Having an unusal problem and hoping someone may have an idea of what may be wrong. I recently ordered a Bachmann HO Scale 3 Trk Shay (DC) that ran perfectly for one day. The following day it would not run at all; however, the front and rear lights operated and changed intensity with various throttle settings. The on-line supplier was very cooperative and immediately sent me a replacement. But then I had the identical problem with the second Shay. Only this time the replacement Shay ran perfectly for 3-4 hours and then just quit. And just as before, the lights on the Shay would operate, but the locomotive would not move.
All of my other locomotives run perfectly well but my Power Pack is a little dated, Railpower 1300, and I do not run DCC at all. I just don’t know if the problem is with my particular setup or did I just run into a bad batch of locos from Bachmann? Any ideas would be appreciated as I would really love to add this Shay to my layout.
Do you have other locomotives that run okay? Maybe your power pack is going bad and needs to be replaced. It’s highly unlikely that you would get two Shays in a row with an identical problem.
One other possibility, as he hinted on the Bachammnn forum, I know on DCC the Shay will sometimes short itself out. And you can here the Brain clicking and lights flash. Problem’s fixed when you add a decoder, you might try that as well.
The newer ones may be DCC equiped, my bad. The older ones have the circuit, but not the actual decoder. there’s an orange plug in place of the 8 pin plug to continue the circuit it doesn’t have the guts to respond to the DCC controller.
Found a pic:
the two by 4 holes have a plug that goes in there. Or you can take that off and install any of the NMRA standard decoder chips into there to make it DCC. As I said, the newer Shays may already have a chip there and you can ignore me.
On the layout, we run DC engines and as yet not decoded engines on 00. On a DC layout, and even the DCC test track just fine. But on the actual DCC layout, it just causes engines to stop and click, the same way that they do when a car derails and the track shorts.
Actually I have a Shay that was purchased back around 2000 or 2001 and it has run perfectly for years. Just decided to get another one and have had nothing but problems. Still not sure if it was just a “bad batch” from Bachmann or if my old beat up power pack has some kind of intermittent problem. Just to be on the safe side I’ve purchased a new power pack and have sent the Shay back to the supplier. I must say that the on-line store has been very helpful, and cooperative—they even prepaid the shipping expense to return the items.
Just awfully gun shy right now about purchasing another one…at least until the new power pack arrives. I do agree that it is highly unlikely that this is the problem but after seeing two Shays quit running after a few hours of operation leaves me a little concerned. The engines that quit running were not disassembled and it may have been a simple loose connection somewhere. ??
If yours is running ok on DC then I’m sure it will be ok once you add a decoder. My “old” Shay is a joy to run, they don’t move very fast but it is very smooth and runs extremely well at slow speeds—which is what they were designed for.
the two by 4 holes have a plug that goes in there. Or you can take that off and install any of the NMRA standard decoder chips into there to make it DCC. As I said, the newer Shays may already have a chip there and you can ignore me.