Locomotive No.2 Nadene B.
Built in Leeds, United Kingdom by the late Doug Blackhurst in 1979, the queen of our fleet, engine #2 is a 10 1/4-inch gauge 2-6-4T coal fired live steam locomotive and is a scale replica of the Leek & Manifold Valley Railway's #2 the J.B. Earle. Before being purchased by the ranch and shipped from England to the United States, our locomotive had a rich and fascinating history, having been used at Kessingland (Suffolk Wildlife Park) during the early to mid 1980s and later used to help fundraise money to save the original Leek & Manifold's Hume End station building by operating over temporarily laid track on the old L&MV right-of-way which had been converted to biking/hiking trail. She was then acquired as a static display at the world famous Statfold Barn Railway. Locomotive #2 has since been renamed to Nadene Beth in honor of our founder's grandmother Nadene Beth Shaffer who was the driving force behind the creation of the ranch to carry on our family's rich farming and railroading heritage.
Locomotive No.7 Holly M.
Keeping in tradition of naming our locomotives after prominent family members, engine #7, named for the matriarch of the family Holly Marie Ferguson, daughter of Nadene Beth Shaffer, was built new for the ranch by Ridge Locomotive Works of Freeland, Michigan in May of 2022 and is a 7 1/2-inch gauge 2-6-0 coal fired steam locomotive. She is a loosely based scale replica of the Baldwin narrow gauge 2-6-0 steam locomotives built for the Huancayo - Huancavelica Railway in Peru where they earned the nickname Iron Llamas.
Locomotive No.480 Karen M.
Named for Karen Marie Shaffer, younger sister of Nadene Beth Shaffer, engine #480 was built in 1989 by the late Harold SinClair of New Zealand and is a 7 1/2-inch gauge 2-8-2 coal fired steam locomotive. She was purchased by the ranch and shipped from New Zealand to the United States in November of 2021. The prototype, K-36 class locomotive #480, built for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1925, still exists and operates regularly on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado.
Our locomotive #480 is currently undergoing a ground up overhaul and is expected to return to operation in late summer/early autumn 2026.
For more information on #480's full size counterpart or to take a ride on her, visit the link below.
Locomotive No.3000 Shirley Ann
Built by the late Robert Butler of Santa Rosa, California in 1953, #3000 is the most historic engine in our fleet. She is a 12-inch gauge 4-4-2 Atlantic type coal fired steam locomotive and is based on the Southern Pacific Railroad's A-6 class 4-4-2 steam locomotive #3000 which once hauled their famous San Joaquin Daylight passenger trains along the central valley of California between Los Angeles and Oakland. Our engine #3000 is named for Shirley Ann Shaffer, older sister of Nadene Beth Shaffer. Locomotive #3000 is currently on static display in our Ranch Shop awaiting her turn for a complete restoration to operational condition.