This turned up via TrainOrders:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/7786

Read the comments--this was apparently a "prototype" Shay.

Full-sized photo, if you have high-speed:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/7786?size=_original

Not really a prototype, I think, but It was one of (I believe) two Shays on Ephraim Shay's personal railroad. I think, if I remember right, that he built it for gathering firewood and it more or less became the spectacle of the town and he got into the tourist business. I'm pretty sure that railroad was operated for a good while after his death and some of the original structures (well, 1?) still exists today.

You are correct, or at least close to what I recall hearing.

It's easy to tell it's not a prototype when you recall the original Shay design, which went something along these lines: "I wonder what would happen if I took a flatcar, a marine engine, and a vertical boiler, added some drive lines..."

These engines were based on the more modern side mounted engine design, and used on the Hemlock Central line, and the engines almost look like caricatures...

The Shay in the Shorpy photo is the 30" gauge Hemlock Central #1, the Baby. The Hemlock Central was chartered in 1902 and the photo is dated 1906. Ephraim Shay's original engine was built in 1877 either by William Crippen or with cylinders and boiler supplied by William Crippen.

The Hemlock Central Shays (there were at least three of them) were built by Shay himself, in his Harbor Springs machine shop. The line was used for logging some previously logged parcels and for hauling tourists on the weekends. The Shays were unique. #1 had no frame, with the trucks mounted directly on the boiler. The steam chests were outboard, not in inline, rather like a Willamette Shay. The boiler had the firebox mounted within the boiler barrel and the trucks are inside frame. The #2 appears to have had undermounted cylinders, driving a cross shaft with the line shaft on the left side of the loco. The #3 looked more like the #1.

Photos of the #1 show a number of changes over the years, with domes appearing and moving and the tender sporting a covered body for awhile, as in the Shorpy photo. The line reportedly ceased operations in 1910 and was torn up in 1912.

Why the designs are so different from Shay's original designs and those of Lima is unknown. It may have to do with the fact that Shay was not getting along with Lima management at the time and didn't want to run into problems over using patents that he had sold to Lima. It's also possible that he just loved tinkering and trying new ideas. These engines probably cost a lot less to build than a conventional design and the trucks and gears look easily accessible for maintenance.

Michael Allen

George & Mark Ice built a 2 foot gage replica of Baby. They operate their Haring & Lake City RR on part of Shay's original property. Below is a link to an issue of the Two-Footers which discusses a new turntable they were building at the time.
http://thetwofooters.com/Issue017/Issue017.doc