Log Train Double-Header
Cass, West Virginia, formerly a company-town built by the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company, is now a state park and home for the Cass Scenic Railroad which operates vintage equipment for rail-fan excursions in the Cheat Mountain area. In this photograph, double-headed Shay locomotives No. 2 and No. 4 reenact an empty log train departing Cass for the cutting fields where harvested timber would be loaded for delivery back to the sawmill. Named for their inventor, Midwestern lumberman Ephriam Shay, Shay locomotives feature a geared drive train (patented in 1882) from the steam cylinders to the wheels. Shays are slow but very powerful and flexible, capable of negotiating rough, curvy and hilly track that would stop a conventional steam engine. Shays were built from the late 1800s up through WW-II.
Shay 2 with Log Train
Passing the old water tower at Cass, WV, Shay No. 2 pushes a log car and a gasoline- engine powered log loader crane. Shay locomotives, named for inventor lumberman Ephriam Shay, are slow but very powerful. With a gear drive to the wheels, they can climb grades in excess of 10 per cent that would stall conventional steam engines. Shays were used for lumbering operations, in mines and industrial applications around the world from the late 1800s through the 1960s. Today, many tourist railroads still operate Shay locomotives.
Three Train Race
Just for fun (and the photographers), Shay locomotives No. 6, 5 and 11 have a drag race at the Cass Scenic Railroad, Cass, WV. It’s an oxymoron to talk about Shays and racing in the same sentence. Designed for logging work on temporary track with sharp curves and steep hills, Shays have a gear drive that makes them slow but very powerful. All-out, a Shay can do maybe 10-12 mph on level ground. Rail-fans love Shays for their noise, voluminous smoke and fascinating exposed moving parts.
Maximum Smoke!
Shay No. 2, double-headed with Shay No. 5, works upgrade pulling a train full of rail-fans at the Cass Scenic Railroad, Cass, WV. Shay locomotives, named for inventor Ephriam Shay (1882), feature all working parts on the right side of the engine: vertical steam cylinders and a rotating drive shaft geared to every axle. For balance, the boiler is offset to the left side. These engines were designed to operate on temporary track, often crooked and up and down hills, as they hauled timbers from cutting fields to the millpond. Originally licensed for manufacture to the Lima Machine Company, Lima, Ohio, (later Lima Locomotive Works), Shays were also built in Oregon by the Willamette Works after the patent expired. Shays were used around the world, and are still a favorite of tourist railroads in America.
Heisler No. 6 at the Water Tower
Heisler Locomotive Co., one of three manufacturers to compete for sales of specialized locomotives to logging and industrial companies, featured a two-cylinder “Vee” design, with a rotating driveshaft below the centerline of the engine that was geared to axles of driving wheels. This example, at the Cass Scenic Railroad, Cass, WV, is shown taking water before departing up Cheat Mountain with a train full of tourists. Heislers, like the Shay and Climax geared locomotives, were slow but powerful, capable of negotiating steep and crooked track.
Night Double-Header – Cass Depot
Heisler-6 leads Shay-2 in a night double-header photo session in front of the depot in Cass, WV. The depot was built by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, which formerly serviced Cass. Behind the depot, the tall building is the Pocahontas Trading Company, once the company store for railroad and lumber mill workers who lived in company houses at Cass. Lumber and railroad operations at Cass ended in 1960, and West Virginia purchased the property for redevelopment as a state park and tourist railroad.
Night Double Header at Whittaker Station
Part of the Cass Scenic Railroad, Whittaker Station is a recreated logging camp about half way to Bald Knob on Cheat Mountain, Cass, WV. Here, Heisler-6 and Shay-2 pose for a night photography session during Rail-Fan Weekend, 1990. At Whittaker are bunk cars and a mess car like the “log hicks” used for a week or more at a time. Also there, but not restored, is a log skidder as was used to bring logs hanging from elevated cables into the railhead for loading onto the trains.
Makin’ Cinders
Heisler locomotive No. 6 and three Shay engines give it their all for the fans at Rail-Fan Weekend, 1990 at the Cass Scenic Railroad, Cass, WV. Cass, a historic lumber company town, and the restored logging railroad operate as a state park. The Cass Scenic owns, maintains and operates one Heisler and five Shay locomotives, and they are rebuilding a Climax. When that restoration is complete, you will be able to see and ride behind all three of the major types of logging engines at one place.
Moore & Keppler Lumber Co. Climax No. 3
At Durbin, WV, the Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk Scenic Railroad operates Climax No. 3 for rides along the Greenbrier River. The Climax design was more complicated than other logging engines. Steam cylinders were mounted high and at an angle so they would clear the front truck as the engine went around curves. The connecting rods turned a cross-ways shaft on a gearbox/transmission, which converted the rotation to lengthwise rotation for shafts geared to axles front and rear. The end result, like Shay and Heisler engines, was a flexible and powerful locomotive good for the often rugged track from cutting fields to sawmill.
Shay No. 6 Taking Water
At the Cass Scenic Railroad, Cass, WV, Shay No. 6 (a.k.a. “Big Six”) takes a huge drink from the water tower. This is the last Shay engine ever built (1945) and one of the largest. No. 6 is a 162-ton monster, about twice the size of most Shays. Toward the end of WW-II, the Western Maryland Railroad needed a new, heavy switch engine for their dockside yards in Baltimore. The Federal Railroad Administration suggested an 0-8-0, the only switcher authorized for wartime production. WM determined that an 0-8-0 wasn’t suitable for their yard trackage. Someone suggested a Shay. Lima Locomotive Works was contacted, and agreed to reopen their Shay production line (closed since before the war) to build this one engine. Within a few years after the war, Diesel engines were in full production and Shay-6 was a dinosaur. WM-6 went to the Baltimore and Ohio Museum in Baltimore and then to Cass. It had to sit there for a few years until the Cass Scenic could lay heavier rail adequate for this large engine. Finally in the early 1990s, this like-new low mileage locomotive entered service at Cass. It hasn’t disappointed.
Shays at Old Spruce
As timber close to Cass was cleared in the early 1900s, the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company undertook to build a new mill and town closer to the cutting fields. The new town was named Spruce. There was no road to it, so all concrete, lumber, sawmill machinery, etc. was taken in - and finished lumber taken out - by train. After about 20 years of lumber production, it was decided to close Spruce, and machinery and anything else worth salvaging was taken back to Cass by train. There never was a road. Today, remnants of concrete foundations are all that’s visible at the site of Old Spruce. Cass tourist trains and chartered photographers’ specials still go by the site, and for the charters it’s a great place to stage photo run-bys. Here, Shay-5 with a caboose waits near the switch as Shay-2 with a loaded log train approaches on the main line. Except that the locomotives and the caboose are much too clean, this is about what you might have seen there in 1920.
Switchin'
Close-up view of Shay No. 2 with excess steam popping off and the typical Shay coal smoke billowing as it switches a log car off onto a siding. This also gives a good view of the Shay drive train mechanism. Three steam cylinders, the rotating drive shaft and gears to driving wheels are all on the right side of the engine. For balance, the boiler is offset to the left side. Shay 2 was built in 1928 by Lima Locomotive Works, Lima, Ohio. This is an example of a "west-coast Shay," which featured technical advances and a better enclosed cab than earlier Shays.