Does anyone here know of an easy way to convert an early brass shay (PFM) to all wheel pickup? yeah i know there aint no easy way so lets rephrase that and say, A way that a person who is all thumbs can handle? I am fairly confident I can handle getting it apart and back together but I just am not to sure how to go about doing the job of getting all wheels to pickup power without a short occuring. any ideas or tips would be appreciated. thanks
All that conductive metal does make it interesting in avoiding shorting. Then theres the fact that the shay is not exactly a big or simple engine. The best way to go about this task is going to be placing wipers on the wheels. There isn’t a whole lot of room to do this but it would need to be mounted on the truck, isolated from the frame, and a small flexable wire then run to the motor. Some people have used the Kadee spring to construct the wiper. Not the coil spring, but the draft box spring and did a little bending and grinding to get the proper fit. You would also have to isolate it from any metal using the same techniques used for drawbars on brass locomotives. The wire needed to run to the motor would need to be flexible so it doesn’t bind the turning of the truck and cause derailing.
Yeah I know. I kind of figured that the best way to do this is wipers on the trucks. just kinda hoped someone had come up with a new way to do this by now, been out of model railroading for a while. Although I do seem to remember an outfit that made a powering kit for a model of an unpowered static display of a shay I was hoping to find one of these but I dont think that these are made anymore. Anyway keep the shiny side up and on the tall skinny stuff. Neil
try lookin thru NorthWest Shortlines stuff. I think that keystone powering kit is available agin. If you don’t have luck shopping try giveing them a call. BILL
A while back I was able to convert several brass HOn30 locos to all wheel pickup using wheel wipers. I tried to do the same to my Brass HO Shay but gave up after several tries. I sure hope someone who has actually been successful will post their technique. Peter Smith, Memphis
I was successful using the Kaydee springs and plastic washers and screws. I had not done this before and it was a hassel, but the good news is that I finally was successful. I spoiled a few, and found soldering the leads was harder than drilling and tapping the screw holes. I started by buying a complete set of drills and taps and all the screw lengths in both plastic and brass. I continue to find that collection useful.
For me this was a BIG task and a labor of love. I am glad I did it and will probably do more. Good luck.
I’ve also found Kadee centering springs to be very useful in adding additional electrical pickup.
I’m guessing your brass Shay’s truck frames are a very simple design, constructed with only the sideframes and a single bar in the middle holding it together. If I’m right about the design, you could mount the Kadee spring to the bar in the middle with a layer of insulation in between, and it could be held in place with glue, epoxy, or plastic screws. I would probably end up using super-glue myself, because it has a strong enough hold to keep it all together as long as everything is put together correctly. The springs would be extended out to touch the backs of the wheels, and the bronze material used is very easy to solder to.
Thanks to everyone who replied. I think I will do as Bill suggests first and see if NWSL has rereleased their kit and if so I will get a couple. If not then I will have to try and do the wipers on the truck thing I think that will be the best thing to go with. thanks again. Neil
Caution. The NWSL drive kit for the Keystone Shay will NOT work with the early PFM Shays. The NWSL/Keystone drive uses a center drive shaft, similar to a model diesel. The PFM Shays are geared to the line shafts (on the right side of the Shay).
NWSL may have regear kits for the PFM Shays, but it will probably not contain any extra electrical pickups. LocoDoc (and others) may have a remotor/regear kit. You’d have to check with them to see if their kits contain materials to enhance electrical pickup.
IIRC, the early PFM Shays had each truck of opposite polarity, and the line shafts were insulated between the 2 trucks at one of the joints. This insulation must be intact for the model to work correctly -otherwise the line shafts are a short circuit between the 2 trucks. The Shay frame and body is going to be tied electrically to one truck or the other, but not both.
As others have stated, the way to convert this model to all wheel pickup is to mount wipers that bear on the back of the insulated wheel of each truck. The frame mounting these wipers must be insulated from the truck that they mount to, and a separate wire run from the new wipers to the motor.
hope this helps
Fred W
I would join this Yahoo Group, as a number of members have done a lot of repowering and gearing on models and have a lot of good suggestions.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/repowerandregear/
Rick
Thanks again to all, I will still be looking into NWSL to see what they have available and if it will work. FWright thanks for the heads up on the NWSL stuff I will have to check into that a lot more carefully before ordering anything. Darth great looking switcher. Again thanks to all of you I have a lot more to go on now than I did Several years ago when I had to put things away for too long. Neil
There used to be a spring loaded contact available to do steamers of all types, the nose would rub on the inside of the flange piece. Don’t know if they are still available but they worked well
If this is a nice piece and your not 100% confident that you’ll be able to take it apart-rebuild/modify it and put it back together then Jan Willard of Mt. Airy Md. is the guy you want. Hands down the best Brass guy there is bar none.
His site HO steam Central shows some of his handy work and I’ve seen some of his non locomotive work and he’s one heck of a fine modelers as well. He will give you and honest fair price and have it done when he says he will , none of this well I haven’t gotten to it yet or I had a problem with this or that.
Trust me when I say you won’t be sorry you had him work on your stuff.