To really understand something, more than just taking a photograph in a fraction of a second, you should take the time to draw the object you hope to understand.
I wanted to understand the design and engineering of a Shay geared locomotive. I knew that at the end of the drawing, I would know a Shay so much better. My subject was the Westside Lumber Company three truck Shay No. 15 (this is a sister to the new Roaring Camp No. 14).
I was copying a picture from one of my favorite books when I was a kid: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of North American Locomotives by Brian Hollingsworth.
This was not a sketch but a drawing and it was very much more involved, meaning I was taking lots of measurements and applying them to my sketchbook, focusing on proportions and details. The drawing was done over a series of evenings. This was the opposite of a loose continuous-line sketch. I liked the process but it was taxing. I was wearing the hat of a draftsman not a sketcher.
My finished drawing.
After drawing a Shay in great detail, I wanted to sketch a real live Shay under steam, in a continuous-line way.
That’s easily done from my Santa Cruz digs by driving 15 minutes up Highway 9 to Roaring Camp & Big Trees Railroads.
I originally wanted to sketch the Shay and Heisler lined up next to each other at the engine shed. At the front gate I learned the difference of asking for permission and asking for forgiveness.
Now it was time for Plan B: sketching the Dixiana at the depot. I had sketched the locomotive from the same perspective before, but this time I wanted to render the scene in a continuous-line sketch. I knew that I would only have about 10 minutes to sketch the scene before the train departed for Bear Mountain.
The builder’s plate on No. 1’s boiler.
Before the train arrived, I sketched the old rusted wagon top boiler on display in the grounds. It was built by Lima in 1912 and used on the No. 1 until it was retired in 1976.
No. 1 passing by on its way to the depot. Here you can see why a Shay is called a geared locomotive.
The two truck Shay backed into the depot from the engine house with her six car consist. Now it was time to sketch. The looser the better (featured sketch).
No. 1 Dixiana pulls out from the depot on the way up to Bear Mountain. A sketch of Dixiana on the first page of my new panoramic journal with the real deal in the background.
From my redwood cabin deck I love to hear the steam whistle from the No. 1 Shay “Dixiana” echoing down the San Lorenzo Valley from Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad in Felton.
I will be hearing a new whistle coming down the valley in the near (or not so near) future.
On August 9, 2026, Westside Lumber Co. No. 14 was delivered to Felton.
No. 14 is a three tuck Shay built by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio in 1916. Shays are geared locomotives designed to tackle steep grades (up to 9%) on lumber railroads. What they lack in speed they have in power and torque in spades. Between 1880 and 1944, Lima built 2,770 Shays.
No. 14 was originally built for the Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Company. In 1937 the company went bankrupt and the Shay made its way to the Westside Lumber Company in 1939. The locomotive was in service there until the mill shut down in 1961.
No. 14 moved around to other museums and railroads before finally making her way to Roaring Camp.
No. 14’s builder’s plate.
On Saturday morning I headed up to Felton to see the 110 year old new kid on the block.
Roaring Camp and Big Trees was founded by Norman Clark in 1962 as a narrow gauge (36 inches) steam tourist railroad.
The railroad has such a historic collection of geared steam logging locomotives that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated three of the railroad’s locomotives as Historic Mechanical Landmark #134 in 1988.
The historic landmark marker on the depot.Two of Roaring Camp’s Mechanical Landmarks: Shay No. 1 “Dixiana” and Heisler No. 2 “Tuolumne” steamed up and getting ready for the day at the locomotive shed.
I walked around the shops and No. 14 was on a track leading into the locomotive shed. I pulled out my sketchbook and started a continuous-line sketch of the newly acquired three truck Shay (featured sketch).
On the right is the No. 2 Heisler under steam waiting to pull out and connect with her five car consist. On the left, No. 14 can be seen through the shed. The locomotive had arrived just six days before.The star of the show and the real workhorse of the railroad. The first Shay of Roaring Camp, No. 1 “Dixiana” coupled with her six car consist. The two railroads in one shot. In the foreground is the steam narrow gauge railroad and in the background is the standard gauge Big Trees & Pacific which runs down to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, as well as passing right above my cabin.
For the two past years, because of Covid, we had to cancel our annual adventure to the gold discovery site in Colma, spending three days and two nights as part of the Gold Rush Program at the Coloma Outdoor Discovery School (CODS). Our school has been going to CODS for the past 25 years and it was tough to see two groups of 4th graders missing out on what is one of the most memorable experiences in elementary school.
