HOn30 Shay

I love Shay locomotives. Well, I suppose I love all geared locomotives. Growing up in North Central Pennsylvania, I remember traveling the skid roads and jeep trails all over the mountains in Clinton County. What I never new, was that many of those jeep trails were actually railroad grades 100 years earlier. When I came to that realization later in life, I was shocked at how tons of steel and wood would climb 6 and 8% grades on ribbon rail to get logs to the mill, and how the hell someone designed and built these monsters with a stubby pencil and a slide rule.

I'm floating between 2 scales, On30 and HOn30, and by chance last night, I found an Atlas N scale Shay for a really reasonable price. I used to model N scale, but I caught the "n30" bug a couple of years ago, so when I decided to buy the shay (it didn't take long), I had thoughts of reselling and turning a profit, or maybe even dabbling back in N scale. I didn't want the model to convert to HOn30. That is until this morning, and I started searching for Atlas shay HOn30 conversions.  Most of the conversions I have seen look ridiculous, with a gargantuan cab, and a teeny boiler, with gargantuan domes, and a stack that is pencil thin and (seemingly) 20 feet tall.

If you have built one of these, and are getting angry with me, please un-wad your panties. It's not a personal insult. I just don't like the way it looks. You may, and that's cool with me. Some people think that Camelback locomotives are hideous, but I think they are wicked cool. Anyhootie...

I wasn't going to convert it until I saw this:

Photo Credit: Kermit Geary, Jr.
 

That is an honest to goodness 3 cylinder, 2 foot gauge shay. As Wayne used to say: "SCHWING!!!"

You know what is even better? That sucker runs...right MEOW! 

Better yet? It's in PENNSYLVANIA!!!

Shay S/N 3118 was built by Lima in 1920 for Good Roads Construction Co.,  Leachville, AR.  I'll spare the rest of the details, but in 2003, it was born again for Doug Kuntz (railfan), Foster Brook & State Line RR #12, Bradford PA.

Here are some more porn shots for you slobbering weirdos (like myself)

Photo Credit: Kermit Geary, Jr.

Photo Credit: Kermit Geary, Jr.

Photo Credit: Kermit Geary, Jr.

I found all these at http://biglittlerr.blogspot.com
Hope this gives you some inspiration to:

Go build something awesome...