A machine with "character". That's how Fireman Jennifer Jenks described "her" engine to me. With her oversize, one-of-a-kind spark arrestor stack and a pair of antlers adorning the headlight, this engine definitely has the "look" of a machine that has been customized by a local logging operation.
The Heisler design is simple and efficient. Built on a frame made up of two steel I-beams, it utilizes a V-shaped, 2-cylinder engine spinning a driveshaft located underneath the boiler on the locomotive's centerline. That driveshaft is geared to the inboard wheel-set in each of the two "trucks." The outboard wheel-set in each truck is powered by a short connecting rod. Of the three basic geared engine types (Shay and Climax being the other two), the Heisler is the most mechanically efficient, and the fastest. Because of this, logging operations desiring an engine that could operate on steep grades with bad track, as well as on the main line, often opted for Heisler Locomotives. Eccles Lumber Company, which was affiliated with the Sumpter Valley Railway, was such a line. Eccles Lumber Heisler #3 is one of the few narrow gauge Heisler's that survives. She's original to this line, and was still burning wood and still going strong as she turned 100 years old in 2015.
