Welcome to the Railshow `98 edition of Eagle Tracks. For those of you
who have not kept up with our activities since the last Railshow, I will
offer a brief recap of this past year.
The single most exciting event was the signing of the lease for the basement
of the Idaho Falls Recreation Center for use as a layout room. The area
used to be a shooting range that had been closed for a number of years.
After we removed all of the remnants of the range, including the bullet
trap, a few tons of lead fragments and other miscellaneous articles, the
20' x 65' room was ready for remodeling.
Since we moved into the Rec Center this past spring, we have been scraping
floors, painting walls, hanging suspended ceilings and in general getting
the room ready for a quality layout.
Today we have several of our modules set up and running; however we expect
this to be a temporary situation.
Currently, several members of the club are busy designing layouts. Our
current plans are to model the Oregon Short Line from Idaho Falls, Idaho
to Butte, Montana including several of the major branches and interchanging
railroads.
One branch that will definitely be modeled will be the Yellowstone Branch
with as much detail as space permits. Other probable additions will be the
Teton Valley Branch, the Gilmore & Pittsburgh, Montana Southern narrow
gauge as well as all the interchange trackage at Silver Bow, Montana.
We have not specified a era to be modeling; but I expect that the trackage
will reflect the steam age as that was the greatest extent of the system.
When we have occasion to run modern equipment we will have the option of
keeping just to the trackage then in use or, using a little modelers license,
use the full system as if some of the rails had not been pulled up.
POINTS OF INTEREST - Leo Harker
Tempus Fugits; the phrase interpreted from poor man's Latin, means "time
flies". Here it is the beginning of a new month again and the Newsletter
Editor is reminding me that material for it is due again already. Maybe
it just seems early because we were later than usual getting the September
Newsletter out, or is it just that September has only 30 days instead of
31 like August and October, or maybe the shorter daylight hours contribute
to the illusion.
During the last two weeks of August I was privileged to travel in Canada
and spend some time on a passenger train. The trip did include some fishing
but one the reasons for the trip was to take the train to Churchill Manitoba,
which is located on the far Northeast shore of the North American continent,
more specifically on Hudson Bay. I have taken the same highway portion of
the trip several times before to a place named La Pas, Manitoba, and even
stopped at the Railroad station and considered making the train trip while
on a previous trip.
Meanwhile I read everything about the ride I could find, watched the
TV documentary, "Last train across Canada" which indirectly covered
the same trip as part of a second film. We also have had a visitor to our
Club Layout when we were located in the Country Club Mall who had taken
the trip as part of a documentary filming and he and I talked about the
journey and the things to see at the end of the line.
La Pas is considered to be the jumping off place for this trip because
of its location on a major highway. La Pas is not the only place however,
that the line can be accessed by highway, although the rail line crosses
several two hundred mile stretches of Canadian wilderness. Most of the area
it serves is pure wilderness, all, rivers, timber, bog, or muskeg. One of
the unique things about this trip is, that you can load your canoe into
the baggage car and the train will stop almost any place along the route
and let you off or pick you up.
Churchill is probably best known for it's resident population of Polar
Bears, which inhabit the surrounding area in the winter. The bears begin
to congregate in the area in the fall and stay until the Bay and ocean freeze
over, when most go out to hunt seals and live on the ice during the winter.
A polar bear had been in town and moved on through the day before our arrival
there. Fall had definitely arrived as the Arctic geese were beginning their
migration south and were there by the thousands. In late August while Idaho
had temperatures in the high 80's and low 90's, it was a cool breezy 55
in Churchill.
Churchill is situated at the mouth of the Churchill River which drains
some of Northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan and began as a minor British
trading post in the early 1700's. The British built a large stone fort there
and maintained a small garrison of troops also. They also had a major trading
post 200 miles southeast along the coast where the Nelson River empties
into the Bay. Both Posts had access by canoe or "York Boats" into
the interior of Canada and it was from there that David Thompson left on
his exploration across the continent predating Lewis and Clark by several
years.
