Hello in the cold I took the opportunity while I'm still snowed in to address a couple of projects I have been keeping on the shelf.The first is my Shay locomotive. It is a H0 scale, 3 truck 80-ton Shay from Bachmann and their Spectrum series.The locomotive has led to many concerns, repairs and other headaches....The first thing that happened was that the Tsunami sound decoder that I ordered did not fit ....So I had to build a new tender shell from brass to make it: fit:Then the drive gears on the side rod cracked one by one ... :? .Luckily, NWSL makes new gears made of steel instead of the originals that are in plastic!Then the locomotive worked "good", except that it was not possible to back up through a switch, because then the middle boogie would derail guaranteed.I was doing all sorts of adjustments and fine-tuning without much success.Then I thought: :-Aha! I can rebuild it.!I had already mounted the sound decoder in another of my locomotives (that happens ...),and I had just bought a Lenz Gold decoder, the foundation for the project was laid.I've always appreciated the look of two truck Shay´s, and to rebuild it from three truck to two truck ought to work.I dismantled the whole locomotive into pieces:And after some measurements I put the saw firmly to the chassis!I cut off a piece of the chassis behind the rear bolster and cut the tender chassie in the same place. I glued together the two halves with epoxy and reinforced the joint with carbon fiber rods. I then used epoxy with micro balloons in it to reinforce it:Top View. Bottom. When it was finished I cut the original tender shell so that it fit tightly against the cab backside.A little wiring later (I made it all new), that was it:It works much better than before in every way, and it does not look so clumsy as before. Now it fits well as a Port switcher on my layout.It took 5 hours of work, but it was not much else I could have done instead .....
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Quite a nice project.
I do know some have squeezed in the Micro Tsunami. Don't remember what size speaker though.
This will inspire some. The new gears will be a good bit of info.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Nice work, looks great!!!
Very nice! That's a terrific project, thanks for posting it and for the photos. I'm with you, I like the two-truck shays a lot better. The three-truck versions are interesting and I'm glad I have one, but that's all I really want. Now that I've seen what you did I think I'll convert my other one the same way. I already have all the right parts even!
Thanks!
John
Thank´s for the replies.
I hoped that I could inspire someone to make the conversion as well.
It isn´t SO hard, but rather more a matter of: "measure twice, cut once".....
It runs so well now that I have thoughts about buying a Loksound micro for it.....It should fit in the tender now and the speaker in the Cab roof or maybe in the boiler backend.
Sure, it won´t pull as much now, but I don´t have any inclines on my layout so that isn´t much of an issue for me. As long as it will pull 8 cars on the level I´m happy.
Very cool! I had a friend that did the same conversion and he also regauged his to Sn3.
Good job!
Graffen
Excellent job, I having been planning to do this as well, thanks for the post!
GS
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Thank you for the inspiration, My new 2 truck is out for a test run.
Obviously I still need to cut down the tender shell and finish adding the details.
Graffen Thank´s for the replies. I hoped that I could inspire someone to make the conversion as well. It isn´t SO hard, but rather more a matter of: "measure twice, cut once"..... It runs so well now that I have thoughts about buying a Loksound micro for it.....It should fit in the tender now and the speaker in the Cab roof or maybe in the boiler backend. Sure, it won´t pull as much now, but I don´t have any inclines on my layout so that isn´t much of an issue for me. As long as it will pull 8 cars on the level I´m happy.
Go to a gun shop and get some bird shot. Works quite well.
Why would he want to "shoot" his engine???
Mark