MDC 2 Truck Shay

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camelot

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Jan 12, 2003
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Perth Western Australia
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I bought this shay off ebay before Xmas , it was in fair condition but did not run.I have recently renovated and detailed it .

I made a log load for the fuel truck ,but prefered the straight stack as opposed to the Ballon stack with spark arrestor , does this look OK or should i change it?

Ian:confused:
 

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What a beaut! Do I see some bird doo doo?
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Ian,

If you like the looks of the shotgun stack, go for it. The only thing is that you are going to have watch for those forest fires that beauty will be starting :eek:
The reason that most wood burning locomotives had the big balloon stack was to keep most of the sparks from flying all over.

Dan
 
Hi Ian, Real nice MDC shay that is, if you are having problems making it run well, I would get the NWSL conversion gears and shafts for it, makes one hell of a difference.
Although if you can strip it down and re-do the gears yourself (Clean the up) then it will also run well.
Shamus
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Paul

The shay runs very well , no binds and runs smooth , but it is still a little noisey . althought it is half as noisey as my coffee grinder MDC climax loco.I tend to wake the whole area when i run that

The NSWL gears are very expensive here , does it quieten the loco down or just improve runing?

If it only improves running it might not be worth it as i have no complaintes there.

Thanks

Ian
 
Originally posted by camelot
Paul

The shay runs very well , no binds and runs smooth , but it is still a little noisey . althought it is half as noisey as my coffee grinder MDC climax loco.I tend to wake the whole area when i run that

The NSWL gears are very expensive here , does it quieten the loco down or just improve runing?

If it only improves running it might not be worth it as i have no complaintes there.

Thanks

Ian
Click to expand...

Hi,
It will make it a little quieter than normal, but make a great difference in the running of it.

Shamus
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Looks good to me! There were spark arrestors that fit that style of stack, in the form of a "screen basket" that fit on the top of the stack, about the same diameter as the stack.

Thanks for that idea , sounds good , i'll have to research for a picture off one , unless of course somebody could post one :)

Ian
 
Originally posted by camelot
I bought this shay off ebay before Xmas , it was in fair condition but did not run.I have recently renovated and detailed it .

I made a log load for the fuel truck ,but prefered the straight stack as opposed to the Ballon stack with spark arrestor , does this look OK or should i change it?

Ian:confused:
Click to expand...

It's beautiful just the way it is, don't touch a thing!! Other than maybe the spark arrester you'll need to add!!:o :o
 
Camelot spark arrestors were just about always used on the western railroads as there was not a lot of water around. Here in the eastern mountains were every holler has a creek not all railroads used em', so I guess if you modeling out west put one on if not don't. Like others said you don't have to change the stack. There are companys like Detail Assoc. that sell em' ready made if you don't want to make one. BTW That's very nice modeling and a very nice pic as well! :cool:
 
Ian, for whatever this information might be worth to you....

Wood burning Shays typically used the classic "balloon" stack, also called a Caldron stack, or a "diamond" stack. The diamond stacks were frequently fitted with spark arrestor screens. Wood burners were usually found in and around logging operations because they could use mill waste for fuel.

Coal burning Shays, which were far less common than the wood burners, also used the Caldron or diamond stacks.

Oil burning Shays, which were by far the most common configuration, used the short, straight ("shotgun") stack like the one in your photo.

That much having been said....

On my own 2-truck Shay, I have the tall diamond stack mounted but a fuel oil bunker on the tender. :rolleyes: I "justify" it by claiming that the lokie was converted from a wood burner to an oil burner (which actually was not uncommon), but the stack never got changed. The "next time" the loco goes into the shop for maintenance, the crew will change out the stack. :rolleyes: :D
 
For anyone wanting to work on / repower / detail an MDC Shay, I highly recommend "The MDC Shay Handbook" by Jeff Johnston, published by Oso Publishing (and I think also available through MDC).
It's a very complete book, and I think would be a valuable tool for anyone with an MDC Shay.

BillS
 
Thanks all for your imput regarding the smoke stack , i built a tubalar one out of brass , here is a picture of it painted and attached to the shay.

Although i would have like a mesh one i found a picture of something like this with a double flue kind of stack and i am resonably happy with the result

Cheers

Ian
 

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An Easy Out

It was very common for logging locos to have a small steam powered pump and a reel of hose connected to the tender for the purpose of putting out those line side fires caused by sparks from the stack. Anyway that's what I did to one of my MDC shays to justify a straight stack on a wood burner:)
 
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