I embraced the idea of a logging layout in HO scale a wee bit too late to get my hands on a Bachmann Shay. I thought for a long while about getting hold of a brass Shay, then my wife complained of a loud pop late one night – the sound of my head coming out of my rear end: I despise disassembling plastic steamers, so, realistically, am I likely to enjoy dithering around with a loco that is a) small (at least compared to my loaf-like fingers), b) almost unfathomably complex, and c) more expensive than my last car? Not bloody likely…
So, on to plan B. Bachmann Shays aren’t perfect, we all know that. But I can live with imperfect at this point, and the regearing kit is fairly cheap if one needs it. Ebay isn’t offering much (and I don’t trust it anyway), so is there any chance of Bachmann making another run of these? Anyone with a juicy, baseless rumour to circulate? Unfounded speculation? I’m up for any false hope I can get! [:P]
I really have to wonder why Bachmann does not continue producing their HO Shays,
The Shay’s are a very popular engine and demand is there.
By the time Bachmann does decide to re-run the Shays it is quite possible there could be competition in that particular segment of the market place Roundhouse had a Shay, wonder if they still have the tooling?
Roundhouse was part of the package when Horizon bought Athearn. I know all the spare parts for the Shays were bought up be David Hoffman, a fellow who is known for his great HOn3 mechanisms. I’m not sure if the tooling was part of the package or not. Hoffman can be found through an ad in the pages of the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette. He does not do computers, so no email, etc.
As for Bachmann doing another run of the Shay, give it time. They did have some mechanical issue with the Shay IIRC, so I’d expect that to be fixed.
Where Blackstone is in relation to Bachmann re-running the Shay isn’t certain, but they two companies have an ongoing and very successful collaboration in building Blackstone’s HOn3 line. There has been some speculation in the narrowgauge community that release of a revised standard gauge Bachmann Shay might in some fashion be related to a possible release of an HOn3 version by Blackstone. That would make some sense, as a revised and improved driveline is something that the design, development, and production work would largely overlap between NG and SG. Whether that comes to pass, we just have to wait and see.
I agree sales would be huge, given the demands for the Shay from modelers and both companies reputation for price and value with modelers.
Bachmann will eventually re-release, most of the noise you hear about the model and gears was the early runs. I have 4, 2 of the latest run never had an issue with gears, so this problem had been corrected in my experiences.
Other options are the Bachmann Climax, (same issue on the two truck version, gears have been fixed with the 3 truck release)
Also another excellent logging loco that was recently re-released is the Rivarossi Heisler, this is an excellent model performance and design wise.
Very much so, they are built like a swiss watch, the only issue I have had, is the possibility of one of the small bolts the hold the rods coming loose and falling out. If you get one just do a pre-inspection before you run.
You are right that there were problems, especially with the first Climax locomotive, hardly any that I know of did not suffer from split gears. The production run for the Climax locomotives seemed to be rather small, not many road names, all models sold very quickly.
The Shay run seemed to be composed of a number of runs, the early runs were plagued with the split gears, but the later runs seemed fine, especially those with the factory sound which I was lucky enough to have bought a few.
I am absolutely mesmerized with the Shays with the factory sound, just love the sounds, all that noise and the locomotives hardly seem to be moving. i just had to have an industry on my layout requiring a few of these.
Whenever I bring the Shays over to the local layout I always get a few inquiries if I would sell any.
I forgot all about the Blackstone - Bachmann connection. Your right the Shay would be a great item, the HOn3 versions by Blackstone and the HO versions by Bachmann.
I have checked out the Blackstone HOn3 coaches and they are a thing of beauty, if only there was an HO version of them.
I don’t foresee the Shay being a Blackstone item in HOn3 for several reasons:
the Bachmann HO Shay is a model of a large Shay. Very few narrow gauge Shays got to be that size. The HO Climax - model of a 50T loco - is the smallest geared lokie in the Bachmann HO series. Even that would be quite large for a narrow gauge line.
Blackstone has announced their next 2 locomotive projects - the K-28 and K-36. Personally, I had hoped Blackstone would go smaller rather than larger. But larger is easier to build to a consistent high standard in HOn3. So the C-19 will remain the smallest Blackstone locomoitve for a while.
Blackstone has concentrated on D&RGW prototypes with the exception of the EBT hoppers. I have heard the hoppers didn’t sell as well as hoped. Notice that Blackstone has avoided producing generic locomotives or rolling stock. They might produce generic versions of their models of D&RGW prototypes, or versions of the D&RGW locomotives and cars that were used on other lines like the RGS, but that’s as generic as it gets. Not many geared lokies on the narrow gauge D&RGW.
Can’t say I have any special insight in Blackstone’s R&D process. I do know it drew considerable interest when it was listed on their customer survey a few years back. Yes, it will more likely be one of the smaller Shays, perhaps one that could work as the SRR’s Shay. There were admittedly few Shays in Colorado. But there’s no doubt it would be a sales hit.
Blackstone has stuck its toe in the water of non-Colorado prototypes with the EBT hopper, so I don’t think that’s a sticking point.
Yep, good to see that they K-28 and K-36 have been announced for 2014. How I’m going to explain this to the Finance Minister remains to be seen. If the Shay does come along, I’m now hoping no sooner than 2016.
After reading this posting I decided that I would run a couple of my shays as it has been quite a while since I last ran any.
On Saturday, near supper I brought two Shays to the layout and placed one shay on my mainline and coupled a few logging supply laden flat cars and ran that train from the yard around the layout and up to the loging area.
On Sunday I went out for most of the day and did not go into the train room at all.
Today, Monday, I went to ran the shay again and found that I had not quite shut down the Shay running on the mainline on Saturday. The control was at 12% and the Shay was still running, It was running so slowly that you just about had to lay a pencil at the rear to see it moving, so slowly.
The other shay had been shud down completely.
These are fantastic little engines, pull well, but run so slow.
At first I was afraid I may have damaged the locomotive but when I tested the engine it is running fine at all speed.s.
Slow is the point, is it not? Stemwinders are the 4x4s of the steam world; they run like a truck stuck in bull low. They can get up insane grades (the ones in Cass regularly run over a section with an 11% grade), but they aren’t gonna do it fast. I think the 1:1 geared locies top out at 10-15 mph, don’t they?
They can operate faster than we normally are used to seeing, take this clip from the movie Timberjack, this loco is leaving the Bonner MT mill heading NE across the Big Blackfoot. (It is a Willamette btw)
I believe you that it was a Willamette, but how could you tell? Was there a good look at the cylinders that I missed?
I wonder how much Hollywood is in there, GS. They’ve obviously inserted another engine’s chuffs: they’re not coming nearly fast enough for a geared locie going flat out. Could they have monkeyed with the speed as well? Just sped up the reel a bit?
Two years ago I was in Alberta, near Lethbridge, when there was a movie being filmed.
One of the two engines in the movie was a Shay engine.
That engine was no longer operating on steam, in its place was a diesel engine. There was some sort of a smoke machine that was being used to create smoke and steam, but the main sound was that of a diesel.
I asked how would the sound of the Shay would be added, I thought that they might have some sort of tape device for that running through a speaker to add the Shay sound.
I was told no, the Shay should would be dubbed onto the sound track during editing.