What Kind of Driving Gear is That?

If you look carefully, you will notice that the driving mechanism on this

locomotive does not look like the usual drive bar pushing the wheels around, like the standard steam locomotive that we are used to seeing. This Shay Locomotive has a gear-driven drive system that is extremely useful for going up very steep grades like those found in the mountains of eastern Tennesee. For a detailed explanation of how the Shay locomotive works, I recommend this website: https://www.shaylocomotives.com/trucks/trucks.htm The next website has provided the history of the locomotive on the front of this post card. I summarize the content below. http://hawkinsrails.net/shortlines/brim/brimstone.htm The locomotive on the front of this post card was built by Lima Locomotive & Machine Company (one of 1,557 built by this company) in August of 1910. It was commissioned as Lima #2366. The wheel arrangement is that of a Class C Shay 3 truck locomotive. It was energized by coal that heated water into steam that powered the drive train. It was originally sold to Raleigh & Southwestern RR as #35; then it went to Smokey Mountain RR in 1921; in 1938 the W.M. Ritter Lumber Company took possession; they sold it to Brimstone in 1942. After Brimstone, the locomotive went to the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum then to the Yolo Short Line and finally to the Silver Bend Tree Farm in 1995. And this website gives the history of the Brimstone Railroad, the railroad on which this locomotive is pictured. Again, I have summarized the content below. https://abandonedonline.net/location/brimstone-new-river-railroad/ The Brimstone Railroad was chartered in May of 1942 in eastern Tennesee, by the W.M. Ritter Lumber company of Virginia, and followed Brimstone Creek in northern Tennessee. As typical for a logging route, each hollow featured a railroad branch;switchbacks were used to ascend steep grades via three shay locomotives. The Brimstone Railroad primarily hauled timber and coal, with two underground coal mines located at Hughett and Lone Mountain. Timber was taken to the W.M. Ritter Mill at New River and later to a mill in Verdun. The railroad reorganized as the Brimstone & New River Railroad in 1965, and as the New River Railway in 1966 after the W.M. Ritter Company was acquired by Georgia Pacific Corporation. The line was purchased by the CNO&TP in 1970. Traffic along the New River Railway became increasingly scarce because the high-sulfur coal found in the region had become less desirable and the last active coal mine along the route closed in 1980.

The post card was published by Audio-Visual Designs in Earlton, New York after October of 1983. The address on the back of the post card includes the 5 digit zip code plus the 4 more digits that were added after October of 1983.