This, and any other Lucky 7s I may find at Fort Missoula, encompasses an eclectic mix of the stuff laying around at the fort - and there's a lot of stuff here, especially machinery, buildings and dedicated trees.
Fort Missoula, for nearly a century a military fort, is now a National Historic Place and park. In the park are a few of the pre 20th century buildings from the original 1877 fort and many buildings from the early 1900s. They have an eclectic collection of large artefacts, including machinery and tractors, a lookout tower, railroad engine and cars, a tipi burner, the old Drummond, MT RR station, an old school and an old mission, artillery and a historical museum. It's a great place to spend an afternoon or a whole day.
This
Willamette locomotive is a clone of the
Shay locomotive. It was manufactured by the Willamette Iron and Steel Works of Portland, Oregon. After the patents on the Shay had expired other manufacturers, including Willamette made clones of the unique design of the Shay, indicating that it must have been a pretty good, if not unusual, design. This is locomotive No. 7, one of six remaining. Only one, in Mineral, Washington, is operational. This engine was used by Anaconda Copper between Anaconda and Butte and is the
only coal burning Willamette (look at the bottom of the page) that was ever built. All the others were oil burners. One would be tempted to call this a 4-4-4, as there are 8 drivers on the engine and the four wheels on the tender are driven, as well. Its official designation was 70-3, (70 ton - 3 trucks).
The Shay was designed as a geared locomotive, with either two or three vertical cylinders driving the drivers through a 3:1 gear ratio, giving it tremendous torque. It was intended for use in mountainous country where this torque was needed to overcome steep grades.
While 2,761 Shays were built between 1880 and 1945, only 33 Willamettes were built, the first on November 7, 1922 and the last on December 27, 1929.