I bought some stationary rollers to run my Bachmann Climax and Shay in place. Glad I did as it's a great way to display and also watch for problems. Both ran great on Friday but when I tried to run the Shay on Saturday, the engine sound came on but nothing else. I put it directly on the track and tried again. No forward or reverse movement, no lights, bell or horn just engine sound. I tried reprogramming CV 8 to #8 and also resetting the address. I run it through an NCE Pro Cab with an NCE 5 amp smart booster. The Climax works fine. While messing with it I did get a message to come up that a short circuit was detected. I'm wondering if anyone has had such a problem and what they did to resolve it. I'll be trying to figure it out today.

I have a Broadway Limited HO RS unit that did something similar. I put it in its box for a few years and pulled it out recently and it ran great. Incredible sound in those things!

Thanks for reading and any suggestions.

Update: After posting this, I went out and worked on the problem. Put it on DC and nothing. Not sure if there's a switch inside but thought the decoder was dual mode. What I did was program the short address to 003 and it ran. Forward and reverse, lights, bell and horn all worked. I then reprogrammed the long address to the road number 2147 and it worked too. No chuff sound though. Now I wonder if my soldering of the cylinder assembly failed and maybe caused a short and the problem. Going to see right now.

Nymark

Thank you Joe, much appreciated!

I got my cylinder assembly for my 3 Truck Shay in the mail. Before replacing the old one, I looked for my manual with the engine diagram but could not find it. I skipped looking for it online as it is hard to see anyway. Thought I would just dig in as it didn't look complicated. I was surprised to find two blue electric leads soldered to some tabs at the top of the assembly. So I heated them up, removed them and soldered the wires to the new assembly. Of, course, I always think I'm going to remember which wire goes to which tab but try as I did, it was only a guess when it was time to solder. My first question is does it make any difference. My next question is what do those wires do. From the wiring schematic, I think they might be chuff sound. Glad to be back in the hobby but I have to relearn a lot of the stuff I figured out a few years ago.

Hi Bill.

Thank you for your message and advice. I cleaned the heck out of the wheels and brushes. The front and back trucks seemed to synchronize better and work at a more similar speed. Both the Shay and Climax are running pretty well now. Very glad to have the time to work on the large scale again.

Much appreciated,

Nymark

I recently posted about my 3 truck Shay and have a question about my Climax. Both had been sitting in my Tuff Shed for the last few years and I am reviving them to build a new track in my yard. I turned my Shay over and worked on it to clean up the wheels. I used the foam for support and wired it up so the wheels would turn. I cleaned a bunch of gunk from it and fixed an intermittent short in the second truck. It works much better and I am waiting on some parts to fix the yolk. I currently have the Climax turned over to similarly clean the wheels. I connected wires to get the wheels, axle and everything else to move for inspection and cleaning. I noticed the rear truck wheels are moving faster than the front truck wheels and this is my question. It runs great but are the wheels of the front and back trucks supposed to run at different speeds? My guess is everything is okay but hope someone can confirm, deny or shed some light on this. Thanks for any advice!

Greetings,

The yoke assembly on the middle truck of my 3 Truck Shay stripped. It looks like Bachmann has sold out the replacement parts for this. Do such parts come in from time to time or does anyone have a custom fix for this? I can fix it I'm pretty sure but it would be great if someone has experience with doing it. Thanks for any help!

Edit: I bought the cylinder assembly which I think will solve my problem.

Thanks Veetwelve,

Maybe I just need to order longer screws from Bachmann. I do have the schematics for the Climax and will look at them more closely. Seems like it should be a no brainer but...? Thanks Jay-Nymark

The Climax I have came with a coal bunker with a fan attached to the underside to cool the electronics. This is a pretty neat feature. It also came with an oil bunker (and 3 different smoke stacks, again pretty cool). The fan and screws do not fit the oil bunker and it does not screw on like the coal bunker. Anyone run into this problem and is there a fix? At first, I thought I just didn't have it on right but after a bit of messin it just does not seem to fit well. Thanks!

Thanks for your advice on this-some of my methods are carryovers from HO and N but large scale is a bit of a different animal. I might try some WD-40 as I have a bit of it around. I was running the Climax yesterday as we are having some beautiful weather in my area. It is really running well after the break in period. I always appreciate the knowledge of veteran large scalers.

Hey Bill, You mentioned using acetone for cleaning wheels. In N,HO,and now Large scale, I have always used 90 + isopropyl alcohol and a soft rag. Acetone can be found in nail polish remover. Do you use nail polish remover or is there a more pure form. I clean and groom my track almost every time I run my engines. I use a sheet rock sander with a scotch brite pad and carry a spray bottle of isopropyl so I can keep the scotch brite wet. I then repeat with a soft rag to polish it up. Is acetone more efficient or easier on surfaces? Sorry for these basic questions but I am still working on best practices for Large scale.

Hi Bill, Thanks for your expertise on this. I have been sticking to the 10 hour schedule as suggested in the Shay video but might start stretching it out a bit more based on your info. The Shay is gettin a little gunky-runs great though. I don't want to over lube which is also advised to watch out for.  I've been really enjoying the outdoor railroad!

Much appreciated -Nymark

I have had my 3 truck Shay for about a year and a half and recently acquired a Climax. Both came with sound and DCC installed. The Shay came with a video showing how to lubricate and suggests every ten hours which I have followed pretty closely. The Climax did not come with a video and I lubed it as per the instructions in the manual with a 20 hour lube schedule. Both suggest using the electrical lube on the wheels every 5-6 hours. The Climax seemed a bit tight in the curves and jerky at slow speeds. After about 15 hours of running the Climax, I found a Bachmann you tube showing the guy taking the bottom plates off the trucks and using heavy gear lube and gear grease inside. I was worried that I may have damaged the gears by not doing this before I ran it at first, but all seemed well. It did run more smoothly afterwards. I would like to ask for other people's experiences with these engines. Has anyone had problems due to lack of lubrication? Also, the lubrication schedule for the Shay seems a bit excessive-I haven't had the Climax long enough to know. Any ideas on this will be most appreciated.

Just saw this commercial today-very quick but catches a model railroader's eye

I don't think that adapter is in my Climax-are you sure you can use a standard decoder? I thought these large scale engines needed specific decoders due to higher amp/volt
requirements.

I just bought a Climax with sound and DCC installed. The decoder on mine is in the fuel bunker so maybe you have a DCC plug in the bunker on your model. I got to add, I'm never certain of these things in large scale.