I had a similar problem with 3 different shays. I posted this problem twice on this meaasge booard. I finally talked to a service technician at Bachmann and he informed me that my problem was not isolated. Apparently a bad batch of gears on some shay's trucks. He sent me a replacement pair of trucks, and now the shay runs fine. I believe that someone suggested that a gear might be cracked and sure enough one of the gears on a truck that was replaced had a large crack in it.

It's not the track because all my other engines run fine. I did exchange the shays at the place of purchase. All were new in sealed boxes. I did try lubricating the drive mechanism. It might have helped a little bit but not much. As I said before, at low speed the engine will start to move and than bind up and stop. At this point one side of the shay will actually move upward. It appears to be the rear truck on the drive mechanism side.

I posted a message on this topic previously but received no replies. I have exchanged two On30 shays because of poor running and just received the third. The third shay exhibits the same problem as the first two. All three shays bind at slow speeds and as the speed increases they begin to run but wobble badly and make a loud clunking noise. Has anyone had this problem? Do the shays require some adjustment of the drive mechanism before running?

I recently purchased a Bachmann On30 shay and exchanged it for another because it would bind and stop at slow speed and wobble and make a loud clunking sound at higher speeds. I just received the replacement shay and it does the exact same thing. Any thoughts as to the cause of this problem?