Press Release: Shay Days at the Colorado Railroad Museum Highlights Two Legendary Railroad Giants
Two outstanding railcars from the past will be featured during the weekend of October 10 and 11. Shay 12 will haul passenger coaches and gondolas around our loop of track while locomotive 346 provides steam
power to demonstrate the operation of the Piledriver OB, the first time it will have publicly operated since being restored last year.
Locomotive No. 12 is a Shay-type, geared locomotive. This type of locomotive was used on mining and lumber railroads
due to their power, low speed and flexibility on rough track. Instead of rigid drive wheels directly driven from two horizontal
steam cylinders via cranks, a Shay locomotive has three vertical steam cylinders that power a crankshaft, which is geared
to each one of the drive wheels via slip joints, universal joints and ring and pinion gears.
Shay No. 12 most recently ran on the Georgetown Loop railroad at Georgetown, Colorado. It was built in 1926 by the
Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio for the Swayne Lumber Company in California.
After the closure of the Swayne Company it ran for the Westside Lumber Company Railroad and worked for the Westside
and Cherry Valley Railroad, a tourist railroad located on the grounds of the old Westside Lumber Company in Tuolumne,
California. In addition, there were several railroads in Colorado that utilized Shay locomotives, most of them mining and lumber haulers. They were not used for long hauls, as their top speed is only about 12 mph. As one of our guys at the Loop used to explain, "you have to push a Shay off a cliff if you want to see it go faster than 12 mph." Their trademark is sounding like a locomotive that's running 60 mph but actually is only going 10 mph.
The historic Piledriver OB, recently restored by the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec, has been on display since July and will be demonstrated during Shay days. Locomotive 346, the museum’s signature steam locomotive, will provide the steam power necessary to operate the piledriver. Piledrivers were important Maintenance of Way equipment used to drive pilings for railroad trestles.
The Denver & Rio Grande built Piledriver OB in June 1891, using machinery manufactured by Kendall and Roberts, which was installed on a 30-foot, 20-ton flat car. It was originally numbered 0363, and received automatic couplers in 1903, per new ICC requirements. In 1907 it was renumbered OB as part of a general renumbering of work equipment. It received safety appliances in 1912 per another ICC requirement. OB was wrecked in May 1920, overturning on a low trestle six miles west of Antonito. The house was crushed, and was later rebuilt in "a simpler shape," as Sloan described it. Flat car
6008 was assigned as boom tender for OB in 1923. [Sloan, Day]
This is a very rare opportunity to see two narrow gauge legends at work! Hope to see you this weekend. Bring your cameras!
Donald Tallman
Executive Director
Colorado Railroad Museum
720.274.5146
www.coloradoRAILROADmuseum.org
