....was the night that the Shay pulling the Night Train ran out of fuel and water simultaneously at mile post 9 (two miles from the dam and four miles from Charelston, basically the back side of Deer Creek Lake). This was the summer of '76. Someone had closed the angle cock between the diner car and the lounge car, two cars that were usually inseparable. The diner brakes bled down enough to put a decent set on the brakes but not lock the wheels. The diner was the last car on the Night Train southbound. Weird Harold was running and Kim Bezzant was firing. The Shay had enough guts to pull ten cars plus the half-braked diner, but only with the throttle full open, Johnson bar down in the corner with the injector and firing valve full open also. These were the circumstances leading up to a dead Shay on the back side of the lake at night with an almost full moon. I fired 618 for Craig Drury out to rescue the Night Train. We tied onto the diner, cut off the Shay and the 618 stalled 3 or 4 times before any serious attempt was made to figure out why the train wouldn’t move. All the angle cocks were checked (except the diner to lounge car joint). It took over an hour to find the closed diner angle cock and get air on the train. By now it was about 11:30, the Night Train was due back in Heber about at 10:30, all 200 passengers were irate. Time stands still on a stalled train, you know. Gordon Wheeler had told me he clocked 60 mph with 618, on several occasions, on the flats between Charelston and Heber. We whipped around the lake and I’ll bet Craig beat Gordon that night. After parking the Night Train, we still had a dead Shay stuck on the back side of the lake. Craig went home, the 618 was watered, and Boyd fired while I ran. It was a pretty routine trip out to mile post 9. Coming back was not so routine. The Heber Shay went into full resonance at about 9 mph when under its own steam. It tried to throw itself apart at about half that speed when being dragged. Apparently, dead Shays don’t like to be pulled more than about 4-5 mph. Trundling along at 4 mph at the throttle of 618 in the isolation of the Wasatch Mountains at 2 in the morning with a full moon on the lake was a full five sense experience.

Would that be the same Shay (no. 4?) that is now in Arnold, Ca. at the SIERRA NEVADA LOGGING MUSEUMhttp://www.sierraloggingmuseum.org/Thanks.