Friends of the Rail Forum

This Willamette 3-truck at Mt Rainier Scenic Railroad, according to Wikipedia, "closely resembles a Shay locomotive" and is "the only operational Willamette in the world". And here is the hogger.

Interesting! Willamette, Shay, and geared locomotive are all new to me. Did any of them come to (South) Africa?

I'm sure there's an expert out there somewhere who will prove me wrong, but as far as I know Shays, and geared locomotives in general, weren't common outside north America. I too had never heard of a Willamette, but I liked the picture.

The first Willamette was built in 1922 when the Shay patents had expired.

Looks like Shay & Lima were not as good as Beyer Peacock in keeping detail modifications patented and thus effectivly extending the original patents.