Art & Words by
HOWARD B. TAYLOR

Faced by a reverse curve, a locomotive either forces the track into tangent between its wheels or it derails. The Climax did less straightening than a rod engine, so it was used by a road south of Cottage Grove. The mill was also served by an eight mile flume which carried lumber to a resaw plant at Latham where the mill is now located and is operated by Weyerhaeuyser. The road crossed the Coast Fork from a mill pond dam and barreled up the hill on a sustained 5% grade for some ten miles plus a branch line, a gravity feed line on a switchback, and a gravity near its terminus also. It had three 20 degree reverse curves before leaving sight of the mill. All of the engineering for this company was done by my dad, Harvey Taylor. To serve out his fifty years experience, I assisted him in some of this work.