A Shay Logging Locomotive (5 of 5)

The locomotive featured on the front of this post card is the last of the three types of common

steam engines used in the logging industry that I will discuss. It is a Shay Locomotive that was used by the Charles R. McCormick Lumber Company. The information below was gleaned from this article: https://www.american-rails.com/shay.html The Shay steam locomotive was the most well-known and widely used of the geared designs to operate in the United States (the others being the Climax and Heisler, which followed in the footsteps of the Shay but were not quite as successful). Nearly 3,000 Shay locomotives were constructed from 1880 through nearly the mid-20 century. Designed by Ephraim Shay (an inventor, among his many, many job titles he held over the years) the geared locomotive proved to be an invaluable tool in the logging industry through the first half of the 20th century as it could operate on almost any type of track. Part of the design's successful was due to Shay's partnership with the Lima Locomotive Works. At first the builder had no interest in the design but eventually was persuaded to build a prototype, which was sold in 1880 to the lumber firm of J. Alley Company in Michigan. With the success of this prototype Shay applied for and received a patent on his design in 1881. As other logging companies saw the advantages the locomotive provided sales were off. Over the years both Shay and Lima improved upon the initial design making the locomotive heavier and more powerful with better tractive effort and adhesion. For instance in 1884 the first three-cylinder Shay was built and a year later Lima introduced the first three-truck locomotive. Then, in 1901 Shay received a patent for an improved geared truck. More than any other geared design the Shay steam locomotive proved to be most successful with main line railroads as several found use for it along steep and circuitous branch lines such as the Western Maryland, Northern Pacific, and New York Central. By the time production had ended on the Shay some 2,671 examples had been built by Lima spanning a period from 1880 to 1945. Its success launched Lima as a major builder of steam locomotives How geared steam locomotives work, according to William E. Warden in his book West Virginia Logging Railroads, is that these cylinders drive a flexible line shaft with universal couplings and slip joints through bevel gears. Essentially what this means is that the vertical cylinders drive a horizontal crank shaft attached to drive shafts extending to each truck axle. These axles have gearboxes attached to them which propel the engine forward. And, because geared steam locomotives have all of their trucks powered, they provided excellent adhesion enabling them to climb grades well over 5% (something all but unthinkable on main line railroads), although this high adhesion factor limited its speed to under 20 mph. Because the cylinders were designed to be situated directly ahead of the cab it forced the boiler to be offset to the left. However, as it turns out this worked out well since it provided for a counterbalancing of the locomotive. Additionally, the flexibility of the design allowed each truck to negotiate the track independently of the other, thus keeping the locomotive on the rails and allowing it to operate over almost any type of track (which was usually nothing more than rails laid directly onto a hillside for most logging operations).

This post also continues the displaying of some of the post cards in my collection from the Kinsey's Locomotives collection. The picture was taken by Darius Kinsey in 1927 near Camp Talbot, Quilcene, Washington. I have learned a lot about logging and the steam locomotives used in the industry during these five blog posts. I hope that you have enjoyed learning as much as I have.