A NOVELTY AMONG RAILROADS.
Harper’s Weekly—June 15, 1895
THERE is now building in South Florida a railroad peculiarly novel in form and economical in construction.
The company constructing it is known as the Avon Park Transportation Company, and the road will run from Avon Park in De Soto County to Haines City in Polk County, about forty miles due north. The capital stock is $25,000, with which sum the promoters expect to build and equip the road. “Up North” that amount would barely build a mile of road. That it can be made to build and equip forty miles of track in Florida opens up a new era in railroad construction.
The credit of originating the new idea belongs largely to Mr. J. C. Burleigh, a Connecticut Yankee transplanted to Florida, and now superintendent of the new line that is being constructed. Last fall Mr. Burleigh was manager of a steam saw-mill in Avon Park. The timber for a mile around his mill had been cut and hauled to his saw by mule power, and could no longer be furnished profitably by this means. Either he must move his mill farther out into the forest, or find some other agent for transporting logs. He sent an order to the Lima Locomotive Machine Works for one of their twelve-ton Shay locomotives.
When word came that she was at Bowling Green, the nearest railway station, twenty-three miles distant, Mr. Burleigh went to Bowling Green with a force of twelve men, a cook, camping outfit, and a stock of 4 x 6 and 2 x 6 timbers built an inclined plane of trestle-work flush with the floor of the box-car on which the locomotive lay, and on this laid a tramway of the 4 x 6 rails, which led down to the earth and out into the forest. Then he slewed the Crosby, as the locomotive was named round till her head pointed to the east, go
Yup. Spool-wheeled Shays were used in a number of different places, some of them on `rails’ made of round logs with the bark still on.
What I like is the illustration, obviously drawn by someone who had never seen a real Shay. As presented, it’s a Yahs - the drive shaft and cylinders are usually on the other side.
(There was at least one Yahs built by Lima, but it didn’t look like the drawing.)
Whats the question? There were shays in Florida. There was one in Arcadia and one on the Lee Tidewater Cypress company in Copeland. That one was converted to diesel engines turning the shay driveline. The same company also had what looks to me to be a Class A Dunkirk, also converted to diesel. There was a steam railroad in Sarasota that had no connection with any other railroad. They only operated when there was a need. If a person wanted to ride and the train was at the other end, they might wait days. The train crew did not get paid; they pocketed the passenger’s fares. The road went bankrupt. I Nice article.
Eh, rare though they were, I wou;d not be surprised by a Southpaw shay. Anyone else notice how much it looks like a refined version of the Roundhouse Climax though?
THERE is now building in South Florida a railroad peculiarly novel in form and economical in construction.