I don’t know much abou these types of locos but I had some time to poke around and take some great picures of this locomotive in Lewsiton, ID. If anyone is interested I took close ups of many of the various components of this loco. One thing I never realized was that the truck under the tender was also a drive truck.
It is a pretty cool loco.
As the builder’s plate says; that would be a Heisler (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)
Could care less about that steamer… I’m looking at the former NP caboose sitting behind it and drooling! 
I will admit that I have a soft spot for geared steamers. They all are just a slight bit ugly, but at the same time beautiful.
Sorry Craig,
I am still in town I could easiy go and take some pictures of the caboose if you need me to.
John,
I will admit ignorance when it comes to geared locos. I thought shay was a type not a manufacturer. I thought it was like mogal, or mallat ect.
Shay:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shay_locomotive
Heisler :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisler_locomotive
Climax:
Devon Sinsley said:.
John,
I will admit ignorance when it comes to geared locos. I thought shay was a type not a manufacturer. I thought it was like mogal, or mallat ect.
Devon, well it’s kind of both. Its the manufacturer, but also the type. The Shays were built by Lima, and they had 2 or more usually 3 cylinders on the engineer’s side of the locomotive, with a driveshaft running outside of the trucks on that side.
The Climax was built by Climax manufacturing, and it had Cyliners on the sides of the locomotive, angled downward that drive a jackshaft, that drives a gerabox. The gearbox in many of them had a 2 speed transmission. The gearbox drives a centerline driveshaft.
The Heisler has the cylinders aranged in a V, driving a centerline driveshaft. The driveshaft only powers one axle per truck, so the Heisler has side rods to transfer power from the driveshaft driven wheel to the other wheel in the truck.
There are other, less common, types of geared locomotives too. Types like the Dunkirk, Williamette, and others.
Geared locos are cool. I have a book about logging locomotives “Kinsey photographer The Locomotive Portraits” and many of the geared locos pictured in there have tenders. Some are powered and some are not.
When we garden RR guys run our geared locos seldom do we use tenders but it would be fine to do so.
I don’t need yet another detailing project on the to do list, but thanks for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind if we ever head through Lewiston…
Devon, the Shay got its name from its developer and patent holder, Ephriam Shay. They were built by Lima, and he was paid a royalty on each one.
Who, this guy?
John, it looks like it could possibly be John Mitchell. Not the Watergate John Mitchell, the Western senator who headed some railroad committees in the 1800s. Apparently he was quite the scoundrel, including being married to two women at once.
But no, no, no, no…it’s Ephraim Shay! Do I win something?
thanks for the info guys. I know am more educated than I was. That would be funto model but I will resist.
Devon,
Where is that located in Lewiston? Next time we’re in Genesee I’d like to go down the hill to see it.
AAMOI, once the Shay patents ran out, a number were built in Oregon by the Portland Iron and Steel Works. Capitalising on the basic design, the Willamette Shays were improved by having all three cylinders in a line, rather than the way that LLW did it by simplyadding one back-to-front cylinder to the reat end of the two-cylinder motor unit. That made things a bit easier in maintenance, but not by much.
See if YOU can spot the difference…
(http://limalocomotiveworks.com/lima_stone_10.JPG)
Not a lot of folks know that…
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Dan DeVoto said:
Devon,
Where is that located in Lewiston? Next time we’re in Genesee I’d like to go down the hill to see it.
Dan,
It is at the aptly named Locomotive Park. When you cross the river headed South it is basically the first thing you come to on the right.
https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=46.41851,-116.99703&spn=0.021153,0.052314&t=h&z=15
