Shay 81198 to DCC

[Rich]

Has any one tried to take an old 36 ton 2 truck Shay #81198 and install the new metal trucks with the new circular printed circuit board sliding ball contacts and use these new 4 wire contacts to get power to a DCC board?

[Curmudgeon]

Can't.
Unless you are a machinist.
You will need to mill out the frame bolsters to literally nothing to get them into the metal parts.

Your best bet is new trucks, and on the top plate, isolate the shorting tabs, and run an extra pair of wires back to wherever.

That parts is easy.

TOC

[Rich]

What about replacing either the cross members or the whole chassis frame with a new cross ties or new chassis from a DCC ready model unit?

[Curmudgeon]

Sure, that's do-able.

You will need to buy a new 2-truck Shay with all those bits, tear them both down, and try to re-assemble one from the resulting good and broken parts.

Getting those parts out of Bachmann is probably not going to happen.

Want to split the frame rails?

First, like before, buy a new 2-truck and tear it all the way down.

Then, remove trucks, firebox/ashpan, truck pivots, cylinders, end steps, boiler mount screws, wires to trucks, end beam under plates, rear cross support, then cut, pry or break every floor support bracket on both sides of the frames off, any piping that fits into the frames needs to come off, then start prying apart to see what's stuck.

Two weeks later when you give up, you can go back and just add 2 more wires to each end, and in the process get the bonus of not having those 4-pin contact blocks to give you issues.