Could I get an idea of how long it takes the replacement gears to ship?  I called the parts department about three weeks ago to request them. Just wondering...

I guess I'm a little late to the party.  I've had my T-Boiler shay for about 4 years, and it ran fine until earlier this summer, when it began to jerk and finally wouldn't go at all.  I took it to my LHS, and they said Bachmann had announced a program last year to remedy this problem, but the LHS wasn't sure if they were still doing this.  I looked on-line and saw the announcement of the program and the email address.  I sent an email asking if Bachmann was still providing replacements for the Shay trucks, sideframes, or gears but didn't hear back, so I called the parts department.  The gentleman I spoke with said he would send me some replacement gears.  I asked if I could get sideframes or trucks with the replacement gears, but he said no - gears only.

From this thread and others on the internet, this procedure seems delicate, and could result in damaged clips and/or bent shafts. I'm concerned that I might damage my shay further if I try to replace the gears.

If I just go ahead and pay the price for replacement trucks, will they have the new gears installed, or will they have the old brittle ones? The cost of the trucks is less that the cost of a gear press to put the new ones on the shaft.

Hamish, I believe there is a difference between folks interested in standard gauge HO and On30.  In HO, the product offerings do change and people who model HO Standard gauge are ok with that.

People in narrow gauge tend to model a certain line or locale.  I bought the shay and other loco's to model rocky mountain logging. I didn't expect that Bachmann would stop production of certain narrow gauge rolling stock in favor of other equipment.

Fortunately, there are other manufacturers who understand the narrow gauge modeling scene and continue to supply rolling stock - perhaps with different numbers (which is good), but still basically the same equipment.

There are undoubtedly people who are happy now with the 18' equipment who will not be so happy when Bachmann "moves on."

Thank you for the clarification, Yardmaster.  I'm going to contact Caboose Hobbies and find out why they don't have your 27099 Boxcar on order, or even on their website.

I was at my LHS yesterday, and found that other than a few ventilated boxcars and two locomotives, they had no Bachmann On30 in stock.  I was hoping to find some undecorated box cars, but was told those have been on back order for months.  Sure enough when I search this site on-line, there are no undecorated boxcars shown.

Is Bachmann exiting the On30 market?

Thanks for the tips - I've just started adding weight to my cars, and was stumped about the reefer roof.  I'm adding the weight so they will couple better without the "giant hand from the sky."  I'm also adding microtrains restraining springs to one end of all four axles to add a little rolling friction since not all of my elevated spurs are perfectly flat.

I will give the inside frame weighting a try since I hadn't figured out yet how to add weight inconspicuously to the flat cars.

I have added 2oz to each of three box cars and tha, along with the springs, seems to have mad coupling reliable and no runaway cars so far.

I also painted neolube on the couplers - I can't see that this has made them more slippery, but it does help their looks.