This evening I created a template and spot faced the top of the bottom spring plank for one of the Shay trucks.  The plank itself was made by welding two 1 1/4″ C-Channels together with a 1/2″ x 3/16″ spacer on the top and bottom.  The welding and grinding was a painful experience and confirmed my thought that I will need to either purchase a steel boiler made by an expert or construct a copper boiler with silver soldering.  I am much better at silver soldering.

The overall assembly is about 11 inches long.  Each of the spot faces will hold a spring and combined with the top plank is what will allow the truck to maintain traction on the track.

In other exciting news, the main gears arrived today.  They need quite a bit of machining but eventually they will be attached to the wheels and really give the Shay its unique character.  Here is a drawing of a real Shay Truck and you can see the full size spring plank beneath the row of springs in the center.

Here is a picture of a real Shay I got to experience several times when I lived in Monterey California.  Roaring Camp and Big Trees railroad is located in Santa Cruz California.

Only two more bottom planks and three more top planks to go!  Who knew making a steam engine was so much work?