Co. #202 at Sumter, SC.) Cameron & Barkley Charleston, South Carolina Engine identified as Porter 1195, built November 1890 (Eventually became Southern Iron and Equipment Co. #106) Cornell Young Co. #31 St. Stephens, South Carolina Engine identified as Baldwin 37994, built June, 1912 (Originally Lancaster & Chester #31; then Cornell Young Co. #31; then Georgia-Carolina Locomotive Co in 1942; then Laurinburg & Southern #658 also in 1942; later to Tallulah Falls #79 in Georgia.) D.W. Alderman & Son #2 Alcolu, South Carolina Engine identified as Lima 1036, built November 1906 (Originally Hart Brothers Machinery Co. #2; then Tennessee & North Carolina #2; then Southern Iron & Equipment Co. #989; then Rockcastle River RR #2 in Bond, Kentucky, 1915; then Southern Iron & Equipment #1972; then Carolina & North Eastern #2 in Franklin, Virgina, 1924; then Southern Iron and Equipment #2206; then D.W. Alderman & Son #2; then back to Southern Iron and Equipment in June of 1936.) E.P. Burton Lumber Co. #6 Charleston, South Carolina Engine identified as Glover 101423 Hampton & Branchville #3 Crocketville, South Carolina, 1934 Built July 1870 (Originally ordered by Macon & Augusta, but diverted to become Georgia RR #31, named “Sparta”; then condemned and rebuilt in 1883, becoming Georgia Car & Locomotive Co. #115; then to Hampton & Branchville #3 in 1917.) Hampton & Branchville #1 Miley, South Carolina, 1934 Engine identified as a Rogers Hampton & Branchville #10 Engine identified as Rogers (Formerly owned by Mobile & Ohio.) Hampton & Branchville #44 Miley, South Carolina, 1966 Engine identified as Baldwin 59751, built January 1927 J.F. Prettyman & Sons #7 Charleston, South Carolina Engine identified as a Glover Lynches River Tramway Engine identified as Lima 910, built in 1904 (Later owned by Biscoe Foundry & Machine Co.; then to J.C. McKenzie, Mt. Gilead, N.C.; then to Southern Iron and Equipment Co. #1226 in November 1919; then to J.M. Logan Lumber Co., Prattville, Alabama, also in November, 1919.) McLauren Lumber Co. Dixie, South Carolina, 1913 Engine identified as Baldwin 11617, built February 1891 (Originally Manhattan #325; then to Great Falls & Old Dominion #325 in Rosslyn, Virginia in 1906; then to Birmingham Rail & Locomotive Co.; then to McLaurin Lumber Co. in 1913; then to Williams & McKeithan Lumber Co. #89 in Lynchburg, Virginia; then to Southern Iron and Equipment Co. #1389; then to H.H. Johnson Lumber Co. #10 in Haughton, Louisiana in 1919; then to Export Phosphate Co.; then to Southern Iron and Equipment Co #1508; then to Atlantic Marl, Lime, and Fertilizer Co., New Bern, NC in 1920.) Rankin Lumber Co. #4 Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1907 Engine identified as Mason 641, built in November 1880 (Originally Little Rock, Mississippi River & Texas #11; then to Southern Iron and Equipment #542; then to Rankin Lumber Co. #4 in 1907.) Santee River Cypress Co #102 Ferguson, South Carolina, 1910 Engine identified as Mason Locomotive #351built in March, 1870 (originally Lehigh Valley RR #149, then LVRR #1018. Then to Southern Iron & Equipment #637. Then to Santee River Cypress Lumber Co #102 in 1910. Then to SI&E #1283; then to Kan Fla Lumber Co#10 in Holt, Alabama in 1918, then to SI&E #1752, then to Blakeley Hardwood Lumber Co. #9 in Blakeley, Georgia in 1923. Scott Lumber Co. #10 Sumter, South Carolina, 1912 Engine identified a Climax (Sold to BR & L; then to Martins Mill Co, Martins, South Carolina in 1918) Sumter Hardwood Co. #2 Sumter, South Carolina, 1919 Engine identified as Climax 534, built in 1905 (Originally Greenbrier Cheat & Elk; then to Southern Iron and Equipment Co. #807 in 1912; then to West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co. #1 in Dobbins, West Virginia also in 1912; then to Sumter Hardwood Company #2; then to Southern Iron and Equipment Co. #1334 in 1919; then to Waterford Lumber Co. in Waynesboro, Mississippi in 1919.) Walterboro Lumber Co. #1 Walterboro, South Carolina Engine identified as Glover 10148 (Sold to Southern Iron and Equipment Co. #1372; then to Osceola Cypress Lumber Co. in Bridgeland, Florida in 1919.) Walterboro Lumber Co. #2 Walterboro, South Carolina, 1918 Engine identified as Glover 121624, built in December, 1916 (Originally W.T. Smith Sons Timber Co. #4 in Holt, Florida; then to Southern Iron and Equipment Co. #1300; then to Walterboro Lumber Co. #2 in 1918.)