The Return of the Atlas Shay!

[JMaurer1]

Atlas just announced that the 2 truck shays are returning the second quarter of 2015 in 4 new paint schemes and 2 previously done paint schemes.

Returning paint:

Crown Willamette Paper Co.    1
Sugar Pine Lumber Co.    10

New paint:

Argentine Central    4
East Side Logging    107
New York & Pennsylvania Co. Inc.    3
Pickering Lumber Corp.    3

http://www.atlasrr.com/NLoco/nshay2.htm

[u18b]

And the most astounding thing is that the price is exactly what it was last time it was run about 6 or so  years ago.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Ohhh... I may need one for the Thailand layout.

[Paradise275]

If Bachmann can put decoders in their 44 and 70 tonners, do you think Atlas will finally sell the Shays with decoders?

Rick

[GN Fan]

Well, I just ordered 2 undecs so that I can make a three truck shay as per the magazine article that came out earlier this year.  Not sure if it is N Scale or N Scale Railroading, but I have plenty of time to find it in the files.

Tom Todd

[peteski]

If Bachmann can put decoders in their 44 and 70 tonners, do you think Atlas will finally sell the Shays with decoders?

Rick

There is lots more space available in either of those locos than in the shay.  You can always roll your own: http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=54040
With the new DZ126T decoder, this might be even easier (as it is smaller than DZ125).

[peteski]

Well, it looks like the new run of Shays is almost here.  I just saw the Atlas Spotlight by Cory R. about the 2-truck Shay.  in the Jan/Feb 2016 issue of the N Scale Enthusiast Magazine.

Cory states  that the new run is due in this month. He also mentions that during the model's downtime  Atlas engineers made several improvements to the mechanism: they completely re-geared the model and the frame was redesigned to make it more rigid (I didn't think that the original one wasn't rigid enough).  The also isolated the motor to make a hard-wired decoder installed easier.

I'm really excited about this! I installed a decoder in the original Shay and I might pick up the current release to see all the improvements. 

[randgust]

I was trying to develop a kit to use the Shay mechanism parts for a Heisler and was 'warned' by Paul that there were enough revisions in the new run on the mechanism side that I better hold off and get a look first, so I have one coming.   That's also one of those cases where Paul saved me a ton of grief just with that note, and I deeply appreciated it.

Other than the occasional heart failure when mine would shed a universal joint right off the end of the crankshaft necessitating a period of calming and intense repair concentration, my first-run has been a great little locomotive.   That could get changed and I wouldn't object at all.

[delamaize]

I was trying to develop a kit to use the Shay mechanism parts for a Heisler and was 'warned' by Paul that there were enough revisions in the new run on the mechanism side that I better hold off and get a look first, so I have one coming.   That's also one of those cases where Paul saved me a ton of grief just with that note, and I deeply appreciated it.

Other than the occasional heart failure when mine would shed a universal joint right off the end of the crankshaft necessitating a period of calming and intense repair concentration, my first-run has been a great little locomotive.   That could get changed and I wouldn't object at all.

If I had a quarter for every time mine had decided to throw a universal. I love mine, but it took a lot of work to mine to get it to the "I love it" place. I hope they addressed some of the first run issues.

[randgust]

Just got my shipping notice from BLW, so it's days - not months - of wait now.

http://www.blwnscale.com/atlas-shay.htm

[wazzou]

Cory states  that the new run is due in this month. He also mentions that during the model's downtime  Atlas engineers made several improvements to the mechanism: they completely re-geared the model and the frame was redesigned to make it more rigid (I didn't think that the original one wasn't rigid enough).  The also isolated the motor to make a hard-wired decoder installed easier.

I wish that in this "downtime", they would have re-engineered it to a 3 truck Shay.   

[randgust]

Would have answered that thorny question of where you put the decoder and the speaker~!

[narrowminded]

Would have answered that thorny question of where you put the decoder and the speaker~!

... not to mention the hot and cold folding doors.

[basementcalling]

BLW lists extremely limited quantities of some roads now available.  Partial shipment it appears. 

How does this thing run,  especially on tight turns and small turnouts,  possibly with plastic frogs? Thinking it could be a centrepiece model for a micro layout.

[randgust]

It will do better than 9 3/4; I've actually crept mine around 8".  But trackwork has to be perfect, and the crankshaft should preferably be to the inside, not outside, of curves that sharp so you don't shed a shaft.   

What you have to remember is that the trucks are power geared, the shafts are along for the ride and spin the crank.  If for any reason you remove a truck, you can introduce new torque and stress into the shafts on the driveline if you don't replace the truck EXACTLY as it was, right down to the geartooth against the worm.   Usually the first thing to pop is the crankshaft universal under the cab, followed by the shaft.... and you'll be searching for tiny parts.

You'll sometimes hear rather ominous popping sounds going around sharp curves, that's the shaft pinion gears popping in and out of teeth on the wheels.  Again, slip that, misalign the shaft, and you're in trouble.   I tightened mine up a bit with regauging the wheels on the axles. 

Possible?   Yes.  But I still wouldn't deliberately build anything tighter than 9 3/4 on anything where it had to regularly run around a curve.  And even then, creeping speed, watch and listen for trouble.

My first-run does amazingly well on plastic frog turnouts, 8-wheel pickup and it works properly.   Not a whole lot of flex, though, so your horizontal misalignment through turnouts has to be corrected if it is off at all.  I'm also running it through Peco ST tiny switches with no problems.

One thing I have noticed is that the coupler overhang from the frame is long enough to derail some cars, and will also drag the trip pin with too much vertical changes (like you'd see on a logging railroad!).

I still love mine, enough that I designed the Ross Run 21x42" logging module to showcase it - a 4% uphill switchback with the crankshaft on the visible side of the grade, pushing uphill.  But I designed it to jam in 9 3/4 minimum.  http://www.randgust.com/RossRunPlan1.jpg    This is now partially sceniced and has been at the annual Bedford show.