It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! Today's image is of another Shay locomotive they have at the Colorado Railroad Museum. Shay No 14 is a former Westside Lumber locomotive and is a 3 cylinder locomotive. It used to operate on the grounds of the museum before being fully retired and put on display. It was originally built in 1916 by the Lima Locomotive Works.
I had to watch some YouTube videos to understand how the steam drives the locomotive. None explained the number of cylinders but I assumed one cylinder on each side.
ReplyDeleteSO assuming I assumed correctly 😊where does the third cylinder fit in??
So I am not the best one to explain how they work but you are looking at all 3 cylinders in this image. They are just to the right of the cab and are in a vertical position instead of horizontal. They drive a driveshaft which in turn drives bevel gears which turn the wheels. This design gave power to all the wheels and because of how the weight was distributed made them heavier so better traction. They worked well on steep grades but were not very fast. In a simplified explanation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for explanation
ReplyDeleteSure
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