Photo upload test, Another Shay

[Dave Harris sctchbld]

Thanks again,

Nice workmanship, Ray. I especially like the bunker extension and the ladder. I'll bet she'll run as sweet as she looks, too.

Wayne

I am impressed with how it does run.
I have used every trick I could find from talking with others who have built these locos and then a few I learned from building my other Shay.
The MDC shay has gotten a bad reputation over the years for being a difficult kit to get running .
One of the things I did was to ream the holes on 3 of the pinion gears of the trucks so only one gear turns tha dummy drive line and the shay motor. That eliminates the binding and bucking.
Although I didn't use them I would recomend the NWSL regear sets.

I Changed my side gears on the trucks ( one of them-- like yours only one actually worked) to some of Grandt lines bevel gear sets. They wern't built for a Shay , his Shay gears are all O scale. I think they were just a 2 to 1 set. I had to machine the Gear that went on the Wheel & machine a pocket in the wheel to press it in but it works smooth as silk. Another thing I learned is to shim the truck boxes so the wheel sets only have about .001 or .002 side to side movement , it keeps the gears in proper mesh, other wise every time you change direction the gear sets get out of whack.
The NWSL gear sets work well but all they really do is quiet things down a bit , nothing to make it any smoother. I did use them however.