There are only two "practical" methods of getting to Churchill,
ocean going freighters, mostly oil tankers and grain carriers, visit the
area during five months of summer. Commercial Air service is scheduled two
or three times weekly, and VIA rail makes three round trips per week from
Winnipeg. The nearest road from the outside ends at Gillam, some two hundred
miles from Churchill. Gillam is the location of a large Hydro Power dam
on the Nelson River, between Gillam and Churchill, there only a few trappers
cabins, lots of muskeg, and few sidings or stations with flag stops. The
freight traffic to Churchill consists mostly of grain trains and crude oil
trains with LCL handled in the baggage car on two VIA trains. Piggyback
trailers are handled on the rear of the Via trains from Thompson Mb, where
the "good road" ends. On our return, I was unaware of the piggyback
loads until we made a turn through a wye and I could see the rear of the
train.
I'm sort of getting ahead of my story, so we'll rewind and start at the
beginning, Reservations were made over the Internet to verify a seat and
obtain the best rate. Via has an excellent site and each aspect of your
trip can be made from this URL. The train originates in Winnipeg, 636 kilometers
(490 miles) away. It was scheduled to arrive at 09:20 for and be serviced
(refueling from a local tanker truck and refilling the water tanks) before
leaving at 10:00. We arrived at nine to pick up our tickets there were already
other people waiting, one party had driven from near Winnipeg and soon the
station was full. We were informed the train would be arriving at least
two and 1/2 hours late due to bad track. The passengers waiting, included
two families with small children going to the next station just to give
the kids a ride on the train, a busload of students from Ohio on a field
trip, locals going out to their homes in small villages in the bush and
other tourists like myself from Canada and the US.
Finally the train arrived 4 hours late, received the scheduled service,
operating crew changes were made and we began our trip to Churchill four
and 1/2 hours late. Rolling through the small town and across the Saskatchewan
River bridge, I immediately recalled those memories from the past as a Railway
Post Office Clerk on the Great Northern Railroad. The old familiar clickety
clack as wheels crossed track joints and swayed over uneven roadbed were
very evident and it was clearly obvious that this was not going to be a
70 mph ride to Churchill.
To be Continued
SHAY LOCOMOTIVES
Few locomotives have ever captured the fancy of the populace as did the
Shay.
Ephraim Shay, owner and operator of his own logging road (Haring, Michigan)
designed and had Lima Machine Works make up to his design a 26" gauge
(wide tread) wheeled engine, for running on flat wood pin stringers. This
first 14 horsepower "Sidewinder" was built in 1877.
In 1880 the first production model was introduced by the Carnes Agerter
& Company (later Lima Locomotives). The Shay design was to become the
principle product of the company.
According to Lima construction list, No. 6 was the first Shay, and was
delivered to Milton J. Bond. In 1938 Lima Locomotive Works discontinued
Shay production for six years. The final Shay was built for the Western
Maryland Railway Company as their No. 6, and was shipped to Elkins, West
Virginia on May 14, 1945. Total production of Shays was 2,770.
That first Shay's basic design consisted of a flat car with a donkey
engine hung over the side and geared to the wheels. Following this principle,
Shay locomotives became the most popular form of motive power for drone
operations in logging industries and mining, and quite often were used on
scenic railways.
Since the Shay could easily negotiate rough track, sharp curves and climb
steep grades it became almost a prerequisite for certain forms of operation,
particularly in mountainous areas where circuitous routes were par for the
course. A fascinating bit of engineering, these locomotives remained in
use even after the diesel came of age.
The Shay was used extensively in the open pit mines of Utah and in other
areas coast to coast where a bit of the impossible was required.
Featuring a three cylinder vertical engine with a shaft geared to its
four-wheel trucks, this unusual locomotive really set up a chatter in operation.
In fact the Shay, while sounding like it was going a mile a minute, actually
moved at little more than a walking speed. This was due to the unique gear
reduction principle they employed, with the gearing ratio being 4:1 to 6:1.
When it came to "creeping" the Shay could not be beat.
The Shay normally was a two truck affair, but some huge (for Shays) three truck engines were built where extra tractive power was required.
Until next time...............Happy Rails to you.................................