Heritage Museum buys Shay for $1
<p>Heritage Museum volunteer Ron Carter holds an antique lantern as he stands on the running board of the newly purchased Shay locomotive. The lantern belonged to Libby resident Germaine Hugill’s father, Bernhard Schlumm.</p>
The Heritage Museum of Libby has acquired the receipt of a signed purchase agreement with International Paper, Corp., conveying legal title of Shay locomotive 4 to the museum.
The agreement states, “the total purchase price for the Shay locomotive is the amount of One United States of America Dollar and no/100 (USD $1.00) in cash.”
The museum launched an effort to restore the 1906 Shay, Old Four Spot, in 2010. During the time when track was being laid to move the locomotive into its engine house, a letter was discovered in Museum files dated 1987 from the late Inez Herrig, then board secretary, to Douglas Kilner of Champion International Corp.
In the letter she thanks the company for allowing the museum the “indefinite loan” of the locomotive. Since the museum was expending time and money and soliciting public support for the restoration of the locomotive to working condition, the board made the decision to approach International Paper, the corporate owner of the locomotive, with an offer to buy the Shay for the museum.
Shay 4, a 37-ton, two-truck, 3-steam locomotive, was manufactured in Lima, Ohio, and worked initially in the Rainy River country of northern Minnesota, where it was transported to its first job on a big logging sleigh drawn by horses across a frozen lake.
It came to Libby in 1917 on a flatcar to join the fleet of J. Neils Lumber Co. Shays working in the woods as logging locomotives. Shay No. 4 ran on wood for its first 10 years, then was fired on coal for 10 years in Montana.
In 1927, it was converted to oil. After trucks superseded locomotives in the woods in the 1930s, Old 4 Spot worked as a switch engine, retiring in 1946, but used occasionally into the 1950s. All the other J. Neils’ Shays ended up at the scrapper or being sold to out-of-state parties. Number 4 is one of very few 37-ton Shays in existence (Serial No. 1643). Ownership followed the successive sale of the J. Neils Libby operations to St. Regis, Champion, Stimson, and International Paper.
Receiving title to the locomotive from International Paper has freed the museum to proceed with the restoration of its Shay to working condition. The results of two ultrasound tests and an assessment by the state boiler inspector have determined that the main pressure vessel is in good condition and repairs are needed in the front tube sheet and firebox.
The volunteer technical team hopes to have the engine moving this summer.
Phase I of a three-phase tourist excursion route is planned to include 6,000 feet of standard-gauge track on 26 acres of property east of museum grounds.
Currently, administered by the Lincoln County Port Authority, the site is a closed class three landfill containing wood chips from the mill site. The Port Authority allowed the museum’s proposed track plan to be submitted to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for review.
DEQ permitted the proposed use provided the rail is run on fill, without disruption of the cap. The Port Authority has further allowed the museum to flag the railway route for assessment by contractors.
The museum has initiated preliminary discussions with the Port Authority about the possibility of a 40-foot easement around the margin of the landfill to accommodate the rail line and an access road.
The Heritage Museum is accepting donations of rail, switches and rolling stock.
A website documenting progress on the Shay to date can be found at www.gearedsteam.blogspot.com.
Contact person for the Shay railway is Ron Carter at 406-283-1830, rb.carter@Outlook.com.