Shay vs 16 cars

Garden Railroading
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I was track testing yesterday. Wound up with 16 cars behind a 2 truck Shay.

Paul

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My original Ely Thomas #5, from first shipment, once all the plating wore off the drivers still pulls 28-34 loads unassisted up 150 feet of 4% grade in dry weather during cleanup after a run session. Shiny new wheels, 12 cars on same grade and load.

TOC

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The Shay is a classic, and a great running engine. As with all my engines, I usually try to not max out the load on the gears, but occasionally temptation gets the best of me.
The Shay is the engine that tipped the scales for me to build my first Garden railroad. Just love it!

Paul

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OH man, thank you. Was not only wondering how many it could pull, but for like realistic state how many it should.

I have a the LGB logging trucks (including my coupler exchanger), as well as some Bachman log cars. ā€¦but bunch of western themed box cars. . .and I just wasnā€™t sure how much would be too much for it to pull, or for the ā€˜keeping it realā€™ look.

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The Shay is a very capable engine, with two motor blocks, all 4 axles are driven. Still, I would recommend not to push it to the limit with any engine, because of the weight and torque on the gears.
Pull a little less, no gear problems. But, hard to resist sometimesā€¦.
Paul

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Welcome on board, Carpe Tony.

David

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Which begs the question, how many cars are too many when pulled by a Shay?

Rich

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Doesnā€™t beg any question: the wheels on any model Shay Iā€™ve seen donā€™t use ā€˜scaleā€™ outside drive from a ā€˜scaleā€™ steam motor to drive the wheels. Thereā€™s an internal motor and worm or shaft drive as on a model diesel, soā€¦ the number of cars you can pull will be as discussed above, a function of adhesion weight and wheeltread condition. That it looks like a ā€œShayā€ would be immaterial.

I take it your question wasnā€™t ā€˜how many cars could a prototype Shay take up a given gradeā€™.

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Correct, it was not.

Rich

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Hey Paul, curious, is yours the Bachman? I was wondering since mine seems to be having issues.

When you apply current to just one truck does it power the other truck as well?

I would think it should. . .mine is not.

Thanks

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Hi Tony,
yes mine is Bachmann Spectrum. Yes, power should go to both motor blocks.Some of these Bachmann engines, like the 45 tonner, and I think the Shay as well, use spring loaded ā€œplungersā€ to provide continuity from the frame to the motor bock. Two plungers convey power from the wheel pickups into the frame and circuit board. Two plungers convey power back down to the motor block, each motor block that is.
{I hope that made sense}.
So, there could be a continuity issue with the plungers.They just come down and touch a conductive spot on the motor block. I was able to use a contact cleaner to remedy a problem on the 45 tonner; one truck was moving, one wasnā€™t. It was a contact problem with the plunger.
Paul

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Ok, good to know! Iā€™ll take a better look, I donā€™t get mine out all that often, so it was just a matter of running a different train for me. Coincidentally my remote control system was having issues as well, so it took me a while to diagnose why the shay was sputtering so badly.

Thanks for the info, Iā€™ll give that a look here sometime.

Cheers

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ok, Great !
Paul

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I had the good fortune of seeing a live steam 2 truck Shay in operation some 9 years ago. Nice looking model and it pulled pretty well.

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Sounds fun! I have not ventured into live steam, maybe one dayā€¦
Paul

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