Thanks for this info Kevin. I am really enjoying my Shay and have been experimenting with different track plans. I've purchased enough track to develop a pretty good mainline in the backyard and also your "Garden Railway Basics" which has been really helpful in determining some basic ideas about what I want to eventually build. (Hope I'm allowed to mention that last part).

I did the modification on my Shay and it was pretty easy. I ran hot glue along the wiring where it is soldered to the circuit board making sure it attached the wire insulation to the board itself as was suggested by the article I read. I also secured some of the internal wires with a zip tie to reduce the vibration that can cause the wires to detach. Finally, I hit the plug wires with hot glue as was suggested by Chris9017. Everything ran great so I'm glad I did this.

The backward drawbar is kind of funny-thanks for that info. There is an internal modification that involves using hot glue to make the wiring at the circuit board more secure. It can be found online  and also shows strategic placement of zip ties to make these wires less prone to disconnect due to vibration. I plan on trying this out in the near future. 

This is a topic I'm interested in also. Plug and play can mean a lot in HO and N but is over all pretty straight forward and "do-able". I put a sound decoder into an N scale Kato P-42 and felt like I accomplished something a bit beyond my skill level and have even soldered some N scale decoder installs. Large scale has different power requirements and much less choice. I have a 3 truck Shay that came with sound and a decoder and would like to buy a C-19 and a 4-6-0 at some point. I am researching decoder installs on these-there is a lot of info online so keep digging.

I also recently bought the 3 truck shay. Like yours, it has a single plug from engine to tender and one hole in the drawbar. I am planning on opening it up to do the modification with hot glue and zip ties. If I do I'll post. It looks pretty easy. Mine came with a decoder so it might not be exactly the same.

When I first switched to DCC, I bought my equipment from a long time modeler who told me when his club did the switch they had a head on collision in the first ten minutes. It only took me 5!

Thanks, that's good news!

Hey Nathan-Thanks for the info. I have a spare AR 1 form my HO and N stuff. Do you think it will work with Large scale power sources like the SB5 or a PH-10? I really like the simplicity of the MRC units and use two of them on my N scale layout. Much appreciated-Phil

Hi again Nathan, Where can I get the auto reverse boards you mentioned? Thanks-Nymark

Hi Nathan-I'm using the SB5 to power the track(for now). I bought the LGB "reverse" track and added them to the ends of the turnout. It was explained to me that this would be all I needed. I had been using my NCE Pro cab with the SB5 on a continuous loop and it worked fine. I had been using my NCE Powercab but it seemed to start having "issues" with the SB5 and I found I was able to reprogram some of the sounds on my 3 truck shay with the Pro cab. This large scale has a bit of a learning curve. I have a lot of HO and N scale stuff but some of this knowledge doesn't seem to apply to large scale. I want to get a PH-10 and maybe that has autoreverse. Meanwhile, I might have to send in the SB5. Thanks-Nymark

I was experimenting with reverse loop track pieces from LGB today and made a reverse loop. I put my Shay on and hoped to run through the loops and have the polarity reverse. I noticed my cab and the SB5 were blinking on and off which I took to mean a short circuit so I dismantled the loop thinking I had obviously connected something wrong and the booster would correct itself. This did not happen even when just plugged in with no track connection. It just blinks on and off. The green light on the power blinks and the red light on the SB5 blinks. I think I might have damaged the unit -it felt pretty hot. Any suggestions would be much appreciated-Thanks, Phil Nymark

Thanks for sharing this great indoor Large scale. I just started in my backyard with my new 3 truck shay and really like running my train outside. I also have a pretty extensive n scale in my workshop out back. When I bought my house the shop had a bad roof and lots of leaks. I patched them but they always came back. Last week I decided to do it right and tore off the roof and replaced it with new roofing. I used to do a bit of construction work in my 20's but at age 50 my recovery time is about a week. I lift weights and keep in shape but my time doing that kind of work is coming to an end. Planning ahead for getting older is a good idea with this hobby. Your indoor is fantastic and I love the mountain mural with the Annie!