It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! Today's image is of my Accucraft Live Steam Shay locomotive on my new/used raised layout. A Shay locomotive is geared differently than the typical locomotive. Shay's were designed with a flexible geared wheelbase and a jointed driveshaft. This made them able to negotiate tight turns and handle steep grades so they were used in logging operations primarily. It's a fairly smooth running locomotive but is not able to go very fast. This locomotive is fun for me to run even on my layout on the ground as it negotiates the uneven grades of the track well and doesn't want to move too fast on a down grade.
I have a video of this locomotive running on the track on YouTube HERE.
Interesting "drive shaft" arrangements. I can see why it can handle tight bends
ReplyDeleteYes, they are quite different and interesting in how they work.
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