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~ FACTORY PAINTED WOOD FIRED 16 TON SHAY ~
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Here's an example of what a Wood Fired 16 Ton Shay might have looked like in
the twenties / thirties. Wood Fired Locos were common all over the the country
at one time. But they were time intensive. In areas where oil or coal was cheap
and plentiful, locomotives were converted to these as a fuel, mostly because of
the labor involved in keeping a woodburner under steam. Wood had to be cut,
moved to a location near the track and stacked to dry. Then it took two guys
minimum to yard it from the woodpile to the tender, where it had to be
restacked. And if that weren't enough, it only gave off a third of the BTU's
you could get out of coal or oil. Plus it was a real fire hazard besides! Which
accounts for why wood burners disappeared from most railroads very early on,
their last holdout being "the woods" themselves...
But the wood burner almost always had a "stack", (Really a Cinder Catcher placed over the stack.) to die for! Some were shaped like giant "Balloons"; but most were "Diamond" Shaped as you see here on our model. To give our model the "correct appearance" for the era, we've equipped her with the old "Box Type" headlamps. Her only concession to modernization being the Turbo-Generator mounted in front of that "Tee" Boiler. The "Road Name" on this model is fictitious. (We think anyway...) But it certainly has the "sound and feel" of a backwoods operation, doesn't it? This lettering, along with twenty some others is a sample of what you'll see on the specially made Decal Sheet we're including with each model. We figure there's probably enough "word jingles" there to satisfy most everybody. And you will find that the "decals" will be a real treat to use as they are virtually filmless! These models RUN as magnificently as they LOOK! A three day "think tank" visit with the builder last month brought a meeting of minds that, "Engineer-to-Engineer", resulted in what you see here, plus what you will yet see when you get to see when you first set yours on your track! Our Pre-Production Samples of the Coal and Oil Fired Versions were run continuously for days on end. (Days and nights as a matter of fact!) The results? About the only thing that changed was the polish job on the gears! Smooth, Powerful, yet virtually silent operation is the best way to describe how they ran! And tractive effort? Well, we have seven somewhat battered freight cars that live on our test layout... ( Stuff that for one reason or another is unsaleable generally ends up there. Partially completed one-offs and the like...) Among these are five of our Injection Molded Plastic Cars built-up, plus an "0404" Brass Caboose and a Conoco Tank with bad trucks. (The latter won't roll down a 3.5 percent grade without help...) Yet each one of these little shays could PUSH this mongrel of a consist up our ruling 3.5% grade without so much as ever spinning a driver! ABOUT THAT EXPOSED GEAR: These models are SMALL. Their drive wheels are only 24" in diameter in real life. That's 3/8" of an inch in 1:64 scale. And since we know of no steam locomotive that was silent when under fire, the ability to install SOUND was a NUMBER 1 PRIORITY with us. The only way to pull this off was to put the sound in the Water Bunker, and the motor vertically INSIDE that "T" Boiler! And it works! We have the best of both worlds! SOUND, plus a model that runs Flawlessly! The only thing being objectionable in the entire package is that exposed gear. But treating it to a coating of our NEOLUBE® from time to time will keep it lubricated, and nigh onto invisible. Shucks, soon as the crank starts spinning, the gear is just a blur of motion anyway. And what one of you could resist seeing and HEARING her in operation? She was meant to PERFORM! |
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DELIVERY WILL COMMENCE EARLY IN JANUARY ! 
For another view of this dandy Wood Fired 16 Tonner, CLICK HERE... 
For a close look at an Oil Fired 16 Tonner, CLICK HERE... CLICK HERE to return to 16 Ton Shay Main Page.. |