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Shay #5 steam locomotive
jimdeere
Member, Moderator Posts: 26,241 ******
Went to Cass, WV today to ride the Christmas train with wife, two daughters, and great granddaughter. Three hour drive both ways.
We had a blast!
( not good pictures because the light wasn't right)
Comments
https://mountainrailwv.com/shay-5/
That's a great ride. I have been on it several times
I'm old enough to remember the age of steam. A bygone era I miss……
Sounds like a great time with the family congrats .
The Old steam engines were / are. Amazing machines the shays being gear driven for the mountains or the" big boy engines" build for heavy long haul runs and then all varations made for different purposes it was special time in history
We have ridden a few of the tourest varations when the kids were younger. Always a good time
road that train several times fifty years or so ago. one of my dada favorite things to do.
England; The Hole in the Wall Gang #1 & PSJ …
🛒 Zip
That is a lot different from the steam engines I’ve seen in the past. Looks to have a drive shaft of some type.
Is it a narrow gauge or standard?
Thanks for sharing.
Yes they were vertical pistons connected to a crankshaft that drove several (all?) wheels. They were used a lot here in the Pacific Northwest logging industry. Due to their drive wheel arrangement they had huge amounts of tractive drive power, so they started heavy loads well. They also were good at handling steep grades. As far as I know they were of standard gauge. Shay locomotives are legendary around these parts.
like HPD said vertical pistons and drive rods with gearing. powerful but slow and that didnt matter because they didnt travel far.
I installed wheelchair lift on those cars many moons ago.
Saw the last operational Big Boy this summer. It's been converted to an oil burner. It left Cheyenne, headed east in a big loop eventually came back west through Denver then north through Greeley back to Cheyenne. Most of the stops were of very short duration, or even just a slowing down. Not sure why.
There's a second inoperative Big Boy in a Cheyenne park next to the tennis courts.