Hillcrest #1 Shay: Sanding-Out the Flues

The crew of the recently rebuilt Hillcrest #1 Shay locomotive brings her gently down the switchback track from the shop to the mainline, and then descends the Drinkwater Cut to get into position to do a fast reverse run up the cut while sanding-out the flues. This is before a day of pulling the visitor train on the narrow-gauge Cowichan Valley Railway at the BC Forest Discovery Centre, in North Cowichan on Vancouver Island. This is on September 2, 2024. ---------------------------------- 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 and was completed in Spring 2024. The Hillcrest #1 Shay is now in-service, pulling the visitor train on various days during weekends in Summer 2024 and for special events. The locomotive's steam whistle on this day was a 3 chime Crosby. https://bcforestdiscoverycentre.com/p...