Shay Days 2002

On July 19th, 20th & 21st I had the chance to spend a long weekend in Harbor Springs, Michigan while they were celebrating Shay Days. This is a weekend long event celebrating Ephraim Shay and his creations, including the Shay locomotive. The event is held every year on the 3rd weekend in July. Bruce Gathman is in charge of the Steam up. You can contact him at shayloco@voyager.net for information on next years event.

On this weekend they invite G Scale Live Steams, who own Shay locomotives or other geared locomotives, to attend a 3 day steam up. I don't own a Shay, YET, but I went anyway and I'm glad I did.

Harbor Springs is in the northern part of lower Michigan, just a little ways north of Petoskey. It is a beautiful little town. A beautiful park down on the bay, great old houses, bed & breakfast homes and kind of an old fashion down town.

The steam up is held on the site where Shay's workshop used to stand. This lot is located right next door to the home that Shay built. I never got a count but there were about 20 steamers there with 30-40 steam engines. The weather was warm but we stayed in the shade and enjoyed 3 days of steamin.

Steam up tents.		Shay's home.

We had a great time just running and visiting with others. Many people showed up to look over the engines. Some spent a few hours learning about these small steam engines and Shay himself. They had lectures and other information in the Shay home on all 3 days. Many of the kids dragged their parents back each day to see the engines run.

Get to the engines already, your saying!