Lionel 2 truck Shay issue

[IronHoarse]

Hi,

 

          I have been away from  this forum  for a little while so please forgive me if this has been discussed here before.

 

          This Shay is my first Legacy engine.  I do not yet have the Legacy control system but will get one as soon as they become available again.  Besides the engine I also got four skeleton log cars for it.  It really looks great pulling those cars.  One problem though,  the engine and cars while rated for o-31 curves will not handle my  Fastrack O-36 switches when connected together.  They are just fine seperately.  My only solution so far is to put a scale flat bed car between the engine and the skeleton cars.   Well I guess there is one other solution …Only run it on my other loop of track that has no switches.

 

     I am not sure but I think that the reason for the de railing is that I have a curved section of track before my switches.  Unfortunately I do not have room to add a straight section before the  switches.  The engine handles the  switches just fine when pulling no cars, but will not pull most cars through them.  I think Lionel blew it with the o-31 rating for this engine. 

     Other than the switch issue this engine is really great and I can’t wait to try it with Legacy control.

 

Regards,

Larry Hansen

[Dave45681]

There were 2 threads covering this very topic on another forum, though the person in those threads was actually trying to use O31 curves.

It seems the engine can navigate O31 until you couple cars to it.

This might be the same thing you are experiencing due to the geometry you are using with your O36 FT.

Thread #1.

Thread #2.

Good luck.

[IronHoarse]

Thanks for posting the links.  As mentioned in those threads Lionel  now says 0-42 curves.  I am having no trouble with 0-36 curves only 0-36 switches.  After reading those threads that you posted I have since  solved the issue.  I made a little extension part  that in effect extends the coupler of my lead skeleton log car.  So far this seems to be working quite well.   The part is made of a piece of 12 gauge copper wire that still has the insulation on it.  I just bent it into a shape that allows me to clip it on the car’s coupler.  I am still able to use the electro coupler on my shay.  Most of the time  I will be running the Shay on my elevated layout that has no switches so I will not use the modification there.

Regards,

Larry Hansen

[Warburton]

Yes, I did pretty much the same thing to fix the problem. It runs just fine the way you describe if you ignore the small extra wire. Still, Lionel really goofed when they advertised the Shay as being OK on 031 (or O36). True in a strict sense, but also misleading.