The Schafer Brothers

Pioneer Loggers of the Satsop Valley
2021

By Peter J. Replinger, second edition
P.O. Box 1486
Shelton, WA 98584.

Softcover, 258 pages, $39.95 plus $5.00 shipping. Make checks out to Peter J. Replinger.

This second edition has an added five pages and a map that was left out of the first edition. It tells the story of the early days of the Schafer Brothers Lumber Co. that was taken over by the Simpson Logging Company. It seems every time Simpson wanted to log out an area, they built a short new logging railroad to do it. The book is arranged by topic and is full of excellent photos of logging railroads and logging camps.

There are some 12 maps listed showing each logging line mentioned. The chapters discuss, among other interesting subjects, Transition from River Logging to Railroad Logging, Soldiers in the Logging Camps (World War I), Log Dumps, Logging by Schafer, and the Sale to Simpson. Chapter 20 describes Carl Schafer’s efforts
to preserve an ex-Schafer Bros.
2-8-2. There is an appendix listing such topics as Major Events, the Schafer Company in 1931, Schafer Employees, and the Logging Camps. Equipment rosters include detailed rosters, with photos of each locomotive, including one of the author’s HO models. The rolling stock has builders’ photos and in service images of log cars and cabooses. A donkey roster is full of donkey photos, and the last section includes builders’ photos of locomotives with specifications. There is also a plan for an unusual horizontal water tank, and several pages of advertising for Schafer Bros. Lumber & Door and an Index. This book is jammed full of great logging photos of locomotives, rail cars, donkey engines, log cars and logging camps. Well worth adding to your library.
-Bob Brown.

Fair Winds of Death

By B.R. Wade, Jr., 2021.
Wade Publishing Co., LLC,
1782 Trinity Rd.
Belington Rd., West Virginia 26250
www.wadepublishing.com.

Hard cover, 490 pages, $28.95, softcover $19.95 plus $5.00 each. You can request an autographed copy and the novel is available in eBook, and at Barnes & Noble.

This new mystery novel has nothing to do with narrow gauge or short line railroads—model or prototype. However, it was written by one of our fellowship of fine modelbuilders, or as some say, one of the family that is the GAZETTE. The author Bill Wade is the owner of B.T.S. and I am impressed that he has written a mystery novel. The story is set in the 1970s as the Naval Investigate Service, or NIS, investigates a series of murders on naval stations. Bill served as a yeoman in the NIS for two years and has drawn on this experience to write his novel. I too served as a naval yeoman, and can appreciate the details in this novel’s setting around naval life.

If you are a mystery fan, I know you will enjoy Bill’s new book, and I understand a sequel is in the works.
Bob Brown.

Atlas of South Puget Sound Logging Railroads, 2022. By Peter J. Replinger and James S. Hannum, M.D. Available from Peter J. Replinger, P.O. Box 1486, Shelton, WA 98584. Hardbound, illus., 255 pages, $53.00, plus $5.00 shipping. Make checks out to Peter J. Replinger.

This new book contains historic and newly created maps of saltwater log dump logging railroads once located in Mason, Pierce and Thurston Counties in Washington state. These counties seemed to be chock full of logging lines busy cutting the timber and hauling it to saltwater dumps. The chapters are arranged by county starting with Mason, then Pierce, followed by Thurston County. The railroads described go way back in logging history so there are numerous photos of 4-4-0s, 2-6-0s and 4-6-0s, early Shay, Heisler, and Climax locomotives, and many 0-4-0 tank engines, including the famous 0-4-0 tank engine MINNETONKA. The photos are clear and well printed, and the maps are easy to follow. The text connects many of the photos to the maps so you can easily see where events took place. There is a section showing artifacts or remains of some of the railroads as they look today. The text is almost academic, referencing other sources and referencing the various photos and maps. It’s a fact-filled go-to book, ideal as a reference of the logging railroads of three counties in Washington.

I always look at logging books for modeling ideas and inspiration. This book is full of both. There are numerous images of locomotives, rolling stock, bridges, log dumps, engine terminals, sawmills; including, in some cases, track plans.

The logging railroads shown run the from a pole road to modern Diesel operations with small and large Shays, Heisler and Climax locomotives, along with large and small rod engines. The book ends with an index, and extensive logging bibliography. But remember this is basically an atlas, so the maps are featured throughout the text showing exactly where these early logging lines once operated. This is another must-have for any logging historian or modeler.
-Bob Brown.

Ron’s Books
P.O. Box 714
Harrison, NY 10528
914/967-7541
ronsbooks@aol.com
www.ronsbooks.com

Ron's Books continues to sell reprints of prototype catalogs reproduced by Silver Lake Images, LLC, in their Manufacturer’s Catalog Archive. Each catalog sells for $35.00.

Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Diesel-Electric Locomotives contains 79 pages including the various plants where these locomotives were made. I found this an interesting section because these factories made much more than locomotives, including the Sherman tanks of World War II.

Whitcomb Locomotives has 91 pages of little 0-4-0 mining locomotives perfect for a narrow gauge modeler. The parts of the locomotives are illustrated, and they are shown at work in mines and quarries. There is a nice collection of cabless mine locomotives and those with cabs. Perfect inspiration for modelers.

Westinghouse-Equipped Locomotives, Volume 1: Diesel-Electric 10 to 80 Tons. This catalog has 102 pages of center cab Diesel locomotives with several neat end cab versions. Both trucked and 0-4-0s are shown. As in other catalogs specifications, parts are illustrated along with page after page of industrial and short line small Diesels.

Railway Electrification<, Volume 2: PRR & Cleveland Union Terminal. No narrow gauge or short line here. Just 68 pages of behind-the-scenes information on two large, electrified terminals and data on GG-1s and other large electric locomotives. I found the section on experimental electric locomotives interesting.
-Bob Brown.