Stickers & Thanks!

Hey Patrons! It's that time once again. Stickers for all Rockstar Patrons who joined in December are in the mail, and credits are updated on the blog and future videos.

This month's featured book is a Christmas gift from my pops- Kozo's Heisler book! I share Kozo's love of North American logging locomotives, and comparing the design differences between the two biggies (Heisler and Shay) is interesting. They share many common features of all logging locomotives, of course. They are gear-driven to cope with steep grades, tight radii, uneven gauge, bad weather, and other poor track conditions. All of this is demanded when running through the woods on rails that were hastily staked to some logs lying in the mud. Ballast and grading are for those lazy city locomotives. Logging locomotives are the off-roaders of the railroad. Both Heisler and Shay share the design that the cylinders and valve gear are completely independent of the drivers. That makes it easy to change the gauge as needed, and allows for much more suspension travel. Only a universal-jointed drive shaft connects to the drivers, unlike a road locomotive where the cylinder spacing, valve gear, and driving wheels are all locked together in a tight-tolerance dance that demands large turn radii and very even rail of a standard gauge. The Heisler seems to scale to your logging operation better, being offered in 2, 3, and 4 truck versions. There was even a prototype single-truck version (basically a gear-driven tank switcher). The Shay, however, has the entire engine assembly outboard of the frames, which seems to me would make servicing easier (though also putting it at risk from nearby trees, I suppose). The Heisler looks to me like it would be more difficult to service. Both locos are "all wheel drive" thanks to the flexible drive-shaft power transmission system that allows even the tender wheels to pull their weight. Awesome machines all around, and I hope to build one someday!