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How fast are you running your shay?
This is an exerpt from the West Side page.
Anyway, the engine crew on no. 9 had seen this track crew while I had not. The crew's job was about half done, so the engineer climbed down from the cab and he and I began to talk. Over his shoulder, in the cab, I saw a rack of small white flags and I asked him what they were for. It seems he had made them himself out of bent coat hangers and pieces of tin cans. The coat hangers were bent in such a way so that it looked like a triangular "pennant" was on one side at the top. He then cut tin can material to the shape of the "pennant", soldered it in the triangular opening and painted the whole thing white.
He had about a dozen or 15 of these flags on the rack in his cab. The engineer explained that as the train was going along (particularly on the upgrade trip to the woods), he would look down at the ties as the engine passed over them. If he saw a bad tie (perhaps giving too much under the weight of the engine), he would climb down from the cab with one of those flags, stick it into the ground next to the ties or into the tie itself and then climb back into the cab. He did all this without stopping or slowing the train! He had to trot a little to catch up with his engine! Gives you an idea of just how slowly those West Side trains ran! Most modelers run their Shays far too fast for prototypical operation.
The West Side site is
http://www.wsrestoration.com/index.htm
Russ
Moss Lake Lumber Co.
This is an exerpt from the West Side page.
Anyway, the engine crew on no. 9 had seen this track crew while I had not. The crew's job was about half done, so the engineer climbed down from the cab and he and I began to talk. Over his shoulder, in the cab, I saw a rack of small white flags and I asked him what they were for. It seems he had made them himself out of bent coat hangers and pieces of tin cans. The coat hangers were bent in such a way so that it looked like a triangular "pennant" was on one side at the top. He then cut tin can material to the shape of the "pennant", soldered it in the triangular opening and painted the whole thing white.
He had about a dozen or 15 of these flags on the rack in his cab. The engineer explained that as the train was going along (particularly on the upgrade trip to the woods), he would look down at the ties as the engine passed over them. If he saw a bad tie (perhaps giving too much under the weight of the engine), he would climb down from the cab with one of those flags, stick it into the ground next to the ties or into the tie itself and then climb back into the cab. He did all this without stopping or slowing the train! He had to trot a little to catch up with his engine! Gives you an idea of just how slowly those West Side trains ran! Most modelers run their Shays far too fast for prototypical operation.
The West Side site is
http://www.wsrestoration.com/index.htm
Russ
Moss Lake Lumber Co.
As a bonus, the gear noise pretty well disappears at slow speed.....
I used to watch the Heisler cranks swingin' round as it phodded along with it's log train. And it's easier to see them with a bit of colour.
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