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Bachmann Shay

Restoration and possible reconstruction of a Bachmann Shay

I bought a Bachmann Shay on a fair in February 2009. It was in a rather desolate state. It looked as if some elephant trying to get into the hobby tried to equip this Shay with a sound decoder and a speaker. I bought it for "an apple and an egg". On my way home I had already figured out what to with it: Restoring it to working order was the least.

The coal bunker was littered with glue and the cover nearly came off. On the photo I have already tidied it up a little and replaced the coal load.

Since this example has a wooden cab it is also a fine candidate for conversion to two trucks. I'll have to cut off the back end of both the mainframe and the tender frame and join the front of the first with the rear of the latter. A problem is the circuit board which will fit only in the rear tender. I'll have to find way to shorten it. I haven't figured that out yet.

Another problem is the missing smoke box front. I have a boiler left from a Shay project so may be I can file the smoke box down to the door and fit it on this boiler
Paint was chipped on numerous places. So a good paint job will be necessary. This loco is probably going to be my first one to be weathered (ah, a victim at last!!).
One small screw for man, one giant leap for Shay kind.

Putting the truck back into place proved the simplest of jobs: I bought an M2 screw on the Rail 2009 event, cut it to length and that was that!!
The second job was to make it run again. At first it wouldn't move at all. Since there was a speaker inside the coal bunker. I suspect the elephant had tried to convert to DCC, ripping off many details and crushing screws etc.
I took off the trucks, removed some screws and opened the water tender.
And yes there was a decoder. Unfortunately the dummy plug failed and without it the engine wouldn't run. So I installed this make shift plug of 0,5 mm brass wire. It worked

Now a question: what is even more beautiful than a Shay locomotive??

Click here for the answer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Shay locomotives!!

Or three for that matter