East Terrible Mining Co. Shay

[Vic]

Everybody loves shays so here's my "puny" effort

This one started out as an MDC kit. Added dual flywheels, a Sagami can motor, Northwest Shortline Gears and universals, bi-directional constant lighting and Soundtraxx (non-DCC) sound. It runs like a fine tuned watch!!!

The detail parts are from various mfgs. and my junkbox. The stack and spark arrestor are scratched/bashed starting with the bottom half of an MDC baloon stack. Yep! I hand split every piece of wood in the tender

 

[Vic]

ETMC Shay

Pic #2

 

[Vic]

ETMC Shay

Pic #3

 

[Catt]

I must shay ,uh say Vic ,thats a good looking loco. I'm planing to take one Roundhouse standard gauge shay and convert it to an 0n30 loco .

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Very nice! Could you make me one in n-scale/standard gauge?

 

[Vic]

ETMC Shay

Pic #4....This is the engineer's side I hope!!! Lost my connections

 

[Vic]

ETMC Shay

Maybe this is it

 

[Vic]

ETMC Shay

By the way....the speaker is in the the stack... .... would have to destroy it to take it apart and photo it.

Also.....the "gentleman" laying the the parking lot of the Saloon is "PA" from " Okies On The Road" Seems he's took to "strong drink" lately

 

[sumpter250]

Not fair!! You had two things goin' for you before you even started! It's a shay, and it's narrow gauge! Nice detail, and you can stick to that story about "pa", and his "strong drink", but we know,,,, you overworked him splittin' Those logs.
Pete

 

[kettlestack]

Vic ..... Puny? .... PUNY???? ... are you kidding?? It's great!

So the speaker is in the stack? Is it one of those "stick-it-in-your-ear" type headset inserts? . I have a Chicago Model International sound generator with a 3" speacker that sounds reasonable.... then I fed it through a spare hi-fi speaker and it sounded like real quad MU'd SD40's about to run through my house! The hamster had a fit and the cat is still hanging from the ceiling .
But, all said and done, there's nothing like a smooth runing Shay, just wish I could afford a can motor and NSG gears and aquire the skill to fit them. (Electronic engineers are not renowned for their mechanical prowess).
And tell "Pa" he has to finish the ballasting yet before he can visit the saloon! .

Errol

 

[shamus]

Now Vic, you know I am a lover of shays, thats a sweet one. The stack is perfect,
I could do with one of those myself, any offers
Shamus

 

[Vic]

Speaker In Stack

Errol....Never, Never, Never Again!!!! Drilling thru that boiler casting to hide the wires was a @#%&***!!! Same for the lighting!!! The circuit board for the lighting and the filter caps for the speaker are under the roof of the cab. If that speaker ever quits then that's it.!!! Will mount an edgeport speaker under the woodbin and call it a toolbox!!!

By they way....the elements out of a set of those "walkman" type headphones won't work. Their impedance is too high...32ohms...most railroad sound systems require 8 ohm speakers. I found some 3/4" 8ohm speakers at

www.allelectronics.com They were only $1.00 US apiece. Even with that small size I had to file down the case to get it to fit inside the stack. Sound quality is "passable" but I have the sound system rigged to play the low freqency sound thru an auxillary sub-woofer so it sounds "pretty old good!" Also I can switch the sound system into a 200 Watt per channel stereo. The neighbors love it!!!! They some times call on the phone and ask me to open the windows and blow the whistles! I'm known as "the neighborhood madman" anyway!!

Shamus....About that stack......as with the speaker....NEVER AGAIN! That was a @#&** too!!! But here's how...Find a piece of wood dowel that is about the diameter of the bottom half of the MDC balloon stack. Squarely cut off a piece about 3 inches long...just so you can hold on to it and work with it. Cut a square out of some brass mesh (Clover House or Precision Scale) and form the screen over one end of the dowel. Then trim it to the desired height using some small scissors. Super glue it into the lower half of the balloon stack. The reinforcements on the top and sides are just strips of styrene superglued onto the the mesh after its in place. Spend the next 8 hours picking brass splinters out of your fingers!!!

 

[Bill Pontin]

Vic, nice job and nice shots, even though they were taken in such a rowdy neighborhood. Also add my name with Tyson's with a request for one in "N" standard gauge.

 

[N Gauger]

Awwww Maaaan!!!! Vic, As my "I-talian" Grandmother (rest her soul) usda say: D'atsa NICE!!!!!!


I'd like one in "G" please -- I'm gonna have to git workin' on my HO Shay.. Un B Leaveable!!!!!! --- Mikey

 

[Matthyro]

It's almost enough to make me switch from N because the Shays and the Climaxes are such great looking locos.
Amazing results Vic. Just great!!!

 

[Graham Hoffman]

Vic....I'm interesed in your non-DCC Soundtraxx sound system. Can you give me some details? Email me if you prefer.

 

[shamus]

Vic my friend, just a question, are your universals on the shay proper ones, if so from where please, or are they the ones from NWSL, which are really only half a universal coupler.

Which type, top or bottom? mine look like the bottom one.

 

[Vic]

Universals

Hi Shamus, They are the ball and cup style....like the lower illustration. Came from NorthWest Shortline. You have to use their shafting on them too. Somewhere around here I may still have the complete parts list. If I can find it I will sent it to you.

 

[shamus]

Hi Vic,
It's a real pity that we cannot get the proper universal couplings, it would do away with the shaft bounce, because that is what happens now and again. I watched mine running, and looked underneath, it was on the bounce (Up and down) so I centered it and watched again. After it came back around the layout it was on the bounce again. Must get some very small universal couplings, like the ones used in Model car racing.

Shamus

 

[Vic]

Universals and Slip Joints

Shucks Shamus...If I had any more of them I'd just mail them to you. I think Caboose Hobbies will ship to the UK. That's where I got mine. If that does not work out let me know or if you can't find suitable subsitutues let me know and we'll work something out. Postage from the US to the UK is cheap.

The part #s are
NWSL-- #2093 1 Pkg. 3/32 Inch Shaft Stock
NWSL-- #1153 2 Pkgs. 481-6 Universal Couplings

There's something else you can do to make the Shay run better too...re-size the slipjoints. I'm posting a sketch and and photo of that. I don't take credit for the universal and slip joint ideas. They came from an article in August 1985 MR by Walter Ronfeldt. If you want send me your mailing address by PM and I'll photocopy it for you and send it out. Don't have a scanner to scan it. Spend all my $$$$ on model railroads