Hi all,
Having noticed that Atlas is about to release another run of their N scale Shays, I’m desperately trying to figure out how one of them would show up on the ATSF in New Mexico in 1954. I’m thinking some sort of tourist operation, running down the branchline that joins the mainline at my layout. Either that or some sort of private owner fuel/oil company. Would this be ‘get-awayable’?
Cheers,
tbdanny
Why can’t it be a small industrial railway that has trackage connecting with the Santa Fe?
You can actually establish something along that line—on mine–the excuse—er—story I use is of one somewhat eccentric fellow by the name of Frederick “Howdedodat!” Thompson of Williston. He seems to have acquired enough out of place locomotoves—herein referred to as OOPs-- to have started up a museum of sorts----he’s now gotten into steam excursions[:-^]
Well…they do have trees in NM. [:)] Why not build a logging industry. Course, you’ll need to have some sort of mountain for it…or, at the very least, give the impression that the Shay is coming off of one. I think it can be made very plausible.
Tom
This useful website of known Shay owners shows that yes there were Shays in New Mexico
http://www.shaylocomotives.com/data/owner/own-n.htm
Now, whether those lines had an interchange with the ATSF such that you’d actually see the Shay along the Santa Fe line is not known to me but the scenario would seem well within plausibility. Check out this website and I suspect confirming information will be found:
http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/Publications/region/3/cibola/cultres6/contents.htm
Get deep into that website because it has TONS of great photos and information. Note also that many of the NM logging roads used old and retired Santa Fe engines – a great excuse to have equipment from an earlier era.
Dave Nelson
We are not thinking outside the box here. As long as the grades are steep and the track is horrible you can justify a Shay. So what you need is the opposite of a mountain which may very well be some serious flash flood courses that need crossing. Being a small operation bridges that would stand up are way to expensive so crossing the rivers at grade with a Shay becomes the cheapest solution. Now all you need is what you are pulling to the main line. Potash, Borax, copper or some form of minerals might be perfect.
My layout includes a small East Texas town on the Texas & Pacific that has a logging industry off scene. My 3 truck Shay delivers cut timber to a drop on the outskirts of town across the hiway from a planning mill. It sometimes has to stand in the clear to let the all-stops Texas Eagle through.
Western Maryland #6 was the largest Shay ever built, one doesn’t typically think of Western Maryland as Shay country but that sucker is still around. Your like me and a lot of guys here we acquire a locomotive for several reasons but mainly because it’s cool and we want it and thats justification enough. So you rewrite your railroads history a bit and make the Shay part of a mining operation, a lumber cutting op. a tourist train or who know an MOW locomotive. As with many of us not everything that runs on our layouts belongs there unless we’re a prototype die-hard, not me how about you?
…I agree with all of the above, in addition, shays were needed for sub-par trackage as well, not just for steep grades. Logging, mining and quarrys are all plausible in New Mexico, go for it. Personally I never cared for the “tourist line” reason as an excuse to operate an unusual loco, personal preference mind you but I like my trains to work, and look like they work.
Yes, The logging railroad that branched off the Santa Fe’s Grand Canyon line in Ariziona had shay’s. So it is not a long stretch to imagine such a line in New Mexico. In fact, I would guess there would be more trees in NM than near the Grand Canyon. You could also consider a mine (copper, zinc, uranium), quarry, or livestock operation.
Just checked that listing of Shays and owners against MapQuest:
Edith, NM is now part of Albuquerque, so it’s a safe bet that the road that owned that particular Shay interchanged with the ATSF.
Lumberton, NM is way west of Chama, so probably connected to the D&RG slim rails.
Of course, since it’s your choice as to which of the many alternate universes your railroad is based in, maybe the logger was somewhat north of Big Q, but still on the Santa Fe’s Raton Pass route.
I seem to recall a slim-gauge mineral hauler in New Mexico that ran Shays. The photo I recall had a ‘topless’ Shay (lost its cab in a rollover) in rough, treeless country.
As for WM #6, it was originally bought to haul coal.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - Shayless, for now)
Right,
Here’s the scenario I’ve come up with;
Just to the west of Las Vegas, NM (as my layout is just the yard at LV + staging), the NMLC has a line that joins the ATSF mainline. The NMLC’s union agreement states that the cars inbound with logs from the NMLC need to be delivered by the NMLC’s crew and locomotives. The NMLC also has an agreement with the ATSF to refuel and ‘turn’ the Shay at the roundhouse in Las Vegas (thereby allowing me to display the Shay on the external roundhouse tracks). Then the Shay is to take the empty logging flats back to the NMLC under the same agreement - possibly with a boxcar or two of supplies tacked on, if any have come in.
As far as practicalities go, I’ve pre-ordered a Crown William shay, and will be relettering it for the NMLC - replacing the lettering on the back, and numbering it to 8. Also doing a custom caboose for the NMLC - ATSF regulations require it.
Thank you for all the advice and thoughts/excuses [:D]
tbdanny