Hillcrest Shay Steam Locomotive Moves to Mainline & Sands-Out Tubes

Описание: The Hillcrest #1 Shay steam locomotive leaves the shop area after being steamed-up, and descends the steep switchback to the mainline of the narrow-gauge Cowichan Valley Railway.
It descends the Drinkwater Cut and then reverses quickly up the cut while its tubes are sanded. The purpose is to clean the grit from the tubes, and the visual result is black smoke.
The locomotive then continues on its way to the station to start its day of pulling the visitor train.

This is at the BC Forest Discovery Centre, in North Cowichan on Vancouver Island.
Seen on Saturday June 28, 2025

Photo Album link is here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/1320134...

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The Hillcrest #1 Shay is a narrow-gauge oil burning steam locomotive in the Cowichan Valley of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

This Class-B Shay has a present-era weight of approximately 28 tons. She was construction number 3147 in 1920 at the factory in Lima Ohio, USA.

After a pre-delivery factory conversion from narrow-gauge to standard-gauge, she arrived at Hillcrest Lumber on Vancouver Island in early 1921, and worked for Hillcrest Lumber in Sahtlam, and then for other companies in the Cowichan Valley and Crofton until 1963.

Following conversion back to narrow-gauge and oil burning, she was donated to the newly formed Cowichan Valley Forest Museum which opened in 1965. This museum is now known as the BC Forest Discovery Centre, located on Drinkwater Road in North Cowichan, on Vancouver Island.

The Hillcrest #1 Shay was one of the steam locomotives that pulled the visitor train in the early years of the forest museum, and she did this from the late 1960s until 1998. Following this, she went into storage, and the visitor train was then pulled mainly by the Vulcan #25 "Samson" steam locomotive.

A rebuild project was started in 2016, was completed in Spring 2024, and it re-entered service in Summer 2024.
The Hillcrest #1 Shay pulls the visitor train on various days during weekends in Summer 2025.

The locomotive's steam whistle on this day is a 3 chime Crosby.

https://bcforestdiscoverycentre.com/p...