Shays, Class D
A couple weeks ago, I showed a little pic collection based on Lima, OH with the Lima Locomotive Works picking up a large portion of the end of the collection. Shortly after releasing the collection, I stumbled upon a pic of a four truck Shay! – Class D. Geared steam locos have always interested me, and I like to think that even though I’m a novice at Shays, I feel I have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the Lima Shays. But, I’d never seen or heard of a four truck Shay.
Here is the first of them, built (by Lima of course) in 1902, SN-673 was a 100 ton loco. It was built for the El Paso & Northeastern RY. Co. The Class D (four truck) Shays didn’t have any more power or tractive effort than the Class Cs (three truck Shays), but they had larger tenders and hence could carry more fuel and water. Water was critical for the EP&NE Ry, hence why they were interested in the Class D Shay. The Class D could make standard roundtrips without a water stop.
The only other 100 ton Class D Shay (lima SN-2700) wasn’t built until 1913 for the Hassinger Lumber Co., White Top RY #4, Konnarock, VA. An interesting point is that SN-2700 was the last Class D Shay built. So the first and last Class D Shays were 100 ton while all between were 150 ton. Martin Luther Hassinger began the family business in 1880 when he bought a saw mill in Forest County, Pennsylvania. In 1905, his son, Luther Hassinger, moved the family lumber operations to the White Top Mountain area of Washington County, Virginia, and organized the Hassinger Lumber Company. Eventually owning 30,000 acres, the entire White Top Mountain, Hassinger Lumber became one of the largest timber producers in the eastern United States. SN-2700 was sold a couple times and then wrecked in 1929. After the wreck, it was used as a stationary back-up boiler for a mill in North Carolina.
The rest of the four truck Shays were all 150 tons. The second Class D (the first 150 ton) was built for the C&O in 1903. C&O #7 was operated first out of Norfolk, VA, and later out of Thurmond, WV. It was retired in 1923.
The C&O didn’t stop with #7 above. Soon after, they ordered four more 150 ton Class D – C&O #2, #3, #4, & #5 were delivered in 1906. All four of these Shays worked out of Thurmond, WV alongside of #7 above & #6 further below, and all were also retired in 1923. I’m not sure what role the Shays performed, but at the Thurmond Yards, the C&O distributed New River Gorge’s smokeless coal across the C&O network. The Thurmond Yards were established in the 1880s and remained a major coal distribution site throughout the steam era. The main street of Thurmond was the mainline of the C&O. The town of Thurmond has since been abandoned. Possibly, the Shays were used to make runs on the tighter/steeper coal mine spurs to pull coal trains down to the processing plants or the yard. Below are pics of three of the four C&O Shays; pics of C&O #5 are unattainable at this point.
…C&O #4 (SN 1718):
C&O #3 (SN 1719):
…and, C&O #2 (SN 1720):
C&O #6, built in 1906 just before C&O #2, #3, #4, & #5.
Eleven more 150 ton Class Ds were built between 1906 & 1911 – that made a total of (20) Class D Shays. Of the eleven, one went to the Carolina & Western Ry, one went to the Norfolk & Western, two to the Southern Ry, and seven more going to the C&O. The two Southern Class D Shays lasted until 1944. (We have to show the two Southerns for George’s sake!) …SOU #4000, built in 1907:
What’s interesting about the two Southern units is that the Southern sold them to the C&O in 1911, and they become C&O #14 & #15 respectively. C&O #14 went to Cane Fork, VA, and C&O #15 went to Thurmond, VA to work with the original C&O units. While the C&O retired all of the units they bought direct in 1923, the two purchased Southern units remained active on the C&O until close to 1944 when they were scrapped. …SOU #4001, also built in 1907:
The original C&Os were all retired in 1923. But, SN-2248, C&O #11, the third last Class D that Lima built, had an extended story. C&O #11 was sold a few times and ended up on the Western Maryland to become the second Class D of the WM, WM #5. WM #5 worked until 1950, and was scrapped in 1954. For those Cass Shay lovers, after being retired by the C&O in 1923 (familiar date), SN-2248 ended up in Cass, WV when it was sold to the Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk RR. At the G,C&E RR, now #14 was listed under repair until 1924. It serviced the G,C&E until 1932 when it was sold to the WM. (A note to the Cass Shay lovers, unfortunately SN-2248 was standard gauge. So it did not run on the familiar narrow gauge lines in Cass.)
All of the Class D Shays were standard gauge (sorry – narrow gaugers!). Now if you haven’t noticed yet, all these photos are listed by their Lima serial number. All these pics came from a great website where you can investigate all the Lima Shays: https://www.shaylocomotives.com/ . A second great site for Shays and geared locos is: http://www.gearedsteam.com/index.html . At some point, we’ll drift through the variety of geared locos on this site – there’s quite a few more than I expected!
Thx,
Kevin
Kevin,
A great report. There are photos I’ve not seen before. However, you made one goof. Cass is and always has been standard gauge. There were actually two 150-4 Shays at Cass, #14 & #15. There was a further four trucker at Cass, #12 but it was not a 150-4. Built as a three truck Shay of around 160 tons, it was rebuilt by the Cass shops in the early 1930’s to make it a 100 ton +/- four truck monster.
Keep up the good work.
Michael Allen
Oops, a typo in prior post. #15 above should be #13.
Michael,
I just noticed your correction to the Shay Class D study above. (I don’t always get notices when a reply is posted.) I’m not sure how I ended up with Cass as narrow gauge – I’ve visited Cass and know better! Thanks much for the correction. And, thanks much for reading these posts.
Kevin