As a substitute for Colma, my teaching mate suggested a day trip to Roaring Camp & Big Trees in Felton. In the Santa Cruz Mountains we would walk among giants, pan for gold, and take a steam railroad trip through the redwoods. I thought it was a great idea because, in a sense, it was almost in my backyard.
As I like to say, I rent in the city but I own in the country. My family cabin is in the San Lorenzo Valley between Santa Cruz and Felton. From up the valley I can hear the lonesome whistle of the shay locomotive from my deck. While the steam railway is narrow gauge, the standard gauge branch runs just uphill from my cabin, taking passengers from Felton to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.
On the Friday morning of our trip our school buses were ten minutes late. Most mapping apps time the trip from San Mateo to Felton to take one hour. In a yellow school bus you have to add 10 to 20 minutes. So when we arrived at Roaring Camp were already behind schedule. Two words in teaching trade that are the most important in this situation are flexibility and patience.
We unloaded our bus (no one lost their breakfast on the journey over the curvaceous Highway 17) and we had a pleasant surprise, just before we crossed the covered bridge on our way to the station.
We arrived late, so our planned schedule was already out the window. We had time for a bathroom break before we queued up at the station as the No 1 Shay “Dixiana” backed into the station with her consist of brightly painted yellow and green passengers cars. We had the two cars behind “Dixiana”. We really would have front row seats to the sites, sounds, and smells of a live steam locomotive!
The two truck Class B Shay on point, was built in 1912 at the Lima Locomotive Works. It was originally built for the Alaculsy Lumber Company as a geared narrow gauge logging locomotive capable of climbing grades of 8% (most standard locomotives can handle a 1.5% grade). It served six other railroads before ending up in Dixianna, Virginia (hence the locomotive’s name). It was designated No. 1 because it was the first locomotive acquired by the railroad and she is now the workhorse of Roaring Camp.
The founder of Roaring Camp, Norman Clark, purchased the Shay in 1962 for his vision of a replica logging town with a narrow gauge railway. The Shay was loaded onto a flatcar and then shipped, via mainline rail, to her new home in Felton.
I could feel the excitement of our fourth graders as they found their seats. These tech-savvy ten year olds were about to experience cutting edge technology of the early 20th Century! And we would be pulled up the mountain by a 110 year old steam locomotive.
With two toots of the whistle, our train rumbled into life headed out from the station and past the water tower. Our train turned right into Schoolhouse Curve on it’s way up to Bear Mountain. Our top speed was about five miles an hour. Shays were built for their motive power on steep logging grades not for swift passenger service.
Crossing the horseshoe curve wooden trestle at Indian Creek. This trestle is one of the tightest turning railroad trestles in the United States. At it’s highest point, the train is 35 feet above the ground.
Once we crossed over the Indian Creek Trestle, the No. 1 labored up an 8.5% grade to the burned out trestles at Spring Canyon. The trestles were burnt in a fire on June 27, 1976.
The charred remains of the Spring Canyon Trestle. I love these ghosts of the past. I have no memory of crossing over this trestle, but knowing my father, I must have been on this train as an infant in the early 1970s.
After the trestle burned on July 27, four months later, a switchback was constructed to make up the elevation needed to summit Bear Mountain. On first section of the switchback, the train has to back up meaning that Shay No. 1 is pushing, instead of pulling, her consist up the hill. This section of track is the steepest portion of narrow gauge railroad in the United States. This grade reaches 9.25%!
Dixianna pushed our train up the grade with no problem, after all this is what she was designed to do. On the way up my some of my students caught their first sighting of a banana slug!
We headed up the last leg of the switchback and labored towards the summit of Bear Mountain, which is really more of a hill. Once our train reached the summit and we stopped for about 15 minutes. We kept our students on the train because we didn’t want to leave anyone behind. I detrained and took a few photos on Dixianna, one of which was the reference for the key sketch.
Dixianna at Bear Mountain. The engineer is greasing the moving parts. Stream locomotives are high maintenance.
A toot from the whistle announced that it was time to board the train because we where heading back down the hill to the station.
Looking down from 35 feet atop the Indian Creek Trestle on our way back to the station.A Memorial Day field sketch of “Dixianna” waiting to depart of her 10:30 trip to Bear Mountain. She was in the station for about 20 minutes, which gave me enough time to sketch.
