I just got a 3 truck Backman shay. Its a really nice locomotive. I need to make the draw bar front the coal bunker to the tender longer, but the drive shaft will be to short then. Anyone had this problem? She binds some of my tight switches.
Why? Long hole it's longer than you'll need. They come long hole, with the drawbar factory reversed on purpose. How tight a curve you planning? I cannot recall minimum radius now... Have you (or previous owner) addressed the wiring termination issue in the fuel bunker?
The shay is brand new, it came with DCC and sound from the factory. I'm having trouble it go's threw a set of switches, The first switch curves to the right and the second switch curves to the left, so its a bit of an S curve. The rear truck (tender) bindes up and will not track right. Not sure a bought the wiring issue, what's that? It also appears the drawbar has only one notch in it? Ok so I just went and looked, the draw bar is in its longest position. So while I was there I did some testing. The tender binds at both ends of the siding. The drive shaft between tender and last truck on the locomotive has play in it but the tender will not swing freely and the wheels lift up. I will make a short video and upload it. But here is a picture of the North end of the siding. The South end is a single switch where it dose the same thing. This is happening when going from the main to where the caboose is shown in photo one. Or in photo 2 going threw the switch and on the curve. in the first photo if you go all the way to the right it works just fine. The switch's are standered LGB.
The angle of the photo is somewhat misleading to my eye. "Standard" LGB can mean what, three various radii? I don't think I'd use a scale 1:20.3 locomotive on 1100 (R-1) curves or switches. 1600 and 1800 are fine. "S" bends are OUT on those. Length of main chassis to drawbar pivot, length of water chassis to drawbar pivot. You need to flatten out your switches to a higher numerical frog, or add a straight in between the curved sections forming the "S" bend. There was a big problem with those Shays in wiring. Several, actually. The plug they used under the water tank is a turkey to get out. I have replaced those with next size bigger on mine and on friends units, plus new "super-flex" wiring. The biggie was the termination of that harness on the circuit board in the fuel bunker. A) no solder strain relief in wires. B) no hot glue to relieve strain on wires at board. C) no strap to restrain the wires from moving. If you got it used, and it moves, some prior owner most likely followed the directions in Garden Railways and fixed the issue.
I went and spent some time watching the tender and locomotive to see where things where binding up. After modifying the drawbar pocket on the tender and locomotive, I got her to run threw the switches back to back and S curves really nice. Thanks for your help. [video=youtube;vQpigw-myJY]http://youtu.com/watch?v=vQpigw-myJY[/video]
Glad I saw this. I just got one and haven't run it through a switch yet. If I have problems I know the fix!
Yeah. Bachmann. With specific plunge depths on the shaft connection. It gets expensive if you pop a plunge joint apart and the leading part catches scenery, switch motors, etcetera. Snap the plastic u-joint housing or ears right off. I have a bunch of those parts so damaged. Happens if you exceed the manufacturer's design criteria for minimum radius...or derail. The wimpy 3-strand wires between main body and water tank are not happy with R-1 curves....but that will become apparent. They aren't bad locos. My first one was a Quasinami-equipped unit. (semi-Tsunami) that within a week became a straight DC loco and the Quasinami became landfill. What will surprise you is the claim you can run those on DC and DCC....while technically true, it takes eight volts to get the Quasinami to even start to move. Not pretty if you have a DC only loco on the same track.
O dear..... ooooo :/ Welp I had to modify my 4 Bachman 4-6-0 anniversary locos to. But they have been running for 6 years now working my horrible grades. My 4-6-0's run unbelievable well. especially after adding electrical pickups to the tender on both trucks. hopefully the shay will last. When I opened up the pockets I made sure there was no stress on the wiring and everything moved freely and was not catching on anything else, but time will tell.
Problem is not the stress, but the continuous bending sharply of the wires where the vertically enter the plug under the water tank. If you've ever done 3-rail 0, you'll understand. The wires are wimpy inside. We joke about three strand wire....but I have actually had some Bachmann stuff that I could count no more than three strands of wire. Do a radio/battery conversion, batteries and switch in water tank, I guarantee anyone the second you turn the power on you will have smoke. So.....check your wires to the board first in the fuel bunker, then tie them down with a small zip tie or two. You want to see the procedure, I think that's okay to do. [FONT="]Bachmann 3-truck Shay wiring issue "procedure"[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]I have permission to publish this. This procedure addresses one area of concern. The wires from the power plug for the third truck are not strain-relief-ed sufficiently. This is very apparent in non-dcc versions, but also apparent in some dcc versions. Inspection indicates if both wire bundles are wedged under the decoder, the problem was minimized, but even then, vibrational issues with the locomotive bouncing through frogs can cause issues at the board as indicated below.[/FONT] [FONT="] If you remove the fuel bunker and move the third truck side-to-side while observing these wires (or just the plug to the third truck), you will see the wires move at the board.[/FONT] [FONT="]They will break if not secured. This procedure is written to allow the consumer to enact strain reliefs on the wiring harness from the third truck where these wires enter the locomotive main body and attach to the circuit board. Remove fuel bunker. Two screws, in rear corners of bunker, accessible from under unit. Lift bunker at rear and unclip front from chassis. Set bunker and screws aside. Inspect wires along left rear side, or fireman's side. [/FONT] [FONT="][/FONT][FONT="] These are 8 wires in a row from the back of the board forward on the left. Not the wires along the back. Make certain all wires are attached without pulling on them. Hot glue the wires, both the bare wire and the insulation (important) to the board.[/FONT] [FONT="][/FONT] [FONT="] Allow to cool for a few minutes. The attached photos show the front 4 wires hot-glued, the back 4 not hot-glued so you can see the difference. Now, obtain a small, narrow tie-wrap. On the floor of the locomotive, at the rear, you will see the two wire bundles in flexible tubes coming through. There is a small piece of black tape around these wire bundles where they cross each other. Remove the tape. Ensure the wire bundles are moved so they are both roughly the same length from the locomotive to the third truck end of the harness where the plug is. Move them as needed. Run the tie-wrap through one side slot at the very front of the end beam, under the center brace dividing that slot from the slot on the other side of the loco. Using hemostats or tweezers, grab the end you have fed through and pull up through the other slot (these are left and right of centerline). Press wire bundles down to floor, remaining crossed, place tie-wrap over the top of these, insert end of tie-wrap into locking end, pull end and move tie-wrap and wires and necessary until both wires are tight against floor and tie-wrap it tight. [/FONT] [FONT="][/FONT] [FONT="] Cut off end of tie-wrap extending past the locking end, being careful not to cut any wires. There are several places and ways to tie the bundles to the floor. Whatever works best for the consumer. Re-assemble shell onto locomotive, test run. [/FONT]
