bama_ed
It's kind of fun to do the impossible-Walt Disney
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2004
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Today was an EARLY wake-up for a nearly 4-hr commute each way but the effort was worth it. We drove down to little Cass, West Virginia, to take a 2-hr ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad which has the unique distinction of being one of the few places that have operating Shay locomotives. Don't know what those are?
Shays have GEARED driver wheels rather than piston-driven wheels in most steam locomotives. A drive axle is on one side of the locomotive and the steam from the boiler pushes 3 big pistons up/down which turn the shaft which have gears on the shaft and matching wheels. Shays were good logging locos because they weren't fast (20mph max) but they were strong, ran well over roughly laid track and terrain, and could handle sharp curves. Cass has about 5 of them that operate now.
This is what one looks like.
Note there is a truck under the front smokebox (2 wheel axles/4 wheels), another truck under the cab, and a final truck under the rear water tank. Coal is in the attached tender behind the cab. Note the 3 vertical pistons in front of the cab on the outside. Those turn the axle at the bottom and the gears. Pistons/axles are only on this one side of the locomotive. Here is a close-up of the pistons and axle.
And a close-up of one of the trucks with the gears on the axle and wheels.
We did the short ride to Whittaker which is a pretty meadow up on a mountain about 4 miles of track away. We did about 5/6mph up a slope of 5/6 percent and near Whittaker a grade of 9%! The loco was working hard on that last leg.
We started out with the loco pushing the 3 open-but-covered gondola cars (cloudy, about 70F). But to avoid wrapping around a mountain as it climbs, it uses switchbacks in the track layout. But not like a hiking/walking switchback which is a tight circle to reverse direction and continue climbing. The train switchback is a long, deep wye. It comes up one branch, rolls down the center staff of the wye till it clears the switch (which gets thrown), then reverses direction and rolls out on the other branch. There were two such switchbacks on the ride up to Whittaker.
The pic above is the second switchback where we came into the wye with the loco facing backwards pulling the coaches up. The second branch is off to the right.
This is the loco puffing up that 9% grade. Got some good audio mp3 sound recordings of the chuff and also the whistle echoing as we made our road crossings.
At Whittaker Meadow there is a concession building (or bring a picnic lunch up) and we spent 40 minutes admiring the view, looking at the loco, and relaxing. It had turned out to be a beautiful day.
Just before we returned to the station, we stopped at the water tank to top off for the next Whittaker run that afternoon and I snapped the pic just as the steam whistle blew signalling we were about to pull out.
Walking up the hill, after the ride, it was warm and sunny and I had learned a lot watching that clunky axle spin as it pushed us along.
My souvenir for my first trip to Cass was this hatpin (along with a free souvenir ticket). Our ride was 2-hrs with no lunch for $59 per adult and a steam locomotive. Cass Scenic offeres longer rides (which include a box lunch) and steam or diesel offerings all of which are more expensive (at least for steam).
Ed
PS - in addition to the Shays, the railroad has a Climax (angled drivers) and a Heisler (which had angled drivers but the geared drive shaft runs down the center under the boiler and not on one side like a Shay). Supposedly both the Climax and Heisler also run.
PPS - Cass is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere which can be hard to get to with your GPS Navigation system.
Shays have GEARED driver wheels rather than piston-driven wheels in most steam locomotives. A drive axle is on one side of the locomotive and the steam from the boiler pushes 3 big pistons up/down which turn the shaft which have gears on the shaft and matching wheels. Shays were good logging locos because they weren't fast (20mph max) but they were strong, ran well over roughly laid track and terrain, and could handle sharp curves. Cass has about 5 of them that operate now.
This is what one looks like.
Note there is a truck under the front smokebox (2 wheel axles/4 wheels), another truck under the cab, and a final truck under the rear water tank. Coal is in the attached tender behind the cab. Note the 3 vertical pistons in front of the cab on the outside. Those turn the axle at the bottom and the gears. Pistons/axles are only on this one side of the locomotive. Here is a close-up of the pistons and axle.
And a close-up of one of the trucks with the gears on the axle and wheels.
We did the short ride to Whittaker which is a pretty meadow up on a mountain about 4 miles of track away. We did about 5/6mph up a slope of 5/6 percent and near Whittaker a grade of 9%! The loco was working hard on that last leg.
We started out with the loco pushing the 3 open-but-covered gondola cars (cloudy, about 70F). But to avoid wrapping around a mountain as it climbs, it uses switchbacks in the track layout. But not like a hiking/walking switchback which is a tight circle to reverse direction and continue climbing. The train switchback is a long, deep wye. It comes up one branch, rolls down the center staff of the wye till it clears the switch (which gets thrown), then reverses direction and rolls out on the other branch. There were two such switchbacks on the ride up to Whittaker.
The pic above is the second switchback where we came into the wye with the loco facing backwards pulling the coaches up. The second branch is off to the right.
This is the loco puffing up that 9% grade. Got some good audio mp3 sound recordings of the chuff and also the whistle echoing as we made our road crossings.
At Whittaker Meadow there is a concession building (or bring a picnic lunch up) and we spent 40 minutes admiring the view, looking at the loco, and relaxing. It had turned out to be a beautiful day.
Just before we returned to the station, we stopped at the water tank to top off for the next Whittaker run that afternoon and I snapped the pic just as the steam whistle blew signalling we were about to pull out.
Walking up the hill, after the ride, it was warm and sunny and I had learned a lot watching that clunky axle spin as it pushed us along.
My souvenir for my first trip to Cass was this hatpin (along with a free souvenir ticket). Our ride was 2-hrs with no lunch for $59 per adult and a steam locomotive. Cass Scenic offeres longer rides (which include a box lunch) and steam or diesel offerings all of which are more expensive (at least for steam).
Ed
PS - in addition to the Shays, the railroad has a Climax (angled drivers) and a Heisler (which had angled drivers but the geared drive shaft runs down the center under the boiler and not on one side like a Shay). Supposedly both the Climax and Heisler also run.
PPS - Cass is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere which can be hard to get to with your GPS Navigation system.
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. However, it is very cute… and, frankly, it looks kinda cozy and fun (for 2).
