After many years of procrastination, my Spectrum 80-ton 3 truck Shay is running on the layout. NWSL metal gears and a SoundTraxx sound decoder is installed. Now I am setting up the sound. My question is, did the cylinders on the Shay operate like the cylinders on a non geared locomotive? By this I mean was steam pressure applied to the piston on both the downstroke as well as the upstroke creating two exhaust chuffs per cylinder per rotation of the crankshaft? Or was there only pressure supplied on the downstroke resulting in one exhaust chuff per cylinder per revolution of the crankshaft? Thanks Jeff
They're one stroke engines. Every stroke up or down is a power stroke. Keep in mind they're geared, and three cylinder. They sound like they're going eighty if they're moving at all.
I've seen a 50-ton two-truck Shay in action at Ottawa's Science and Technology Museum. They ran it on weekends in summer. Those pistons were pumping like mad cranking that driveshaft even when it was just going 10-15 mph. That's what made them so powerful for their size - torque!
Thanks @acptulsa. The top speed of these things were only 15 to 17 mph from what I've read. She's all done. Sound is set up, and I set the top speed at a scale 15 mph.
Awesome, I don't model HO and I want one! Been thinking of buying a MDC kit just for the fun of kit building a shay in HO, even if I just stick it on a shelf.
Not sure which scale you model in, but Atlas offered several releases of a Shay in N in 2003, 2007, 2009, 2006 and 2018.
I know... But I'd like to someday build a locomotive from a kit, and I don't think any kits exist in n-scale (of any locomotive, not just of a Shay).
The HO MDC model: The main problem they have is the small gear on the motor drive shaft gets loose and the little bugger will sit there with its motor spinning. I did find that the gear comes loose because there's a gear sticking problem at the wheels. Still working on it. Meanwhile it's... sitting on a shelf...
T always see Shay's in action, there one sure place to go year round: CASS West Virginia. Been there several times. NEVER a dull time. Where else can you see 4 Shay's and a Climax working? LOOK:
Great video. Thanks. Number 9 has a different boiler and drive system, is that a Climax? Does the drive shaft run down the middle?
Yes and yes. The Heislers had a simpler system where the cylinders angled in toward that central drive shaft.
Great video, thanks for posting. Been to Cass several times a must see place everyone should go to at least once. Dennis
YES #9 is a Climax. Just a bit difference from a Shay. They were bitter rivals in the logging locomotive market. Because of the Climax's sprung trucks, it was said the they didn't need rails, it could follow two lines drawn in the dirt. By the way, the audio is OKAY, but nothing like hearing the REAL thing as it echos through the mountains! If you get the chance to see WM #6 DON"T MISS it! That animal is HUGH! 1/2 again as big as the rest of them.
