I've  been  looking at the page with the wheel sets with contacts, Great stuff, thank you, looks like the thing to do if the friction is minimal and the contact good. If I understand  correctly to have the ball bearing  system I would have to change at least 1 set of wheels on the Stock car that already has metal wheels. Alternatively  if I install article LGB 63193 ELECTRICAL CONTACT it would be easy and a little cheaper , but are these the ones you say make the car immovable like a brick? You must think I'm really slow but all this is very new to me and I want to be sure I understand.

Only thing left to investigate before deciding is the ball bearing  pickup system, I do not understand how it works, I've  tried to look it up but found nothing, a drawing or photo and prices would help, I'll  keep looking.

I just bought a Bachmann Big Hauler Pennsylvania Stock train car with metal wheels to use for the sound, it looks real good, the sound will go out easily thru the spaces between the horizontal planks, plenty of space for everything but not very visible from the outside. I wonder if the pickups  for LGB will work on this. I imagine they would with slight adaptation, perhaps Bachmann  also makes them?
It worries me a bit that with LGB pickups the friction  might act as a brake, also that the contact might be intermittent. Is this worry unfounded? Better contact and less friction with the ball bearing  system? Perhaps  it is best to draw the power tapping it from the loco as recommended while  still having all sound hardware in the Stock car?

Chuck, thanks, using LGB trucks with place for electrical pickups seems like a very interesting and viable solution,  I looked up the pickups you mentioned, they press against the inside of the wheels, I have not found the ball bearing system. I'd like to see what that looks like.  Thanks again.

Tac. The intended meaning of my comment is that it was a mystery to me until  very logical explanations were posted here. Thank you for contributing with  further  clarification.

I found the wires to tap power from inside the loco with an ohmmeter and then  telephoned Dalle for more install advice, they were indeed helpful. But I am considering installing the whole  sound system, Dallee sound card, battery, on of switch, and speaker in a specially  made enclosure in a gondola or hopper car behind the loco, that way I would leave the loco unaltered which I like, use a larger speaker facing up for better sound and have more space so things are not crammed together in too small a space. Ideally the power in this case should be tapped  from the wheels  of the car. How would I best go about tapping power from the wheels  of the gondola?

Will check with the ohmmeter tomorrow and if I have time bond the
Shay's  cracked ring.  Later on this week I'll lubricate, first time ever. Will wait to see what more Bill has to say about the 4 6 0 chassis (plural) hopefully soon when he settles in. Nice to know the truth about the mysterious airborne middle driver. .Thanks.

Change is good, enjoy building all anew!

REFERENTE Q #5.
Looking hard at the wiring diagram I see a very interesting note that states "#9 & #10 PCB connector for triggering customer's speaker module."  Is the Dallee sound card a speaker module? I suppose it probably is.
Looking even harder I see that a Red and an Orange wire  connect the wheel pickups on each truck to terminals on the PCB . Safer to connect the Dalle there perhaps? I'm being very careful because although I can weld OK I'm not confident with electronics, I can sometimes  mess things up without  realizing it. The Dallee card has scary warnings like: CAUTION Speaker wires must not contact anything else, this will damage S.C. and void guarantee. CAUTION Device can be damaged by static discharge.  I suppose it's just a matter of being cautious.

Bill thank you, It will take me some time to absorb all the information in your answers and reference articles, I have already exchanged  a chassis  on a 4 6 0 , my Swanee River Special,  you helped me with that,  I know you are right about better exchange than fix , it's  just that everytime I see the discarded chassis from the Suwannee  River loco I get an urge  to fix it. It seems such a waste, but we must adapt to this consumer society.

How much better is the 6th generation 4 6 0 chassis  than the 5th ? You say most problems have been fixed on the 5th but it still has nylon gears. The 6th generation chassis  you say has an improved front car and metal gears, a great improvement over the 5th surely. So it is tempting to adapt the 6th generation chassis  to shells meant for the fifth, you mentioned this as being possible  and not difficult.  What exactly is involved in this adaptation and do you think the 6th gen chassis is sufficiently better to prefer it over the 5th generation when one needs to replace a 4th or older chassis?

I do have a slight dyslexia  problem,  lagonda for gondola, 4 0 6 for 4 6 0 , 1 cm for 1 mm... but it has improved  tremendously over the years, as a child my spelling in all languages was abominable, it is much better now, fortunately  this has no bearing on intelligence  or grammar which I personally consider more important.  My wife who also speaks several  languages fluently  has the same problem, we are both  fine art graduates proficient in classical  oil painting, although it seems contradictory it has been implied in studies of dyslexia that individuals who are very visually  oriented often have dyslexic tendencies, I believe this might be true. Again I must apologise  for wandering  off  the Bachmann mandatory subject but since this defect of mine has been pointed at repeatedly in this forum I felt an explanation  was appropriate.  I will proofread carefully  in the future.

Is acetone also sold one at a time for $9 in the  UK? Or is it less effective than MEK?

Apologies,  I meant 1mm not 1cm, I must proof read more carefully.

Thank you so much, your answers are very enlightening. I telephoned Dallee before buying the soundboard , they have many soundboard variations, each for a specific locomotive sound. For the Large scale Bachmann  38 ton two truck Shay they recommended soundboards "Shay #911 for track power,  or #738 for DCC, or remote control.  I bought the #911 since track power , no DCC nor remote is what I want. I hope it has the right sound as they say it does  at Dallee.
I still hope someone will tell me where on the PC board to attach the two wires from the Dallee soundboard, I do not understand  wiring  diagrams so I hope a photo or layman's description will be given.

Correction, I ment 4-6-0.
The PC card in the Shay is quite complex, many unmarked  connectors, many colored wires and electrical components, two connectors in there must be the right ones.