Re: Westside Lumber Shay top speeds

WSLCo 14 and 15 were essentially mechanical twins with 32" drivers,
200 lbs. pressure, 11 by 12 inch cylinders and published t.e. of 25,830 lbs.
Both came from the same former owner, so this makes sense. If West Side
changed the ratios for higher speed, then they would have given up a proportionate
amount of t.e. or pulling power and that seems unlikely to me given the pulls that they had.

I don't think that you can really come up with a practical top speed for a machine like this.
They were not fast at all. One person might regularly run one a couple of miles an hour faster all the time ,
but then have the engine spend more time in the shop that winter. I feel that both would have likely been run
right at the same speeds for the same situations on the West Side. FWIW, the 14 got a lot more
mainline miles than 15 did in later years as she would frequently run from Camp 21 out to the Landing
being used at the time.

I do know that there were lower gear ratios available for standard gauge Shays and one extant example
is the 70-3 class Yosemite Lbr. Shay on Hwy 4 in CA. She got the lower gearing and was quoted at
34,000 lbs. t.e. instead of the usual 30,350 lbs.

80-3 and 90-3 standard gearing was 2.05 to 1 or 20 teeth on the pinion and 41 on the ring as well as having
36 inch drivers. Smaller Shays were usually geared a little lower as well as having smaller diameter drivers.
So yes, the bigger Shays would likely get over the road a little bit faster than the smaller examples.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2017 06:41AM by Tom Moungovan.