What are Shays exactly for/good for?

[SuperSpeedMaglev]

Curious me again ;P
I like the community because they make it more simple than anything I could find.
I'm also curious as to why they are geared
I'm up for a simple then detailed explanation

 

[narrowgauge]

Shays, like the Climax and Heisler, are low geared but powerful locomotives that can handle the steep inclines and uneven track of a typical logging operation. The conventional locomotive type is not flexible enough for those conditions and do not have the low-down slogging power of the Shay or others.

Peter

 

[SuperSpeedMaglev]

Oh I get it, it's flexiable and durable on steep inclines... Thanks. Part of me wants to know for realsim to.. :hehe: But like I said, who needs Wikipedia when you have the Trainz community?

To those who have answered my past questions and future questions.. :hehe:

 

[bendorsey]

Generally speaking geared locos can negotiate much sharper curves then all but the smallest of rod (non-geared) locos except for perhaps 0-4-0T's and 0-6-0T's. They also have the advantage of flexibility (you would not believe how rough track was on a lot of logging railroads). it was often literally "thrown" together. Grades boil down to the adhesion factor of steel wheels on steel track (not the best of combinations but not much choice in the matter unless the locos are fitted with something like Lionel's magnetraction, lol). Geared locos had the advantage of all wheels being driving wheels. If a geared loco did have a tender its wheels were powered too.

A final factor might be maintenance. All the moving parts are quite easy to get to (a definite advantage way back in the boonies).

Ben

 

[MeowRailroad]

The crank system is somewhat like a car engine, with the pistons turning a crankshaft. There are similar ones like this, like the Climax, which has the shaft connected to a wheel that the piston turns, and the Heisler, which has the crankshaft in the middle and a single piston on each side.

 

[flyboy559]

Geared locomotives are meant for hauling heavy loads up steep grades around sharp turns on rough track at low speed. They use trucks like on a freight car, meaning they can go almost anywhere a freight car can.

 

[GeorgeCW]

On an interesting note some shays were outfitted to run on thrown together log rails.

 

[bendorsey]

Yes - I've seen photos of them. Quite ingenious since when you move the route you can use the "rails" for fuel for the loco, lol.

Ben

 

[SailorDan]

The shaft and geared arrangement (and, most importantly, the universals in the shafts) means it is possible to place the bogies at the ends of the loco while they are both being driven from one engine - an important consideration with logging railways where the track bed has little or no preparation and weights need to be well distributed.

 

[SuperSpeedMaglev]

I ask a simple question and get all this.. :clap:
P.S It would be nice if someone posted a picture of a Shay running on log rails!

 

[captainkman]

You mean like this?

Kieran.

 

[SuperSpeedMaglev]

Cool! How exactly does it work? By that I mean being able to run on the logs.. It's quite interesting to see them run on anything but rails..

 

[captainkman]

Cool! How exactly does it work? By that I mean being able to run on the logs.. It's quite interesting to see them run on anything but rails..

The wheels have an inner and outer flange - like a large car rim!

The weight of the locomotive sets the logs in the ground and the slow speed of the locomotive means that there's not too much danger if the logs shift - and the drive going to all wheels means that a small derailment is a bit easier to recover from!

Kieran.

 

[bendorsey]

And broad gauge too.:hehe:

Ben

 

[nicky9499]

How do curves and switches work with log rails? :hehe:

 

[whitepass]

Log rails did not have switches and some had a 9 foot gauge. There was one Shay in N.Y.N.Y. and WMRR had one.

 

[bendorsey]

If you wanted to go in a different direction you re-laid the track.

I'd be curious to see what a "curve" looked like.

Ben

 

[Steamdemon]

Not really a shay, but it's what they can do. Kudos to mrsrcmo for the following video:
https://youtu.be/bY7V3HdfIp0

 

[maruffijd]

Cool video. Gives you reason to think ""How nice to see some people still care about others"

 

[iannz]

It's quite interesting to see them run on anything but rails..

Not all railways ran steel rails. One of the first railways in NZ ran on wooden rails. Nor did this have flanged wheels, it had smooth driving wheels but had some angled wheels holding it into the wood.

Above is an original photo of it in the early 1860's. Below is a photo showing the guide wheels (they have built a static replica of it which is on display where it used to run). As you can see it is also broad gauge.

It must have been hell on rainy days as it wouldn't have had much tractive effort.