Re: Red McMillion speed run

The fastest I have seen a Shay run was on a Feather River Ry. fan trip on June 2, 1963. FRRy. had trackage rights on the old WP main line that would later be covered by Lake Oroville. That days trip was a run from Feather Falls, CA to Bidwell Bar without passengers. Passengers were loaded at Bidwell Bar we went up the WP line for about 15 miles to the WP connection. Grade on the WP was 1%. The train consisted of FRRY 3, an 90 ton shay, 8- 50 ft. steel flat cars for the passengers and a WP bay window caboose.
Up the canyon we began to pick up speed and out came the watches and we timed the shay for 3 or 4 miles. We were running at a steady 15 mph. #3 developed a hot journal bearing and a stop was made to cool it down. After that the speed stayed around 10 mph. The sound from the stack sounded like a GS-4 running flat out. A few of us rode round trip all the way from Feather Falls and logged over 60 miles behind Shay 3 that day. The previous days trip had been from Feather Falls to Land, the old WP connection and return.
That trip was the big one. Shays 2 and 3 double headed a train of 22 flat cars outfitted for passengers and the WP caboose. Passenger count was over 1000 paid passengers plus about 300 guests of the Georgia Pacific Corporation, owner of the FRRy. Coming back the SW-8 diesel was added as a helper as we faced a 5 1/2% grade for over 5 miles. We were down to about 3 mph on that grade. For those of us who rode both trips we had about 90+ miles behind shays. Those memories will always be ours. What a fantastic weekend.
Herman Darr