A Twelve-Ton Locomotive Rolled Down the Street to the Water
Seattle's Washington Iron Works spent months building a geared logging engine. When it was finished it drove itself through town on temporary track to the foot of Washington Street, to be lashed to a scow and floated north to the woods.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Washington Iron Works has just completed a twelve-ton logging engine, to be used on a narrow (eight-foot) gauge track running from Mukilteo into the woods. The engine sits on four large driving wheels, four feet in diameter and ten inches wide, with flanges on either edge of the tire, and the track rests on four smaller wheels 24 inches in diameter. This immense locomotive is propelled by four 6x10 upright engines, so arranged that they run very steadily and that there can be no slipping on the centre. The locomotive has been building for several months past, and on its completion yesterday propelled itself through the streets on a temporary track to the foot of Washington street, where it will be placed on a scow and towed to its future field of operations. The ponderous machine worked very smoothly and will doubtless give good satisfaction.
“The ponderous machine worked very smoothly, and will doubtless give good satisfaction.”
In 1883 Seattle's heaviest machinery was still built at the water's edge and moved on greased planks and temporary rail. Geared locomotives of this pattern are what made it possible to drag timber out of the steep Northwest woods at all — the logging railroad came before the logging town. The foot of Washington Street is now Pioneer Square-adjacent waterfront; the engine, the scow and the Iron Works are all gone.
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