A day at Hesston Rail road Museum.
Hesston In.
After 25 years damaged in a Fire and a lot of insurance problems.
They have their Shay with a full head of Steam.
Plus their smaller gauge.
It was a very enjoyable day.
It is narrow gauge. I forget what. I did not pick up a flier and do not want to give out miss info.
As you see it runs on dual gauge track. As I remember the cars run on the smaller gauge and the Shay on the larger.
Hesston has a major fire about 25 years ago. It destroyed some major and unique equiptment.
They had to battle the insurance co for all these years. After settling just a couple of years ago. Hesston restored the shay. It was under steam for the first time just after Memorial day 2006. They ran it last year Labor day for the public.
Yes it is picture perfect.
The road name on the non cylinder side is New Mexico Lumber and Oregon Lumber Co on the cylinder side.
Check you Atlas it is Hesston In.
The Hesston (IN) shay is a 67-ton 3-foot gauge locomotive from the New Mexico Lumber Co.
I put Hesston into my travel plans this past weekend as I returned from my nephew's high school graduation in Illinois. We visited on Saturday, May 26. The locomotive is now in pristine condition. I learned from chatting with the folks there that although they finished the rebuild in time for Labor Day, 2006, they found that their track wasn't really ready for that heavy of a locomotive (their other operating steam are small European ones). They upgraded their track, so this Memorial Day operation was the first real run for the shay. The track is dual gauge (2 ft and 3 ft.) This is a small loop of track, and there doesn't appear to be any situation that would challenge the shay to work. This is a wood-burning shay, so the cabbage stack is accurate.
I was able to get some good photos as the locomotive cleared some trees while the steam from the cylinder cocks swirled around the stack.
Labor Day will be the next big running day.
Inbetween are open but it is catch/catch can. People come out just to run what they want. 99% probability several Engines will be running
Labor Day is a big fest, but there is a charge that day about $5.00. It is well worth it.
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