years as our kids grew up and we moved from place to place following jobs (building a house in the process and renovating two others). In 2009 I finally built the Keystone
Shay, and, while NWSL’s first genera- tion Flea drive was a relatively simple power unit, getting it to actually run the Keystone model proved to be a very frustrating exercise. I’ve scratchbuilt and kitbashed steam locomotive models that run well, so you can imagine my disappointment at not being able to get that little Shay to run. I had even come up with a justification to occasionally run a Shay on my prototype-based CNJ layout. The Houdaille quarry that the CNJ served on its Middlebrook branch had their own locomotive–a retired CNJ Alco HH660. (Since most people would stumble over the correct pronun- ciation of “Hou-daille”–Hoo-die–I gave my quarry a name similar to one it orig- inally had, the Chimney Rock Stone & Gravel Co., which I later shortened to Chimney Rock Quarry, one of the names it’s known by now.) I figured that in ear-
2.
1.
lier years, the quarry might have had a secondhand steam locomotive, and if so, why couldn’t it have been a Shay? Other quarries owned Shays; some even bought them new. Moreover, if the quarry engine needed any kind of ma- jor repairs, wouldn’t quarry manage- ment have contracted with the CNJ to have the work done in their shops?
3.
That could occasionally put the Key- stone Shay on my CNJ Central Divi- sion mainline as it ran through Dunellen and adjacent towns in 1953, before the grade separation project of 1954 (had I gotten it to run). So, I bought a Bachmann three-truck Shay. It runs spectacularly well, but com- pared to the Keystone model, it’s big.
1: NWSL’s original Flea drive for the Keystone Shay powered only the front axle of the rear truck. 2: To reduce the truck spacing on the Keystone frame, the original holes were plugged and new ones drilled. 3: A scratchbuilt boiler with a Precision Scale stack
4.
and a coreless can motor were added to the modified Keystone frame. 4: The new fuel bunker and the cab are in place. 5: New cab walls were fashioned from .010″ brass sheet. The window sash and scribed area below it are on a .010″ brass backing sheet.
5.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
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