i got the new triple truck shay on sale bymicromark god i’ts realy cool,
it baerly creeps along and in dc it seems great the only thing that i hd problems with was in reverse the reaer truck derailed because of the curvature of the wire on the coupler,
r there any problems with tis loco that i shouldb aware of?
Assuming your talking about the HO Bachmann Shay;
The gears on the line shafts that mesh with the wheels are famous for splitting. Some folks order new truck assemblies for $15.00 each from Bachman when this happens. NWSL has recently released an upgrade kit to repair the gears, it is not an easy job and one must be in the right frame of mind to do it. I have 2 of those shays, I have made the upgrade on one with the NWSL gears, results were “okay” I had an issue with the NWSL gears slipping on the shafts. I grew weary of fiddling with it, ordered 3 new trucks from Bachmann, and that shay is back running until it fails again. The other shay has split gears as well, I will send it to Bachmann with a $20.00 bill and use the lifetime warranty option. I hope they just send me another one. On a good note I thank Bachmann for producing an affordable, excellent running shay, I wish they would correct the gear issue. (They have a lifetime warranty) Before this model our choice was expensive brass or poorly running MDC shay that needed some work to run well, so I can’t complain.
Edit: forgot to add NWSL link
http://shop.osorail.com/product.sc?categoryId=14&productId=874
We have both the Bachmann 3-truck shay and the MDC. The MDC has the NWSL regear kit. It pulls uphill better than the Bachmann. It will push 7 loaded cars up a 6% grade. I am hoping that the NWSL will improve the 3-truck.
NWSL has left Seattle for Montana if I remember correctly.
Sue
Hi Sue
Yes NWSL is now in Hamilton MT. I recently picked up an MDC 2 truck “Ready to Run DCC ready”. Well “Ready to Run” means it is assembled,[;)] I put it on the track and it was terrible, but I expected this. I have placed the order with NWSL for the regear kit and I am excited about upgrading my 2 truck. I have seen these MDC’s running very nicely at train shows so I know it can be done, I always wanted a 2 truck.
We miss that they were in Seattle. We would call in the morning, and the parts would arrive the next day.
We have 2 of the MDC. The second one is still in the box because we have canibalized it to keep the other one running. But soon we will get back to it. That is a priority before we attack the Bachmann.
Sue
Can the rear truck rotate at all under the tender? One little problem my Shay had was tight trucks, but I fixed it real easily by putting a dot of liquid super-glue in the screw hole and turning the screw until the truck was held in place, but could rotate freely.
The famous splitting gears. Some will last forever without a problem, and others will have some or even all of the 6 drive gears split. I replaced mine with NWSL metal gears (4 out of 6 split), which was a bit challenging, but now my Shay is an extremely smooth and quiet runner.[:D] It’s got some pretty good traction too.[:D]
ok thanx 4 the input so basically it’ a hit and miss with the gears and good options would be then he metallic one by NWS if they [xx(] out i mean crack is there anyy to prevent this or not?