Hi all, I have the option to purchase one of two Atlas Shay locos. It's my understanding from Spookshow that there have been three production runs. I've been chatting with the seller, who has told me that two of them are boxed in black foam and one in gray foam. Don't suppose this has any significance to first or second production run does it? From what I've read, some first production models had some rough gearing issues. Wondering if there is any other way to tell production run that doesn't involve any disassembly of the loco. Thanks a ton for any insight.
I have 2 each from the first run and the 2nd run several years later. One run is packed in the black soft foam and the other in a more rigid white foam. I believe the first run is the black foam. I have no discrepancies between the first and the 2nd run on performance and I have had all four lashed together pulling a consist up a 7% grade. All four perform well at the low speeds a Shay runs at with no issues or hesitation and I have snaked them around 8 inch radius curves.
Thanks John, that makes me feel a lot better about whichever one I end up with. Really appreciate the info!
Just remember to run them like a real Shay at low speeds not over about 25 scale mph. Folks who bought the first run tried to run them like their other locos and that intricate little gearing and shafts tended to separate at high speed on curves. All mine are the oil burning type. I keep hoping that Atlas will one day release a three truck version although the two truck was the most popular. The first runs are a little harder to find because the HO narrow gauge folks got in on the buying of them to power their narrow gauge.
Got it, thank you. Going to be using it for a small logging or mining operation. Will read up on scale speed calculations. Appreciate the tips!
Mine has black foam surround and it too is a superb performer. Trovestar has a number of the Atlas Shays listed. I suppose that a buyer could also determine the build generation by examining available road names and locomotive numbers.
If you look at the Atlas website in their Archives section you will find the list of locos by part number and railroad along with their release date which should provide you with a list of which locos fall under which run.
If you look at the Atlas website in their Archives section you will find the list of locos by part number and railroad along with their release date which should provide you with a list of which locos fall under which run.
Thanks all, I did manage to find the list but oddly for this model (at least the ones I had the option of choosing) the road names and numbers were identical. Went with a #10 sugar pine lumber company model. Can't wait to check it out and see the moving driveshaft in action.
Just remember: "Graham County Railroad No. 1925, (Class C, s/n 3256 of 1925), survives at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North Carolina. 1925 is the fastest Shay ever recorded, clocked at a speed of 18 mph during "The Great Shay Race" at Railfair '99. So when you see YouTube videos of these models running at diesel speeds, just remember that.
I just bought two of the latest shays. In grey color shell. This third run has a really bad internal layout. Really hard to install dcc chip into it. First time i have someone else install it for me. Good luck on a dcc install. I had dcc on my last couple of shays easy for them. The new ones pulled great but slower so closer to scale speed. Still love them.
Thank you. Mine arrived and was in black foam, so I presume production run 1 (or maybe 2). I'm wondering about the decoder install too. Going to see if my micro ones will fit and if not likely go to a nano size. Have not yet taken off the shell to see if there's any space behind the cab or if it's got a weight or something. Got the scale speed calculations done and it looks great at a scale 20mph or less. Really looking forward to getting that dcc smoothness though.
If you look closely at the photos of the first and second releases you will see that the road number is placed lower on the cab side on the second release than the road number on the first release.
