Engine repairs 'encouraging/

It is encouraging to learn our City Council is interested in restoring the Shay engine.

A thank you to Joe Barber, Shelbyville, Ky., is also in order. His letter to the editor in the Nov. 26, 2009, Hungry Horse News expressed my thoughts.

Shay family members completely restored the engine in June 2005. Their plans were discussed with Bill Shaw, city manager, before volunteer work started.

Vandalism has been more prevalent in the past few years than in the 45 years since the huge Shay engine was moved to present location in May 1964.

Whether it is due to lack of police patrolling or a more destructive society would be just a guess. Engine is visible from three flows of traffic at the junction of Nucleus Avenue and Railroad Street. There is also a large parking area where loiterers or parked vehicles should be noticed.

It would seem adults or older teenagers are responsible for the vandalism to the engine. Powerful saws would be required to remove the heavy bell, brass knobs, steps. It would take lots of brawn and not much brains to remove the heavy bell from the top of the old engine. Damage from paint balls could have been considered entertainment by juveniles. Anyone can start a fire but it is easier to blame lightning.

An article written by John Van Vleet in the Hungry Horse News in June 2005, with headline "The Shays fix the Shay," describes their work. After all, John cannot be criticized as a proud mother.

His story follows.

To Tim Shay, locomotives are not just a means of transportation, they are namesakes, family legacies and connections with the past — and that is why he does not want them to waste away.

Shay, with the help of several family members, recently completed a restoration project on the locomotive on display in the Columbia Falls town park at the end of Nucleus Avenue.

He took a week off of work earlier this month to resurface, repaint and repair the 91-year old wood-burning train engine with the help of relatives who were in town for a family reunion.

Tim said he drove by it every day and it was looking pretty shabby. If I did not do it, no one else would.

The newly painted black engine now glimmers in the sun and the freshly placed floorboards are sturdy and strong. Rusted bolts were replaced and rough edges sanded down.

Shay said the restoration was as much about preserving the history for visitors as it was about rejuvenating a family artifact. The locomotive is actually a Shay model, invented for logging use in Cadillac, Mich., in 1877 by Ephraim Shay, a distant relative of the Columbia Falls Shays.

According to a Shay locomotives database, the Columbia Falls engine was built in 1914 and was originally used by the Great Northern Railway and the Somers Lumber Company #1 in Somers.

It changed hands from the P. L. Howe Lumber mill to the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company in Eureka to the State Lumber Company #1 in Columbia Falls before eventually landing in the hands of the F. H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company in 1923, the current owners of the train.

Ron Buentemeier, general manager of Stoltze, said that the locomotive was in use at the mill from 1923 to 1941 and that it was an integral part of life in the area for a number of reasons.

People used it not only for work, but also to pick huckleberries in the summer months. It was a big part of the life of the people that lived in Half Moon or worked at the plant there.

At the time of its creation, the Shay model locomotive was innovative, mainly due to the fact that it was capable of simultaneously producing the same amount of torque in the wheels on both sides of the engine.

A lack of an outer drive train is one of the distinguishing, and easily noticeable, characteristics, although many variations of the original patent eventually surfaced.

Tim said it is what they call the four-wheel drive of the locomotives. It was designed for logging.

During the painting and flooring, Shay said visitors from as far away as Maine stopped to take pictures, inspect the engine and express their gratitude for his efforts.

Tim said he did not start the project to get recognition for doing it. He added he started it because he did not want to see in destroyed.

Work started June 13 and continued through June 16, 2005, with all the renovation work being divided between Shay and his family. The painting, floorboard cutting and resurfacing was evenly distributed and Shay was careful to say everyone offered up a hand.

It was all either his siblings, their husbands or wives or children. Plum Creek, Stoltze, Western Building and the Klothes Kloset all donated materials for the project as well.

With the locomotive on loan to the community from Stoltze, Buentemeier said he was pleased with results of the work done by Shay. Buentemeier added he thinks it really helps. It shows that we are interested in our vast history and interested in maintaining our parks. It looks really nice, they did a good job.

Shay was also gratified with the work.

Gladys Shay is a longtime resident of Columbia Falls and a Hungry Horse News columnist.