What’s the best? Three truck or two? Bachman?
what guage and scale ?
the bachmann HO 3 truck is real nice
the bachmann On30 2 truck is even nicer
MDC has a 3 truck as well but i haven’t seen one up close
then there is brass in standard guage and narrow guage , can get pricey
In HO, I would go with with the bachmann spectrum three truck shay. I’ve never had any problems with it.
Sorry 'bout that! It’s HO.
My good wife just bought me a Bachmann 3 truck shay for my B’day[:D][:D] Very good detailing(as good as any brass) runs like a dream,scale speed. I also have 2 Roundhouse 2 truck shays I built from kits. I remotered them. They run very well but not as good as Bachmann.
Tom
The only good one is the Bachmann Spectrum shay. Roundhouse’s are fine as long as you want to tinker with them for months. The 18" radius curves are the nightmare come true I couldn’t get it to run on anything but 22". Soit depends on teh budget. Oh yeah Rivarossi makes a heisler and Spectrum has a new Climax out. So your choices and good.
MDC makes a pre-assembled, HO scale 2-truck Shay, made in China, that runs almost as good as the Bachmann Spectrum except that it emits a high-pitched whine and the super-bright white LED headlight is too bright.
Forget about the MDC Shay in kit form. Any model where you can download a “fix it so it will run” booklet that is almost 100 pages long that explains how to take a cheap kit and quadruple its cost by purchasing a different motor, gearing, etc. etc., has got to be a bad buy. I made the mistake of buying one before I knew how horrible they are. It’s just being used as a paperweight and I have a second one still in its box that will probably never be assembled.
I really have to reply to of the above posts. I did not have to tinker for months nor did I have to buy a 100 page manual or regear etc etc etc. I took my time with assembly. ran the gears in with toothpaste. The 2 of them easily negotiate15 " radius curves. I filed the the square tube on the driveshaft a very little bit.
Tom