Restoration Update: Some Detective Work
- Friends of No. 9
- Mar 2, 2025
- 2 min read
This summer Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods Engine No. 9 will go on short-term exhibit at the California Sate Railroad Museum in Sacramento. Al Di Paolo, the museum’s Cheif Mechanical Officer, called No. 9’s restoration “phenomenal”. “You have made all the right choices."
That was great to hear. Finding the historic parts of a vandalized 104-year old steam engine has been a challenge.
No. 9’s throttle was like that. Stolen by vandals in the 1960s, it had been missing for over 40 years. Other Heisler locomotives around Northern California were older than No. 9. Their throttle assemblies did not match the surviving parts we had.
I grabbed Ben Kline’s book “The Heisler Locomotive”. Inside is a list of surviving Heislers as of 1982 and began calling the railroads that had a newer Heisler than ours. The first railroads said they were in “high season” and didn’t have the time to help. Then I called the Northwest Railway Museum. Collections Manager Saxon Bisbee, said he was busy but he would take a few photos of their Heisler’s throttle assembly and send them that afternoon.
A few hours later I had the photos and it was clear we had a match.
I called Joe Breeze, our draftsman, and told him we finally found a throttle match. “Great. Where is it?” “At a museum near Seattle.” “I’m in Seattle,” he said. "If you can set it up I’ll go tomorrow and make the measurements.” So I did.
The next day Joe was in the cab of Ohio Match Company’s Engine No. 4. It had no floor so Joe had to find things he could stand on. He brought a long piece of cardboard, traced the outline of the 3 1/2-foot piece, measured various lengths and angles and a few days later entered it all in his computer.
Then Joe called an old friend, Mark Norstad, a retired machinist and asked if he could help create a new throttle. Mark said yes. We had the 30-pound steel piece shortly after Christmas and Mark delivered it to the Millericks workshop. We took it out to test-fit the throttle on No. 9… and it fit like a glove.
Mark’s careful machining and Joe’s precise blue print worked like a charm. Our new friends at the Northwest Railway Museum were a huge help.
The Millericks continue to recreate missing and damaged pieces for No. 9. Don Millerick has been recreating the headlight.
One other piece of news: Congressman Jarred Huffman suggested Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods Engine No. 9 be in Mill Valley’s Memorial Day Parade on May 26. We’ll be there and hope you will be too.
Fred Runner
President
Friends of No. 9, Inc.
A Nonprofit Corporation
Ohio Match No. 4
(A 1923 Heisler)
Joe Breeze traced the outline of the throttle assembly of “Ohio Match No. 4" on cardboard at the Northwestern Railway Museum, Snoqualmie, WA. (Note cardboard beneath the throttle arm.)
Machinist Mark Norstad with the new throttle he'd just finished for Engine No. 9.
Test-fitting No. 9's new throttle assembly. (It fit like a glove.)
(L to R) Jeff Millerick, Mark Norstad and Don Millerick.
Don Millerick is hard at work building a new headlight for No. 9.
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