Alternate uses for shays & heislers than logging

[kjchronister]

After 'biting off more than I could chew' in my last 2 layouts, I'm in the process of designing a new 'downsized' layout.

I own/love several geared locos - a few shays, a heisler. I'd still like to use them and to have a rationale for this on the new layout. But I simply don't have space now to create the sort of 'branchline up a grade to a forest area for a logging camp' that I used to.

What I've got to devote to it is a 2' x 7' area, with a dual-track mainline running along one side. So with approx 18" x 7' at level grade, what other ways were geared locos historically used that I could potentially model in that space? I've searched online and tons of info on the locos themselves, but little on their usage...

Thanks for ideas!

 

[bnsf971]

Build a tourist railroad, and haul small passenger cars with them.
Mount Rainier and Cass come to mind for real-world versions of this.

 

[kjchronister]

Thanks, Terry! Have actually ridden behind a shay at one of those.

Not sure that's workable here, though... My era probably doesn't support it. Should have added more detail: Modeling Transition-Era late 40's/early 50's PRR. "Proto-lance" imagined branchline located in Central Pennsylvania. Not sure if tourist RRs had sprung up by the 50's... Operationally I tend to run 'through' passenger trains while working peddler freights and spotting other local industrial 'deliveries' between them.

Really wondering about other -industrial- uses for geared locos, especially those that could be modeled in a relatively small, flat space... e.g. were they used in foundries at all? Stockyards? A brewery (I know Anheuser-Busch brewery had a couple little switchers on site to shunt things around when I was a kid...). Trying to imagine what sort of trackside industry might have 'inherited' a few logging locos on the cheap and found uses for them... Was hoping someone could spot a prototype example of such a thing.

In fact, my backup plan is to build a foundry in the space and rationalize exactly that: they serve as a delivery spot for ore cars from the mine elsewhere on the layout, and then have a few geared locos to move things around internally, spot empties for pickup, etc... BUT... I'm open to better ideas. It's a 2x7 blank canvas in this case.

 

[bnsf971]

Are the geared engines standard or narrow gauge?
If narrow gauge, you can have them haul narrow gauge hoppers to a transloading facility, and interchange the coal to standard gauge hoppers.

 

[kjchronister]

They're standard gauge.

Actually... Googling has finally paid off. (Isn't that always the way... you find something only -after- you give up and ask...?) I found several examples of general industrial use: shays at Portland Cement Co., Morgan & Wright (bicycle tires), and Lunkenheimer Co (valves)... So sort of satisfied that any 'industrial switching and shunting' use in a plant/factory setting isn't gonna be ridiculous...

FWIW, found a great link to full text versions of an old Lima Shay Catalog, and the American Cycopedia of Locomotive Practice at http://books.google.com/books?id=whE6AQAAMAAJ... the latter an amazing resource in general.

Having said that, would still love to get ideas / examples as source of inspiration...

 

[kjchronister]

Cyclopedia link is http://books.google.com/books?id=bbE5AQAAMAAJ. Oops.

 

[bnsf971]

I still like the transloading idea. It gives you a reason to have geared and rod-driven steam.

 

[kjchronister]

Definitely thinking on that one too!

 

[bnsf971]

You could model something like the East Broad Top. They used narrow gauge coal hoppers, you could simply substitute standard gauge, though very small and old, hoppers as a reason for having to move everything. Geared steam instead of rod-driven steam.

 

[Rico]

I live across from a stone quarry that had rail service in and around the pits.
(our property used to be part of it and we have rock walls everywhere)
They make "Tyndal Stone" blocks for buildings and walls that were transloaded into CPR cars.

 

[OldGuy]

A quarry operation maybe a good bet. Phenix Quarry in southern Missouri used as Shay to get the blocks of marble out of the quarry to the cutting/finishing operation.

Since your space is limited, this may not work, but the Kansas City Southern used a Shay (Lima shop build 2570) to access rail customers along the slopes of western Kansas City. It mainly switched boxcars and flat cars.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

I have always wanted to build this 2x7 foot switching operation.
It would work very well with a shay or other geared locomotive.

 

[dlplost]

People always seem to concentrate on the Forestry side of logging, How about the Saw Mill where the Logs are delivered to...
Picture a sawmill, couple of sidings, Log unloading and stacking equipment. Maybe a mill pond and stream to power the sawmill.....

 

[bob]

Build a tourist railroad, and haul small passenger cars with them.
Mount Rainier and Cass come to mind for real-world versions of this.

Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad? That name sounds familiar for some reason.

If you want to be even more obscure, get a Climax and a Willamette (Looks like a Shay, but it was built by Willamette Iron & Steel in Portland, OR after the Shay patents expired.)

Oh, and they weren't used for just logging. Mining and other industrial railroads also had them. There was even one with a shroud on it that ran in the streets in some big city, I think it was New York?

 

[bob]

I have always wanted to build this 2x7 foot switching operation.
It would work very well with a shay or other geared locomotive.

That plan's a bit deceptive, you're not switching anything without some extensions on both ends of that module. You could use portable track you attach for an operating session, but you'd need more like 10 or 12 feet of length to get anything done. Without it, you can't even reach most of the sidings with a light engine.

 

[Cjcrescent]

You could model something like the East Broad Top. They used narrow gauge coal hoppers, you could simply substitute standard gauge, though very small and old, hoppers as a reason for having to move everything. Geared steam instead of rod-driven steam.

Terry, the EBT also used standard gauge hoppers on some parts of the line. I read an article in Trains, from sometime in the 1970's where, at Mt. Union Pa, they had a crane that would lift one end of a hopper car at a time, roll the standard gauge truck out from under the lifted end, and would then roll a narrow gauge truck back under it. This was repeated on the other end. Then the cars would go in a train to the mines on their "new" trucks. After they were loaded at the mines, they would return to Mt. Union. This process was also used on box cars, flat cars and tank cars. Due to the narrow clearances in tunnels, curves, bridges, etc. the cars were limited to 55 ton hoppers, 10-12,000 Gal tanks, 40' and smaller boxes and flats.