Cousin Bill,
I also have a Shay given to me by the late Leonard Giovannoli. I had
the opportunity to purchase the last one (standard gauge) that Bill
Peter had built. We were on vacation in Chama at the time. If I bought
the engine we would have had to go home in order to pay for the engine,
so I passed on it. A couple of years later, we visited Leonard at his
backwoods Kentucky home. He had one but could only run it back and
forth on a 3' section of trac. He also had trouble getting everything
hooked up as the drive shafts liked to fall out.
I mentioned to him if he every wanted to sell it, to let me know. One
day the mailman brought a box containing the Shay--WOW. I later
purchased a Rex Surburban with a basic sound system, painted and
lettered which suited him a little better, so we were both happy.
My engine also had internal gear problems that we solved with a sleeve
on the shaft. Bill Peter mentioned in one of his newletters that the
gearing was 'cobbled' together. I had Dynatrol installed in mine years
ago, so doing the DCC thing was a piece of cake (I used a DH120). The
big problem is that the wheels are the old NMRA standard. I don't think
there is any way of getting them into complete compliance to our
standards, so I compromised and moved them about half way. It seems to
run through the frog and points just fine.
The secret of the Shay is to never take it off the tracks. Use Neolube
on the shafts and pinion gears. Now if you want a real challenge try a
sound system on that engine or even the smaller Heisler. PBL does
offer DCC and sound in all their engines now, but I doubt even they can
do a Heisler, although it's built for the earlier PFM system.
Hold on to that engine as it's a rare gem from a rare guy!
Bob Werre
Bill Lane wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>Through a very unexpected set of circumstances, I am very happy and honored
>to announce that I bought Howie Waelder's West Side Lumber Co Shay #12. It
>was of great sentimental value to Howie. It was his first S Scale purchase
>that eventually lead him into S Scale and into our lives as well.
>
>Howie's story was that as he was in the hospital recovering from his heart
>attack, he mentioned that he wanted to buy this Shay. Howie's wife told him
>to buy it as soon as he recovered. Howie bought it, and tested it when he
>got it home. Howie said it ran for 3 feet then it cracked a gear in the
>drivetrain that PBL did not have. So it sat new but unusable for many years.
>When the late Bill Daiker retired, he took the Shay, fixed the drivetrain
>and painted it for Howie. I saw Howie run it for a total of about 5 minutes
>on a Sunday morning as a CJSS Get Together when Bill delivered it to Howie.
>I doubt that it has been run since that morning.
>
>I have made a few minor repairs and touch up, and added DCC. This was by for
>the most difficult DCC only installation I have ever done. There is NO room!
>I used an N Scale decoder. I installed my custom Kadee 802 couplers in place
>of the HO couplers that were on it. The tender is now semi-permanently
>attached to the locomotive. I made a new box foam insert to use the original
>box. Putting this little beast on the track is more difficult them putting
>an Erie Triplex on the track while hanging upside down and blindfolded!
>
>I now have a video clip of Howie's Shay running on my Howie page. I am sure
>that I have already run it more then Howie ever did.
>
>Thank You,
>Bill Lane
>
>
>
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