Roundhouse 2 Truck Shay's

L

lester perry

I had to order them for my Shay about 2 years ago and contacted Roundhouse directly. I know that sunrise or sunshine or something like that hobbies has bought them. But they knew there was a problem with gear slipping and sent me new ones.
Les
By the way my email address has changed.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
lester perry said:
I had to order them for my Shay about 2 years ago and contacted Roundhouse directly. I know that sunrise or sunshine or something like that hobbies has bought them. But they knew there was a problem with gear slipping and sent me new ones.
Les
By the way my email address has changed.

Roundhouse was bought by Horizon, the same company that bought Athearn.
 
I contacted Horizon Hobbies and they say they are ouy of them and don't know when they will be able to restock them.Athearns is part of horizon Hobbies and also say they have no replacement parts,i tried NWSL and have no luck in getting a reply on re-gear sets.Just thought someone would know some where else to order them.
 

Gil Finn

Active Member
I got an email, signed with the shipping address.

I followed that with an other and they send back shipping instructions. They said they didnt have a lot of parts but would do what they could.
 

Gil Finn

Active Member
I got an email, signed with the shipping address.

I followed that with an other and they send back shipping instructions. They said they didnt have a lot of parts but would do what they could.

Dear Mr. XXXXXXXXX

Thank-you for your reply. Please that we might possibly be able to fix this engine. We cannot offer any certainty about this due to the limited supply of parts that MDC provided us for these engines when they shut down their facility in Nevada.

To send it back to us please send it to:

Athearn Trains
1550 Glenn Curtiss St.
Carson, CA 90746
Attention: Repairs


Please ship it in its’ original box. Please place the original box in another box with plenty of packing material around it. Be sure to include a note on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper describing the problem along with your name, telephone number and shipping address. We recommend that you ship it via UPS or any other carrier that offers a shipment tracking service.


Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXX

Athearn Trains
 

pgandw

Active Member
I would retry NWSL. They normally have suberb customer service. Might do better with a phone call than an e-mail - many manufacturers have their spam blockers set pretty high and/or give low priority to e-mail. Also, places like Caboose Hobbies may have the NWSL parts in stock - I've bought NWSL motorizing kits for my Keystone Shay from Caboose Hobbies before.

Parts supply for items like the MDC Shay have likely dried up at Horizon Hobbies. If/when production ever resumes, parts may become available then. I imagine the Shay was not a money-maker for Roundhouse, even though it filled a needed niche in the hobby. Way too many service and support calls from people who had problems with both the kits and RTR. As far as I can tell, the RTR were just fairly unskilled assembled versions of the kits, so the deisgn and manufacturing problems of the kits, which if not corrected during assembly, would also infect the RTR. The careful kit builder could/would correct these problems during assembly. For these reasons, Horizon Hobby will probably think long and hard before resuming production.

Again, the Roundhouse Shay was/is not a simple locmotive to get running well, but it can be done. Jeff Johnson's book, "The MDC Shay Handbook" is a tremendous aid in understanding these models. Until Bachmann came out with its Shay model a year or 2 ago the Roundhouse and the Keystone Shays (the latter come unpowered, you have to motorize it yourself) were the only under $200 Shay locomotives available.

yours in gearing
 
Thanks all for the reply's,i just ordered a re-gear kit for both engines from Walthers (NWSL 53-1866).Went on NWSL's site and it wasn't clear as to what is included in the kit.I'am hoping that it is including the replacement gears.Walthers indicated that they had the kits in stock,so time will tell.It's hard to believe that both engines had gear problems at the same time.LOL
 
LOL,I called Athearns yesterday and talked to one of the Techs.He just advised me to get a re-gear kit and try it myself.He told me they have no parts for the Shays and any that they try to fix will probaly be fitted with the re-gear kit that i ordered.My Shays run real good except for the plastic gears on the driver trucks.Can't wait till i get the kits,i'am anxious to see if the kits work ok.
 

Gil Finn

Active Member
Let me how that works for you. If they cant help me then I may try the kit myself.

I was speaking to a guy at Davis Trains today and he said it was a waste of time.

I may then use it as a static display or a dummy.
 
I know what you mean.I paid A good amount for mine and expected them to hold up better than they did.It's worth a few bucks to see if it will fix the problem.
 

cidchase

Active Member
I have one that with broken drives out-of-the-box and never has run. I called MDC a couple of years ago to ask for new assemblies, but they told me they did not supply the assemblies as repair parts:curse: , and I should just send it back for repair. I just didn't send it to them, figured they screwed it up the first time around and I would rather just fix it myself. It's still in the box. :eek:ops: If the NWSL deal works out, let us know, maybe that's what I need as well. :thumb: :thumb:
 

Gil Finn

Active Member
That is what I here.

I like the looks of this one best.

I bought mine 5 years ago and ran it for 10 minutes. It had been in storage until a week or two ago.

It lost a side shaft on the second loop around the oval of track I bought with it.
 
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