Capt. GrimekThanks Bill. Great info. Is your Decapod a Bachmann Spectrum? Are you running it on Walther's Code 83 #4s or 5s by chance? I'm having the same trouble deciding which to get lst until I have more dough. The Shay is wining so far. It would be interesting to see what the street running shields looked like.
Capn',
Sorry for the delay in my response. My Mother (age 86) landed in the hospital up in Virginia and I've been spending about half my time up there or on the road in between. She's doing better than she was, but it is still a time of change for her and for me......
Yes, I do have the Bachmann Spectrum decapod. I have almost all #6 turnouts, but there is one Right Hand #4 up in the log-loading area where the decapod seldom ventures. I just finished a test. This is a Shinohara Code 70 #4 turnout, and the decapod ran through it with ease. "No pobem, Capn'"
The Russian decapod is a "small big engine", and I can turn it on my 65' turntable. It won't fit into my roundhouse, as the steps or gangways on the tender are just too wide. (This is an old Model Masterpieces hydrocal roundhouse.) I have a powerhouse that is kit-bashed and includes a Walthers 2-stall enginehouse track "entrance. The decapod does fit through that entranceway.
Bill
Capt. GrimekAre either of these two locos (Decapod/3 Truck Shay) likely to stall or do both have ample pickup?
Capt G
Regarding the Bachmann Shay, they have ample pickups and dead frogs will be no issue at all.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.
A Shay was used in Kansas City (Missouri side); I believe by the Kansas City Southern. The need for that level of traction came from a grade from the primary trackage along the river up into industrial trackage on the north side of downtown. This included quite a bit of street running in an urban setting. I thought I knew where I had a photo, but it wasn't in the volume that came to mind. They kept metal shrouds over the gears for safety in the street. The yards were there along the base of the bluff, so the Shay would almost certainly have been seen shuffling about the yards daily.
I had a hard time justifying a Russian Decapod on my HO coal and lumber hauler connecting with the Clinchfield in Southwest Virginia, but it is just such a neat locomotive that I had to have one. It is hard to beat watching 10 connected drivers, even though a 2-truck Climax would "fit" better. My justification is that it is on a trial via a short-term lease from the Charleston & Western Carolina Railway. The locomotive number (400) is that of the home road, but my HO folks did put their own lettering on the tender. After all, the weight was spread out over all those drivers so the decapods were generally easy on the track...
Capt. GrimekFinally, if anyone comes across Shays being used in division yards or more than mine/logging industrial areas in pics, I'd love to see them.
Capt. GrimekWere Shays (or Climaxes) ever used in or sold to more urban-y industrial yards and used as switchers? I'd like to know the same for Decapods please, if an 0-8-0 or Consolidation wasn't available? I'm spreading out Bachmann Spectrum purchases and would like to use and buy a Shay and give it "double duty" in a small logging scene and in a wharf or mountain industrial yard. They'd be within a scale 2 miles of each other... I'd also like to know if anyone knows if a Bachmann Spectrum Decapod/Russian can negotiate #4 and #5 turnouts without a problem. So...I'm looking at: a 2-8-0 and a 3 truck Shay purchase right now or a 2-8-0 and Decapod purchase to use as yard swithers for now and for mainline runs as well. Thanks for your help.
Geared steamers were relatively expensive so a railroad wouldn't use a Shay where an 0-6-0 would do the job. If a railroad had steep grades in the industrial areas it could justify a Shay for switching. That said, the Illinois Railway Museum used their Shay as a switcher in the 1970's because it was the only non-electric locomotive they had at the time. In the 1990's, IRM used their Shay to pull caboose trains on their streetcar loop. That stopped when the streetcar operators discovered that a Shay did a very good job as a rail lubricator.
The Pennsylvania Railroad used their I1 decapods for heavy switching. "Heavy switching" is anything that was too much for an 0-6-0. The PRR preferred to use consolidations, but if the work was too much for a consolidation or the consolidations could be better used elsewhere, the 2-10-0 got the job.
wjstix Since switchers generally (not a hard and fast rule) operated facing the cars they were switching, if your layout is set up so the Shay would normally have it's left side to the aisle, you won't be able to see the "fun" side with all the whirring gears going around.
Since switchers generally (not a hard and fast rule) operated facing the cars they were switching, if your layout is set up so the Shay would normally have it's left side to the aisle, you won't be able to see the "fun" side with all the whirring gears going around.
Everthing else being equal, the engineer would want to be on the same side as the switchman to ease communication. Yards were usually set up with the switchstands on one side of the yard ladder trucks. Large yards had more than one ladder track, frequently oriented differently. (Like, one ladder would have all the switch stands to the left, and the other to the right. Switchstands were located to minimize the need for switchmen to cross tracks.) In those situations, however, it wouldn't be unusual for more than one locomotive switching the yard, each oriented in the most advantageous way.
