Lets see if I can figure this out...

OK

Eng1 Is a general shot of the right side

Eng2 Is a shot showing the relative scale of the thing. Both connecting rod bearings on this journal had excessive wear and are being replaced. After 79,000+ hours the journal wear is .002 average along the length of the journal!

Eng3 Shows the "sprawl" of parts... ah.. preparing to go back on.

Eng4 Shows the left side from the ground. Here you can see the generator pretty good.

Eng5 Shows the cylinder blocks with the new sleeves installed and "curing".. We used black RTV on the bottom O-rings because this is where the original leakage was and the blocks themselves were a little more pitted than I'd like in this sealing area. So to be sure the sleeves were fully seated while the goo cures we made the rig you see here.

Eng6 Shows the heads awaiting cleanup... The connecting rod is a spare old style that has no piston-oiling holes at the little end.

Eng7 Is a spiffy new piston...

Eng8 Is a shot from the cab. The red at the end is converter/primer.

Eng9 Shows the generator/starter a little and Shay WM6 in the background.

Eng10 Shows what I usually work on. Being fireman for #11 for a year or so now.

My previous diesel experience is in the Navy's Submarine Service. Truly a long story....


Monday we start putting it back together.... Expect more to follow!

The Railroad Co. that I rebuilt the engines for the loco. had two engines in each one and as I mentioned before they motorized the generators somehow to start them as no starting system was on them.I think it was OM showed the picture of a loco engine and it had no starting engine on it or elec. starter that I could see and the bell housing looked like the several ones I did.

You are correct.

The direct-drive generator gets powered and turns the engine to start.

There are two engines per locomotive.

I can show pictures of the runner if anyone is interested.

Jerry, I never saw the loco,s they came out of as the engines were brought into the shop which our shop was about 80 miles south of the R.R. Co. and they were at Sayre Pa. on the NY state border in NE Pa. I would have liked to see how they were installed in the Loco,s.That was probably in the later 1960s when I rebuilt them for the R.R. Co.Even the oil pump was on the outside of the engine and I may be wrong but it seems they called it a triplex system.Boy this 17000 article brings back some old memories of them.As I mentioned before we had lots of them here in the area used in lots of big old draglines in the coal strippings jobs and some gen. sets were around too.They were a low RPM engine and ran on most at 1000 RPMs full load or less on some depending on the application.

I like the photo of the Shay! Much my favorite. GWH

Hi SJ,
I'm kinda following along with my service manual here.
The locomotive engine was the only one with a two section external oil pump...one scavenge supplying a storage tank and one pressure section.....the I & M models were all single stage pumps mounted internally.

Neat old engine......I wonder what parts availability is???

Some parts OM were the same as the old D7 & D8s but I only have a D17000 parts book so can,t compare what could be used from one to the other. They were the 5 3/4" bore liner so would be the same as the 7 & 8s but can,t say about the pistons for sure. Them old 17000s had a 6 ring piston according to the old parts book and were all above the wrist pin.The book I have has the 9J and some 3S serial number parts in it and also some 8S ones.

Hi, GWHdiesel75.
If you do a Google search using, 'Wolgan Valley Railway', you will most likely find a whole heap of results for an Australian railway that was using the Shay sidewinders early last century. I have walked some of that railway right-of-way and visited the 'town'(?) of Newnes, although all that was left active when I went there back in the early 1980's was the local hotel. It was then a hangout for biker groups and country music fans. (Weird mix?)

I have to confess to some degree of interest in those old Shays myself.

Locodriver, good photos, thanks for sharing. I will try to alert the man who transplanted the D17000 into the Cat D8 8R over here so that he too can study them.

So far the local (as local as it gets here) Cat dealer has been able to get nearly everything.

I'm going to have to make just a few gaskets from cork/garlock.

External oil pump with 50 gallon tank in front of each engine.

Early D17000s had the 6 ring piston setup and no squirt rods. Later models had 4 ring and squirt rods.

Early pistons are NOT available, however the later ones are and the rods can be converted to squirt, we're fortunate to have the late rods.

This engine originally had the 6-ring setup.


Cass is the largest steam operation in North America. We have no less than 4 engines on steam 24/7 from April to October. The diesel is to save on flue time during our non-running season (thats repair time). Here is a shot of the shop.

The diesel is where the right most engine is in this photo on the near track.

Thanks bunches for that last photo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GWH