Thank you for posting the pictures of the Shay in the Black Hills. You do have some rare photo’s. Fortunately the time the Shay was in the Black Hills was short. This is where a story begins that happened over 50 years ago. Back around 1999, I had a lot of coruosity on how the Shay ended going from Oregon to the Black Hills and finally Indiana. One cold winter day, I met John Edris (Founder of The Hesston Steam Museum) at the old School house that sits on the property. Over a pack of unfiltered Marlboro Cigarettes, John told me a story. Sometime in the late 1950’s or early 60’s, Elliot Donnelley who at the time had some type of association with the Black Hills Central tourist Railroad was informed that a 3’ Gauge Shay was sitting in Oregon and probably could be purchased. He immediately began his search for the owner as he wanted it for the new tourist railroad. After doing some research, he found that it belonged to Edward Hines who happen to live a very short distance from him. The two met and made a deal for the Shay. Elliot Donnelley also learned that Edward Hines had several other Steam Locomotive’s sitting on different properties he owned and in a short time his collection grew! Once the Shay arrived in the Black Hills, Mr. Donnelley made the funds available for a complete restoration. Then things started going bad. While the crew that he hired and trusted to preform the work did get the Locomotive running, they failed miserably at preforming any kind of restoration, in fact they did more harm then good! For example, the driver tires where worn out and instead of replacing them, they decided to somehow try to weld them and turn them back to specs. In the process, they broke one. Instead of replacing it, they reconfigured the trucks on the Locomotive and replaced the truck under the water tank with a truck from a tank car, so yes a 3 truck Shay with only 2 powered trucks! Mr. Donnelley started having concerns about the whole operation of the Shay and he finally sent a man he trusted to look things over. The person he sent got up in the cab of the Shay and found they we’re operating it with no oil in the lubricator among other sin’s. When word got back to Mr. Donnelley, he told his crew to “shut it down"! Well, that’s just what they did, they parked it and walked away, leaving the Locomotive with water still in it. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happens when you leave a Steam Locomotive sitting with water still in it come winter. The air pump, Bullseye lubricator, plumbing and other key parts bursted. All that was left was a very worn out and broken Shay that seemingly no one cared about. This turned out to be the last straw for Mr. Donnelley and the Black Hills. He then started liquidating, donating and moving all of the equipment he owned off the property with the exception of the Shay. For some unknown reason, he left it sitting. During this time, Mr. Donnelley started getting involved with the Hesston Steam Museum. In the mid 1960’s after serval land purchases, Mr. Donnelley and the Museum decided to build a Railroad on the now 155 acre parcel of land. By 1968 they completed the railroad and started running trains. Then one day in the spring of 1970, John Edris asked Mr. Donnelley if he would have any interest in allowing the Shay to be moved to the Hesston Steam Museum. John Edris explained to him that he and a few volunteers had an interest in it and felt it would make a great addition to their museum. The 1st response was, "I haven’t thought about that Locomotive in years”, then he said, “go get It”! During the early summer of 1970, the crew from the Hesston Steam Museum made the arrangements and a trip to the Black Hills to load the Locomotive on flatcar. Once the Shay arrived in Indiana, they brought in a pipe fitter to replace all of the broken pipes. They temporarily replaced the air pump with a single stage pump until they could locate the correct replacement. They ran the Shay for the 1st time on Labor Day Weekend 1970 and once more on New Year’s Day 1971. These two test proved that the only way this Shay could be operated long term is if a total mechanical and cosmetic restoration was preformed.The Museum at the time did not have the funds to restore something of that size. Knowing that Mr. Donnelley had already paid for a restoration just a few years before that failed, made things even harder. When John explained the condition of the Shay and what it would take to fix it right to Mr. Donnelley, he got the answer he wasn’t expecting. The answer was, “what are you waiting for, I know you and the volunteers here can fix anything, go fix it”. Then John explained that the Museum didn’t have the funds for such a large project. Mr. Donnelley response, "I will underwrite the entire project, what ever it costs"! With that said a 4.5 year “Labor of Love” project began that had a very happy ending. There are more stories about the actual move of the Shay and the 1970’s restoration, but well save those for another day.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2018 09:38PM by nmlcoshay7.
