The biggest tip for the MDC/Roundhouse Shay's is to only use 1 gear on the line shaft to spin it. leave the other 3 off. Thats right in the book that was published years ago about building and make these run well. The NWSL gears, espically the helical cut axle gears vs the OEM straight cut and the mix of brass and plastic in the gear tower really help out with lessening the stiffness and binds in the original drive. But I made the original run well, just took lots of time removing all flash and casting lines from the gears and gear box.
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
Afew shot's of my Demon's Hollow narrow gauge Shay #2
I have several Roundhouse Shay's, but their all packed up at the moment. Their all alike so I figured I only needed to post the picture's of the one I could find.
I have never had a problem with Roundhouse Shay's. You just have to change the "crummy" pick up shoe's, and make "SURE" you time the gear's just right.
( It also help's to get a full set of gear's from NorthWest ShortLine ... And a flywheel !)
Rust...... It's a good thing !
Nice Shay!
Here's my old original release Rivarossi Heisler, the only Riv that I ever had that came with a decent low speed. (Yeah, needs a bell) Noisy, yes, but smooth, very reliable, and the noise is tollerable at the speeds I run it at. I converted it to all wheel pick up.
I tried to build the MDC shay back in the '80s, could never get it anywhere near right. Dan
I loved geared engines, be it a Shay, Climax or Heisler. I am in the preparing to build a new HOn3 Westside Lumber Co layout to replace the small(4x7) standard gauge one my beautiful Shay is sitting on right now. Model is a Westside Models brass import, built by Nakamura Seimitsu in Japan. Powered by a Namiki coreless motor with gear head to vertial worm shaft to the lead axle on the middle truck. She was lettered for some weird home road, I was able to carefully remove the decals and reletter with the correct ones for the model. The paint job and weathering is nicely done, with added details. Post up your favorite geared engine pics! Mike the Aspie