Thursday, March 02, 2006
Shay Locomotive-Titan of the Timber
Ephraim Shay (1839-1916) was a logger, who decided to build a better logging locomotive. In 1880, he constucted a succesful prototype. What set this locomotive apart was the unusual cylinder arrangement. As my photo shows, the two vertical cylinders drove a crankshaft, which in turn drove a pair of geared trucks through a system of universal joints and sliding shafts. on most Shays, the boiler is offset to the left of center, to balance the cylinders on the right.
The Shay became widely used and several other geared locomotives, appeared on the logging scene, such as the Willamette and the Heisler.
www.kettlevalleyrail.org
The Shay in my photos
built in 1924, is a cool restoration operating daily on a regular schedule in the summer months, on a restored section of the Kettle Valley Railroad out of Summerland, British Columbia. I got to ride in the cab with the Engineer and being a Shay locomotive fan, loved every moment. Sorry about the flash-back on the side of the cab covering the locomotive number 3, but the locomotive was in deep shade, and I would have lost all detail without the flash. I will fix it with photoshop soon.
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