This is a very short video to show you the steam locomotive #9 in operation. The following description is from their website georgetownlooprr.com.
Engine 9 is a three truck Shay type locomotive built by Lima Locomotive Works, Lima, Ohio, in 1923.
All wheels are driven on this logging locomotive by three 12"x15" vertical engines through a flexible drive line and gear reduction on the right hand (engineer's) side. To compensate for the weight of the engines the boiler sits off center to the left. This 80-ton locomotive is one of the three largest narrow gauge Shays ever built, producing 36,150 lbs. tractive effort. It carries 200-psi boiler pressure and is superheated.
The #9 originally operated on the West Side Lumber Company out of Tuolumne, California. The WSL Co. ran a maximum 72-mile main line and had many more miles of spurs in Tuolumne County. Shay 9 worked with half a dozen other Shays on the line entering into the woods making one trip a day hauling the giant logs down to the mill. The West Side lasted until the early 1960s, and was the last steam-powered narrow gauge logging railroad in the United States.
In 1966 the locomotive was obtained by the Midwest Central Railroad in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The Shay 9 was shipped by railroad flat car to Mount Pleasant and then transferred to a truck for the rest of the move to the Midwest Central Railroad.
The locomotive was lovingly operated and cared for by the volunteers at the Midwest Central Railroad for many decades. In late 2010 discussions evolved between the Midwest Central Railroad and the Georgetown Loop Railroad concerning the possibility of leasing the large and powerful Shay 9 to the Georgetown Loop Railroad. The Loop was in need of a larger locomotive to pull the ever increasing passenger loads experienced at the railroad, especially in the busy summer months. In return, the Georgetown Loop Railroad would lease its Baldwin built 2-6-2 #12 to the Midwest Central.
In February of 2011 the Shay 9 arrived in Silver Plume, Colorado as a result of a new lease agreement. The Shay 9 underwent 15 months of work in order to make the locomotive operational for the Loop railroad and officially entered service in July of 2012.
For more information and photos concerning the Shay 9 please check this website, www.mcrr.org/, from our friends at the Midwest Central Railroad.
5 авг 2013
