Friends of the Rail Forum

Last month I visited the Cass Scenic Railroad in Cass West Virginia
The line is operated by Shay type locomotives of which the largest pair were in steam that day.
The line climbs about 2300 feet vertically on grades of up to 1 in 11 with two zig zags on the ascent
The location is only accessible by car on back roads but was well worth the detour on our trip from houston to Toronto to inspect a new grand daughter. Even my wife who is not particulary interested in steam rated this one worthwhile.
This is Shay No 6, the last Shay built in 1945 for the Western Maryland Railroad and used on one of the very steep coal branches.
The loco weighs in at about 145 long tons in working order and has an axle load of 24 tons with a tractive effort, through the gears, of 79568 lbf
A close up of the cylinders and crankshaft on No 6
This is Shay No 11, built 1923 for the Hutchison Lumber Company in California
The loco weighs in at about 92 long tons in working order and has an axle load of 15 1/2 tons with a tractive effort, through the gears, of 53876 lbf
Shay No 11 upward bound at the zig-zag deep in the woods.
This is a steam log skidder designed to clamp onto the rails and pull the logs to the area where they are to be loaded on the trains to be taken to the mill.

Joh! Amazing! I didn't even know there was still working Shays left!

Just for those of you who didn't snap it straight away, that number 6 is almost 50% stronger that a 25NC. Even the 'little' number 11 is about 5% stronger!

Luca,

The only reason they have the very high tractive effort is the gearing. the real tractive effort for No 6 is 32513lbf and for No.11 26281lbf

The gearing on No 6 is 2.45:1 so it sounds like its doing about 25 when in fact its doing 10

The maximum speed is about 15mph

More from my visit to Cass
This is the other side of No 6 showing the boiler close to that side and the relativly plain look without the cylinders and gears
Taken from the platform of the coach showing the offset of the boiler to the left and the pating in front of the cylinders on the left
A general view, the loco is at the back of the train and will push uphill except for the zig-zag where the loco pulls the train in reverse. Downhill the loco controls the train with a steam counter pressure brake, conventional air brakes for loco and train and brakemen to operate the hand brakes.
The shays are equiped with a siphon to enable water to be taken from below track level, originally they would stop on a trestle over a stream and put the suction hose in, now they take the water from a tank beside the track.
Also in steam as standby loco was Birch Valley Lumber Shay No 4. Built 1922 weight 83.5LT, Axle Load 13.9LT, TE (After Gears) 40500lbf
At the shed, servicable, but not in steam was West Virginia Spruce Lumber Shay No 5. Built 1905 weight 85.75LT, Axle Load 14.3LT, TE (After Gears) 42154lbf

I returned to Cass on August 3rd en route Virginia for a family reunion

Shays #6 and #11 were in use with #4 & #5 with fires lit on standby, Heisler #6 was cold but servicable.
A photo taken by my wife showing the elementary explanation of the workings of a steam locomotive which is so necessary to get the new generations past Thomas the Tank Engine.
Shay #11 pushes the short turn trip to Whittaker camp out of Cass Station
Shay #6 pulls the empty stock into Cass for the train to Bald Knob summit
Shay # 6 at Cass
Shay #5 at Cass on standby
Heisler #6 Sevicable, but cold at Cass
Shay #4 at Cass on Standby

Ian - thanks for all these pics!

Splendid!