Mark
For the small industrial complex with its private railroad planned for my next layout, I've acquired several locomotives: a Climax (Bachmann), a 45-ton GE locomotive (Bachmann), and a 45-ton Whitworth (rare brass import). These are all quintessential industrial locomotives. While there is need and space for only one, I'll use the one best suiting my mood at the moment.
One thing to keep in mind re the Shay is the cylinders / gears etc. are all on the right side, so you might want to look at how your switching area is laid out. Since switchers generally (not a hard and fast rule) operated facing the cars they were switching, if your layout is set up so the Shay would normally have it's left side to the aisle, you won't be able to see the "fun" side with all the whirring gears going around. When I decided I had to have a geared engine I went with a Spectrum Climax, which has moving parts on both sides.
Capt,
Most Shay or geared engines usually ran with a top speed of 12-15 mph, and they sounded like they were going '60' with those small cylinders thrashing away. Their continuous TE was quite high, but most Shay locomotives were quite small(except for those monster WM ones). A 60 ton Shay was typical, and a typical 0-6-0 could weigh 90-100 tons. Low speed and stopping to grease those big exposed gears was normal for Shays. Back around 1970, I did volunteer fireman work on a 36-37 ton narrow gauge Shay at Allaire State Park in New Jersey. Greasing the external gears after starting the fire was SOP. I doubt if the engine and it's normal 4 car train ever got over 10 mph.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
The 'Russian' decapod is a very small engine(it is smaller than Bachmann's Baldwin 2-8-0). I have run one through Atlas #4 turnouts(really #4.5). I suspect they will run througth those tight Shinohara #4's with no problem.
tomikawaTT The Westside Lumber Company had a standard-gauge Heisler that was only used to switch interchange cars around the mill complex at Tuolumne. The logs came out of the woods behind 3 foot gauge Shays. Not exactly urban, but definitely industrial.
The Westside Lumber Company had a standard-gauge Heisler that was only used to switch interchange cars around the mill complex at Tuolumne. The logs came out of the woods behind 3 foot gauge Shays. Not exactly urban, but definitely industrial.
That Heisler was engine #3. It was originally narrow-gauged, later standard-gauged for switching the Tuolumne saw mill, then returned to narrow gauge for the tourist railroad in Felton (near Santa Cruz) California.
About 1960 when I was 13, my family visited Tuolumne and climbed over the locomotive. The watchman came over and said our activity was OK but not to step on the building side of the locomotive. The mill was inactive due to a strike Unfortunately, the mill burned to the ground shortly thereafter due to suspected worker unhappiness.
On the upbeat, I subsequently saw the Heisler in action at Felton. I got to drive a two-truck Shay on that railroad. It was a joy, but I still wish it had been Westside Heisler #3.
The boxed-in Shays used on Manhattan Island belonged to the New York Central, used on the West Side line before it was grade-separated and electrified. City ordinance required them to be, "Preceeded by a man riding a horse, carrying a red flag..."
The West Side Lumber Company had a standard-gauge Heisler that was only used to switch interchange cars around the mill complex at Tuolumne. The logs came out of the woods behind 3 foot gauge Shays. Not exactly urban, but definitely industrial.
Locomotives up to 2-8-8-2 size were fitted with footboards - but the N&W used those Ys for hump power. Likewise, the only Mallets ever owned by the NYC and PRR were used to push cars up humps in various yards, not as road engines.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
The Rio Grande used a shay in Salt Lake City's Roper Yard as a switcher. It came from a Utah mining railroad that the railroad acquired in the 'thirties, I believe.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
The Soo Line's only 2-10-0 was used in ore yard switching almost exclusively, sometimes in Upper Michigan and sometimes in Minnesota.
Railroads generally used whatever they needed to use to get the job done. The Missabe sometimes used 2-10-4's as "switchers" moving ore cars around.
Between 1939 and 1941 the IC built 14 2-10-0s from 2-8-2 boilers and 2-10-2 chassis. There were numbered 3610-3624 . The pictues of the one's I've seen show them with switcher type pilots, the same type of clear vision tenders the IC used on their other switchers and I've never seen a photo of one that wasn't working the yard.
Jeff
Sure, I think one of the New York City area switching lines used a Shay encased in a boxy housing (the thinking being that a horse would think it was a boxcar and wouldn't be afraid of it). Small geared engines were used in many industrial settings, mostly owned by the industry, NOT the railroad. There were even some really small narrow gauge engines that ran on prototype sectional track and wre used to haul building materials at road construction projects.
I would rather doubt that a 3 truck shay would be bought as a yard engine, but would be bought as the primary power for a shortline and used for everything, including yard switching, much the way a GP7 is used for everything on a branch line. So if those are the only engines that the logging line owns, guess what they are the switch engines.
The MP used Russian Decs to switch the ferry slips along the Mississippi. The Pennsy used I-1's as hump engines. The C&O bought AS616's and the RDG bought H-24-66's as hump engines. The UP, SP and CNW used SD35, SD38 and SD40's as switchers and hump engines. 4-4-0's have been used as switchers.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com