2 truck heisler

I saw at an internet trains show a Rivarossi 2 truck Heisler....that this is so ugly its beautiful, but what the heck is it for?

I'd love one, but I'd like to have a purpose for it

 

The use I'm most familiar with is logging.

 

The Heisler is a geared locomotive, mainly used for logging, also quarry work as it can make the steep grades associated with both industries. A small but powerful machine, special purpose, there are few geared locomotives around anymore.

 

The Heisler had it's roots in the logging railroads. Logging railroads were generally cheaply and quickly built affairs, often with little to no grading, widely spaced ties, questionable spiking, a general absence of ballast, sharp curves, and sometimes incredibly steep grades.

Traditional rod driven locomotives were generally unable to deal with the operating conditions that most logging railroads presented. A logger on the Michigan Penninsula named Eprhiam Shay is credited with coming up with the concept for the geared steam locomotive, although there were others that had the idea around the same time as well.

The Heisler was the least popular of the three major breeds of geared steam locomotives created to meet the operational challenges presented by most logging railroads. The Shay locomotive, developed by Mr. Shay and built by the Lima Locomotive Works, was the most popular...in the Shay the cylinders were mounted horizontally on the right side of the boiler, turning a drive shaft that ran the entire length of the locomotive outside the right side of each truck, with each wheel turned by bevel gears built into the outside of the wheel. The next most popular was the Climax, which had a pair of cylinders mounted up on the boiler that were pointed downward at a 45% angle...the cylinders drove short siderods that were connected to a wheel that drove a shaft mounted crosswise underneath the boiler, and that shaft drove a drive shaft that ran the length of the locomotive underneath the boiler. Each axle was driven from the driveshaft by a set of gears. The Heisler had the twin cylinders mounted in a V-arrangement that directly drove the driveshaft that ran the length of the locomotive underneath the boiler, just as in the Climax, but in the Heisler the drive shaft only drove one axle on each truck, with power transfered to the other axle through the siderodes.

As noted by others, Heislers were primarily used in logging railroads, but they did see a fair amount of use on other industrial type operations or in places where traction requirements overcame speed needs (fifteen miles per hour was about the top speed of most geared steam locomotives).

One example of the pulling power of Heislers as compared to conventional locomotives was found on the McCloud River Railroad in far northern California. Their mainline between McCloud and the connection with the Southern Pacific 13 miles to the west consisted of many long stretches of 4% or better grades with lots of sharp curves. The McCloud had two early conventional locomotives, a 2-6-0 and a 2-6-2. These two could each manage about four fully loaded cars of lumber up to the summit on dry rail, and on wet rail their limit was around two cars. The railroad at the same time rostered a 3-truck Heisler that weighed in at 60 tons and was reported to be the largest and heaviest Heisler built up to that point...it could haul 6 loaded cars up to the summit on wet or dry rail.

To see pictures of Heislers and to gain a lot more information about them, as well as all other geared steam locomotives, check out the following websites:

http://www.gearedsteam.com/

http://www.steaminthewoods.com/

Both of the above sites have extensive sections featuring lots of photos about Heislers.

If this sparks and interest in logging railroads in you, there are presently two quarterly magazines that are dedicated to logging railroads, Tall Timber Short Lines (www.osorail.com) and Timber Times (www.timbertimes.com). Narrow Guage & Short Line Gazette also carries a fair amount of logging material. There is also a Yahoo e-mail list (the 4L list- Loyal Legion of Logged-on Loggers) that currently runs over 1,000 members and where anything relating to logging or lumbering is discussed at one time or another. There is also another Yahoo list that deals specifically with modeling logging railroads, modelloggers.

Hope this helps.

JDLX
Elko, NV
http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails

 

excellent responses! Unfortunately, my layout is going to be undulating farmland, predominantly, with a couple of largish 'hills' so I have an excuse to build a big trestle bridge (I love bridges!). Wont be any room for a 'natural logging' area (but will be plantation timber).

Since this will be the 50's, perhaps they could use their heisler on the branch line at the plantation.... kinda like 'we shut down our mountain logging and moved to plantation, but this thing still works'. Could I get away with that do you think? Looking for any excuse here....

 

"Since this will be the 50's, perhaps they could use their heisler on the branch line at the plantation.... kinda like 'we shut down our mountain logging and moved to plantation, but this thing still works'. Could I get away with that do you think? Looking for any excuse here...."

Yes, you could easily get away with this kind of scenario.

Your typical early US logging railroad was a constantly changing affair, with trackage constantly being laid down into a new stand of timber, used briefly while harvest operations were going on, then removed right after the last tree was cut, with the rails laid down into the next stand of timber. This temporary trackage was not exactly built to high engineering standards, as at best it might be used for only a couple weeks or months before it was lifted, and as such there was very little incentive to do much in the way of grading or roadbed preparation. Geared locomotives like the Heisler did their best on these temporary spur lines.

In the early years a sawmill might stay in one place until the timber immediately available to it was cut out, then the sawmill would be closed and moved, often after purchased by a new owner, to an uncut stand of timber.

As the timber industry matured, sawmills tended to become sedentary objects that became more or less permanent establishments on the landscape. Obviously a sawmill that does not move will quickly cut through all timber immediately available to it a short amount of time, and in order to stay in business the sawmill must start importing logs from farther and farther distances. To meet this new situation logging railroads developed a main trunk line that extended from the mill into the woods, with temporary spurs built off of those trunk lines into the cutting areas. These main trunk lines were built to much higher standards, as they were designed to be more permanent and to last for long periods of time. These trunk lines were gradually extended as the cutting areas progressed farther and farther away from the mill. Many large operations had trunk lines that extended 60 miles or more into the timber.

These trunk lines were capable of supporting larger and faster locomotives, and logging railroads started buying rod type locomotives (your standard siderod driven steam loco) to run these trunk lines with, as they were much faster than geared locomotives and the trunk lines were operable at higher speeds. Most of your larger operations through the 1920's-1940's would typically roster a mix of both geared and rod driven steam locomotives, with the geared locomotives used to switch the temporary spurs and loading areas and the rod locomotives used to forward unit trains of raw logs from central collection points to the sawmill.

Trucks started making inroads into the forests in the late '20s and '30's, and after the end of World War Two they very quickly replaced the temporary spur line trackage and, in most cases, the entire logging railroad system. The few logging railroads that survived into the 1950's were generally cut back to just the mainline trunk, with all branches and spurs converted into truck roads. Trucks were used to bring logs down to reloads established on the main line, and the only job left for the railroad was to take these logs from the reload (often known as Transfers) to the mill. Rod type locomotives were much better suited to the remaining logging railroads that geared locomotives were.

The passing of most of the logging railroads and the virtual elimination of geared steam power from those few operations that survived meant that a large number of geared locomotives were surplussed and became available during the 1950's. Most of them were scrapped, but others were sold off to other operations and industries that needed locomotives.

This was a long answer to your question, but I figured that understanding some background information might be important. The bottom line is that it would be very likely for a Heisler to end up in a situation like what you are contemplating around the time you are thinking of. You could also model a quarry operation or something along those lines that purchased a used Heisler from a defunct logging railroad to run their trackage with.

Perhaps a simpler answer is that it is your railroad, and in the end the only person you have to justify anything to is yourself. If you can feel comfortable hauling double stack trains with a Heisler, then that is perfectly alright.

Go get the Heisler. You won't be disappointed.

JDLX
Elko, NV
http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails

 

Thanks JDLX PERhaps I could have a plantation beside a mine and use the heisler to haul timber from the sawmill down the mine for shoring up etc..... Sounds like a couple of good excuses now