Suspected Rorer Dinkies

[NW Mailing List]

Jim

I responded to Stephen off list after seeing his post.

I think indeed those are the same locomotives, I have a photo identical, or at least very close to this one.

As our resident Salem expert (hah!) I can say that they are located on the Salem Foundry property just east of the passenger station. The main reason I know that is simple, there is an N&W company photo of a westbound time freight taken about the same time from the Colorado Street bridge, and you can see the little dinkys on the siding there. Obviously, it was not the feature of the photo, which I have somewhere, but not scanned apparently, as it does not show up in my file of JPEGs.

I don’t know the story of how/why they ended up in Salem, however, I’ve never heard that the tannery had any of its own locomotives. Since the track in the tannery was standard gauge and honestly not that much track, I kind of wonder about the need for their own power.

Best
Ken Miller

> On Oct 26, 2020, at 1:02 PM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Stephen
> 
> No expert on Rorer locomotives.  I have only seen one photo. That was there no. 12.
> 
> The second locomotive in your photo looks a lot like No. 12.  You will note that it has a round builders plate that is rather large.  The one I have seen a photo also has a similar round builder plate that is large.  My guess both are built by Baldwin.  The early Baldwins had a plate similar to the two photos.
> 
> Next we need to get a Salem Expert in on this.  Some where in my memory I recall the tannery in Salem had some similar tank locomotives.  If the Salem experts have the same memory it could be the Rorer locomotive(s) were sold to the tannery.
> 
> Could be.  If you have a construction number for the number 12 or date built I will check it out in my list of locomotives built by Baldwin. 
> Jim Blackstock
> On 10/25/2020 4:29 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>> In a recent Ebay find, I picked up this interesting tidbit.. two Porter narrow gauge locomotives that match the era for local mining operations at the Rorer Iron ore washers and mine. I'm estimating the actual dinkies on the Rorer Iron Narrow Gauge Rail Road were in proper use until the 1920s. This photo is dated from 1936, suggesting these two engines were documented by a rail fan while awaiting the scrapper.  
>> 
>> From the back of this small photo print, there is an obvious misspelling of "Rorer" and an even odder renaming of Salem "Oregon" to "Virginia." 
>> 
>> While this is not the best provenance I'd like to see, it's headed in the right direction. Can anyone shed light (one way or another) on this interesting image? 
>> 
>> Stephen Warren
>> Roanoke
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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