The Possessed Logging Engine of the Philippines – Insular Lumber No. 7 “Siete”

by



In today’s video, we take a look at Insular Lumber No. 7 Siete, a locomotive that broke down and crashed so much that railway workers believed it was possessed.

Please subscribe for more

This video falls under the fair use act of 1976.
This video is available to use under the appropriate Creative Commons Licence.
Any images used that fall under any Creative Commons Licence belong to their respective owners.

Picture & Information References:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=434690433236883&set=pb.100057347384481.-2207520000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_in_the_Philippines#
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18445759
https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=Philippines&wheel=Articulated&railroad=ilc
https://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,61094,61214#msg-61214
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php/?story_fbid=2629124203785739&id=1593071984057638
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3047708208811552&set=a.1810714059177646
https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/comments/vucyq3/the_cursed_locomotive_of_the_insular_lumber/
https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/Insular_Lumber_No._7_Siete
https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldnegros/posts/2620147671352427/

Simon Colbeck Collection
Mark Mcdowell
https://www.gwrarchive.org/site/sitel2pg/Philippines/lumber/insular.php
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrainPorn/comments/gz490a/insular_lumber_company_shay/

source

47 thoughts on “The Possessed Logging Engine of the Philippines – Insular Lumber No. 7 “Siete””

  3. And btw, "Siete" actually means "seven" in Tagalog and in Spanish, on which about 50% of Tagalog, one of the languages of the Phillipines is based on… Though the pronaunciation "shed-tay" in Tagalog is a little different than the original "see_ya-ta" in Spanish. (Please, everyone who speaks Spanish: This is the closest I could get with English rhymes to give an idea of the sounds…)

    Reply

  6. Wow what a backstory this engine had! I love how this engine went through so much during its lifetime and yet it actually survived into preservation which is mind blowing. I love railroad stories that are like this Because it really shows what happens in reality. Either the locomotive plays up or it's environment crumbs underneath it. But ultimately it it's fate that answers it all for any locomotive. I have actually came up with my own realistic railroad stories and characters based on real-life events but with a more extreme feel to it. I love when things are based off of reality and that's what makes them so interesting and intriguing.

    Reply

  7. I first became aware of 'Siete' from the books by Colin Garratt. The reserves of Mahogany in the mountains were just about finished. Obviously track and locomotive maintenance was the bare minimum to keep 'Siete' running. They had reduced the steam pressure on account of the weak boiler. But that did not matter. The locomotive departed from Fabrica whenever there was enough timber for a full load. It looks like all the locomotives burnt the waste wood from the sawmill. The locomotives were sold to Sagay Sugar. There cannot have been a use for 'Siete'. The ex ILCO Shays would have suited a sugar railway better.

    Reply

  9. I think this one should've been saved for October but I still enjoyed hearing about Siete's "temperament." Truth be told, I was expecting to hear something about the lumberjacks gossiping that some local superstition or evil spirit of the forests taking possession of Siete. Nonetheless, I don't doubt the misfortunes tied to Siete and from an image taken from Google Maps, ladders have been fixed onto Siete allowing people to climb on the pilot and boiler.

    Reply

  11. The Negros Island (to which this beast lives on) is a very prime location for a railway system. Its flat terrain and strong sugar cane industry can support rail freight and an almost equally distant cities can be connected using rails. Most of the railways on the island are owned by sugar cane millers which use them for mill runs. The millers who still operate the railways seemed to have noted its lower operating costs compared to millers exclusively using trucks. Truck fed millers tend to be small and can't compete with rail fed millers. The large amount of drivers/operators are maybe the problem.

    Its also home to the last surviving and active steam locomotives in the Philippines. The Hawaiian-Philippine Company is a sugar milling company that occasionally runs their steam fleet when enough of the fuel (which is bales of dried cane stalks) is available and do mill runs in between pickup locations. No announcement is made during this runs and you can only know them if some locals posts videos of them on facebook.

    Reply

  13. theres another "possessed" engine that ive read about in a ghost train book back in middle school that would probably make a good video in the future, known as "Dread 107", and a line from that book has stayed with me, it said "If ever there was an engine piloted by the Angel of Death, it was this one" and from the story, it seems to hold true, she had several fatal accidents during her career, to the point that someone actually carved the names of everyone that had died by her into the wood of her cab, which, according to the story, drove one man insane when his hand ran over the carving while he was driving it, leading to him crashing the train, it got to the point that employees of the railroad she worked on would straight up REFUSE to work around or on any train that 107 was a part of out of sheer fear of being killed by it or whatever crash it might end up in

    Reply

  15. "After the landslide, the steep hill and loose earth meant they couldn't haul Siete back onto the rails – at least, not in one piece."
    "You mean they…?"
    "Took him apart, piece by piece, and rebuilt him back at the sheds."
    "How awful!"
    "It isn't the first time that's happened to an engine, but I agree it doesn't sound like a pleasant experience – Siete must have thought so too. Maybe he resented the railway for how they treated him, and this dismantling was the final straw. Maybe the builders put him back together wrong, and it affected his personality. Whatever the case, all that anyone knows for certain is that Siete was never the same after the ordeal…"

    Reply

  16. My grandfather worked in ILCO when he was young. The rails were absolutely in the worst condition and the small trestle bridge that used to stand in Lordes was very sketchy. There is no restoration plans for Number 7

    Reply

  20. Visited this engine in 2009, spent around two hours having a good look over it, for a 3'6" gauge engine it's a good size, 3 interesting things that stand out about it for me: 1) at some point in it's life its tender wheel sets have been replaced with wheels of a Shay 2) a couple of the side rods have broken/cracked at some point and have been welded back together! 3) the smokebox door wasn't done up so I opened it to have a look, the front tube plate & tubes have been removed but the real eye opener was the fact that the firebox had the most impressive build up of scale! the scale was completely fulling the water space on both sides of the firebox to just bellow the firebox crown height! it must of steamed so so bad when it last steamed….

    Reply

  23. Locomotives have been killing people since they started to appear. One of the most famous, Stephensons' Rocket, has at least five fatalities to her name. They are dangerous machines that we only think are under our control. I have worked on many, driven many and have the scars to prove it. Are the alive? Almost. Are the sentient? Thankfully NO! However when abused, ignored and generally not looked after they will catch the unwary and you don't stand a chance. I'd say that far from loco 7 being possessed it seems that ignorance, bad maintenance and circumstances provided by nature caused her reputation.

    Reply

  24. Knowing the reputation of logging railroads and their men, this shouldn't surprise us. One English writer – can't recall who – once said that we had few, if any stories about 'hoodoo' and killer engines here in England because they were better maintained and operated, compared to the slap happy methods which were tolerated on some American roads. That said, we too did have a few 'hard luck' engines which were involved in more than one accident, and similarly certain places which suffered in the same way.

    Reply

  26. Yes they have personality and you can have 10 engines all of the same class and they will all fire differently and you can light up an engine and it might not have a problematic injector when last fired and you put it to bed and the fire it again and the problematic injector last time give no issues but the opposite play up.

    Reply

  33. 2:18 is legitimately the craziest part of this engine's story. I imagine that must've been a serious accident and the fact that they bothered to retrieve it, rebuild it, and send it back into service is just baffling to me

    Reply

  36. I spent my career building and repairing the big coal burning power plant boilers. But I wished I'd spend a little time in the steam engine repair yard in Scranton Pennsylvania! My ancestors work is always intriguing! Cuz I'm a third-generation boilermaker!

    Reply

Leave a Comment