Shay with upgraded gears

[John]

Is there a way to determine before purchasing if a shay has the newer gears? What was the timeframe of the upgrade?  Were the sound equiped shays after upgrade? I would like to purchase a couple more but also want to factor in having to replace gears.

[railtwister]

Is there a way to determine before purchasing if a shay has the newer gears? What was the timeframe of the upgrade?  Were the sound equiped shays after upgrade? I would like to purchase a couple more but also want to factor in having to replace gears.

John,

As long as you are "factoring in" replacing the gears, keep in mind that the Shay is the one On30 locomotive that NWSL makes steel replacement gears to fit, and a set runs $25-$30, plus installation costs, if you can find someone willing to do the job. As for some of the other On30 locos with known gear issues like the Climax, Railtruck, RailBus, and Davenport switcher, NWSL doesn't offer anything yet.

Bill in FtL

[Anubis]

Hi Bill,

What's wrong with the drive gears on the Davenport? 


John

[railtwister]

Hi Bill,

What's wrong with the drive gears on the Davenport? 


John

Hi John,

There have been reports on this list (as well as others) of gears on the Davenport splitting, one poster here stated that he was offered a Porter as warranty exchange, which is not unreasonable, except that he really wanted his Davenport fixed. There is a reason the replacement are listed as out of stock on the Bachmann parts web page. Hopefully, the Davenport's problem isn't as widespread as with the Rail truck, Shay, and the Climax, but that doesn't help much if you have an affected Davenport and can't get the parts.

Bill in FtL

[TimR]

I also had a Davenport with split gears about a year ago. It was that way right out of the box new. It just "thumped" down the track. I thought the side rods were hitting the ties or was just seriously binding or out of time to each other. Nope, turned out that the spur gears were split on the shafts which you can only see well by pulling the plate off the bottom. Thankfully, The Favorite Spot exchanged it for me with no hassles and no questions asked. I "did" drive over there for the exchange however. Nice folks to deal with. My new Davenport has been flawless.

Regarding the Shays, I can fortunately say that all 5 of mine have never had split gears. (4 of those 5 were bought at The Favorite Spot)