Some more San Juan Central action

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Not a bad idea! A very thin strip of styrene might be able to make it look like the pilot beam is continuous.

Add some NBWs to jazz it up a bit too.

I had a similar situation on my H3 and fixed it by widening a commercial detail part.

[Dave V]

Now that I have an HOn3 2-truck MDC shay kit coming, I have to decide what to do with it:

1) A close-enough Uintah Ry shay?
2) A freelanced lumber company?
3) A could-have-been engine lettered for one of the actual lumber company railroads that connected to the RGS?
4) The San Juan Freakin' Central?

The only reason I'm not 100% sold on (4) is that my remaining San Juan Central sunrise herald decals won't fit on the Shay tender. But that's OK...even Malcolm only lettered one side of SJC locomotive 361 with that herald, spelling out the railroad's name in standard alphabet decals on the engineer's side.

[davefoxx]

Now that I have an HOn3 2-truck MDC shay kit coming, I have to decide what to do with it:

1) A close-enough Uintah Ry shay?
2) A freelanced lumber company?
3) A could-have-been engine lettered for one of the actual lumber company railroads that connected to the RGS?
4) The San Juan Freakin' Central?

The only reason I'm not 100% sold on (4) is that my remaining San Juan Central sunrise herald decals won't fit on the Shay tender. But that's OK...even Malcolm only lettered one side of SJC locomotive 361 with that herald, spelling out the railroad's name in standard alphabet decals on the engineer's side.

I've seen you mention the Uintah Ry. several times.  What does this have to do with the RGS or the SJC?  Do they interchange?  Did one of your lines purchase an ex-Uintah Shay?  I say go with the San Juan Central, and, since it might be late in the road's life or they wanted to get it out on the road as soon as possible, I suggest just lettering it with initials or whatever will fit on the tender.

EDIT: Thinking about this further, if not the SJC, how about this?  Letter it for a fictional neighboring lumber company that is a subsidiary of the RGS.  Sort of like the Linville River Ry. and the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR.   Then, you could justify it running on your layout without modeling the trackage owned by the lumber company.

DFF

[Chris333]

Wasn't there actually lumber companies along the RGS that used Shays?

[Dave V]

Wasn't there actually lumber companies along the RGS that used Shays?

Surprisingly no. The only one that almost did was the New Mexico Lumber Company.  Built new by Lima for the NMLCo, Shay #7 is said to be the last narrow gauge shay ever built. Delivered over the RGS to Dolores and then via the NMLCo track to McPhee, Shay #7 arrived immediately after the stock market crash of 1929.  The NMLCo couldn't afford to keep it, so it was foreclosed upon after but one run into the woods.  So, I could certainly do it up as an NMLCo Shay for schnitzengiggles.  The A.A. Rust, NMLCo, and Montezuma Lumber Company railroads otherwise only used second- (or third-) hand D&RGW C-16s/C-19s which, of course, are the ubiquitous Rio Grande-style 2-8-0s we all know and love.

I've seen you mention the Uintah Ry. several times.  What does this have to do with the RGS or the SJC?  Do they interchange?  Did one of your lines purchase an ex-Uintah Shay?  I say go with the San Juan Central, and, since it might be late in the road's life or they wanted to get it out on the road as soon as possible, I suggest just lettering it with initials or whatever will fit on the tender.

EDIT: Thinking about this further, if not the SJC, how about this?  Letter it for a fictional neighboring lumber company that is a subsidiary of the RGS.  Sort of like the Linville River Ry. and the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR.   Then, you could justify it running on your layout without modeling the trackage owned by the lumber company.

DFF

The Uintah wasn't closely associated with the RGS other than being another 3-foot gauge railroad on Colorado's Western Slope. However, the RGS did express interest in the URy's very unique narrow gauge tank mallets, to the point that the RGS was talking to one of the major locomotive manufacturers and even got a proposal.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the RGS' bank account did not match its ambitions.

I just think the Uintah was a really neat and obscure prototype that deserves more attention than it gets (other than the aforementioned mallets).  The RGS owned a shay in the 1890s and it was universally hated.  It was used for the Enterprise branch with its 5% grades and switchbacks before being traded back to the Silverton Railroad.  That particular Shay was tiny...the relatively modern and large MDC Shay wouldn't come close.

[Dave V]

The Shay kit arrived today. Whoa........so many parts, LOL.

A search online about DCC installs for the MDC Shay (and pretty much any question about the Shay kit) has but one answer: Read the book! Yep, Jeff Johnson wrote an extensive book about the kit's various pitfalls and includes--allegedly--info about installing DCC (https://www.amazon.com/MDC-Shay-Handbook-Jeff-Johnston/dp/0964752115). I ordered a used one for $70...not the price I was hoping for, but the best deal going for a much-sought OOP book. The fact that the frame is a metal slab means it'll be a bit more like the DCC install in my old MDC 2-8-0.

Anyway, I've decided this'll be a San Juan Central Shay. Turns out the remaining SJC "sunrise" herald actually just barely fits on the tender, but I don't recall seeing a lot of narrow gauge shays with fancy logos. I'll probably spell San Juan Central out on the tender in some semi-prototypical way. I also have additional antlers on hand from my Porter kit (I ordered a set of five different animal skulls from MiniPrints) so that may have to happen too, LOL.

[Chris333]

Wiseman Model Services bought all the old MDC Shay kits.
https://wisemanmodelservices.com/HO-Scale-HOn3/HO-HOn3-MDC-ROUNDHOUSE-SHAY-KITS-AND-PARTS
I remember reading something about upgraded trucks as well.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/193088717366
(those are definitely not worth that much...)

I remember long ago sitting in the back seat on the way to grandma's house with a file smoothing out the cast metal parts of a MDC Shay kit.

There have been ads in the latest MR's about a new HO Shay coming out.

[Dave V]

Finished my HOn3 Porter. I used an ESU LokPilot 5 Micro DCC decoder tucked into the cab ceiling. The elk antlers came from MiniPrints.

[davefoxx]

Fantastic!  That thing is tiny.  Does it run well enough to pull itself, let alone a freight car or two?

DFF

[Chris333]

I know the chassis under it and it should run nice and slow. I imagine even better with a decoder.

[Dave V]

Fantastic!  That thing is tiny.  Does it run well enough to pull itself, let alone a freight car or two?

DFF

I had it pull an SJC boxcar with the notoriously finicky Grandt Line trucks (less free-rolling than the Blackstone ones) and it did just fine around the 19" radius curve at Windy Point.

[davefoxx]

Be careful taking that thing around Windy Point.  It’ll get blown off the tracks!

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Be careful taking that thing around Windy Point.  It’ll get blown off the tracks!

DFF

Need a suitably mustachioed engineer hanging on for dear life figure!

[Dave V]