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These are obviously old problems that all early MDC Shays suffered from, mine included. There have been several articles in the model press over the years offering ways to correct them. There is (or was) a small soft cover book on assembling the Shay which I believe addressed the problems. My Shay was a two truck one, and from what I recall, these are the suggested solutions: The operating gear train on the side are there just for show, and does not require to be connected to each wheel gears. Remove the small gear on one shaft of each truck so there is only one working. This fixes the out of synch gearing and worked on mine. The effect of the engine "waddling" down the track can be fixed by adding a small square piece of styrene under the frame near the center point of one truck. This acts as a stop to prevent the side to side movement. Later MDC Shays had this block cast into the frame. If you can find a later one, you will be able to see it. The motor runs fast because of the gearing, and its the gearing that causes almost all of the noise. I orginally thought the motor was making the noise until I disconnected it - quiet as can be! NWSL offers replacement metal "bull" gear for the Shay, but I don't know if this makes it any quieter. Their replacement parts would have cost me more than the engine did, so I passed. I think newer models also have can motors. After I did the modifications to my Shay, it ran much better. Then I had the problem of the truck baseplate coming undone. This would allow the gears to drop out of line and the engine would go nowhere. I replaced the baseplate, but the problem persisted. Another problem I had to fix was the large plastic housing for the main gear hung too low between the rails, often catching on switch points. I just filed some off the bottom to fix it. After all of this messing around, I picked up a Bachmann 3 truck Shay - what a world of difference (and five times the cost too!). I've since sideline the MDC Shay as being too much trouble to keep on fiddling with. I had an MDC three truck Shay kit, but sold it a long time ago because of the problems I had with the two truck one. Good luck! Bob Boudreau
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