Interesting Shay(?)

[PhilH]

http://www.shorpy.com/node/7786?size=_original

 

Click on view full size and marvel at the detail in this 100 year old plus photograph.

 

 

 

And....if you have an hour or two to spare the whole Shorpy site is worth a browse, especially if you click on view full size when you come across an image you like.

[John_Hughes]

Yup, that's a Shay all right!

 

You're right, it's a wonderful photo!

[Baby Deltic]

I like the bevel gears on the wheels. I wonder how quickly they wore out with dirt and rain hitting them.

[Unknown Warrior]

Great photo and a wonderful site. What a resource!

 

Many thanks,

 

John.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

What's really interesting is that the boiler and smokebox are used as the structure to link the front and rear trucks and to carry the engine. By the date of the photograph this form of construction was long outmoded for rail locos, a separate frame to perform the structural duties having been found preferable. The substantial staying from the smokebox to the subframe for the front truck has a rather ad-hoc look about it, I wonder if it was already proving a rather lively vehicle, especially as there seems to be no suspension. It would not remotely surprise me if this engine terminated its' working career with a boiler explosion. The torque reaction from the engine would tend to pull the boiler out of round, and localised flexing of pressure vessels tends to be bad news in the medium to long term.

[tebee]

Interestingly enough it's a rather special Shay. Firstly it's not built by Lima who made 99% of Shays, but by the railroad themselves. Now this was very unusual as the Shay was a patented design but the reason this line was able to do it was that it was owned by Ephraim Shay, inventor of the loco!.

 

The line was the Harbor Springs Railway, better known as the Hemlock Central, and it was funded by Shay's royalties from Lima for the use of his designs and patents in building the rest of the Shays !

 

It was a lightly laid 2ft 6in gauge line ( 16 lb yd rail!) in Michigan about 7 miles long and opened in 1900 and closed in 1910.

 

The locomotive shown is number 1, there were two others , similar construction but each a unique design.

There are picture if all three here http://www.shaylocomotives.com/shaypages/EphraimShay.htm

 

 

Tom

[John_Hughes]

I like the bevel gears on the wheels. I wonder how quickly they wore out with dirt and rain hitting them.

 

They don't seem to have done so; a good dose of grease every so often was all that was needed, and of course all the mechanical bits were right out there in the open where they could easily be got at.

 

Shays had a fine reputation for reliability and, of course, they could be patched up with very little in the way of tools. But were they ever noisy - a Shay doing 10 mph sounded like anything else doing about 70!

[Burkitt]

She's wearing a crucifix, but that's very common among Christians. She's highly unlikely to be ordained in 1906.

 

Paul

[bertiedog]

Interesting indeed. Especially as it appears the boxcar is actually the loco's 'tender'. Also noteworthy: no less then 7 women (to 6 men, one baby and a little girl) in that picture and the lady inbetween the cars, standing on something from the truck of the rear car, appears to be a female vicar (cross on chest). Given Tom's story, could the gentleman next to the driver (with the straw hat) be Mr Shay himself?

 

Lima went bust in the 60's (?), what happened to the Shay patents they held?

Shay patents have long lapsed due to age, all long ago......

[PhilH]

Ephraim Shay's, and Lima's Shay patents, can be viewed here

[Tony_S]

Interesting indeed. Especially as it appears the boxcar is actually the loco's 'tender'. Also noteworthy: no less then 7 women (to 6 men, one baby and a little girl) in that picture and the lady inbetween the cars, standing on something from the truck of the rear car, appears to be a female vicar (cross on chest). Given Tom's story, could the gentleman next to the driver (with the straw hat) be Mr Shay himself?

 

Lima went bust in the 60's (?), what happened to the Shay patents they held?

 

Ephraim Shay would have been in his mid sixties when the photograph was taken. There is a photograph of him on his Wikipedia page showing him in later life.

 

I really like geared steam locomotives. I've got Heisler, Climax and Shay models with no real justification for running them on my layouts other than I like seeing them!

 

Tony