Flywheels on the motor(s) in a 55 Ton Shay

[GG]

Hi there.

Well I'm looking at your model # 82697  55 ton shay and am asking if there are flywheels on the motor of this unit?

Thanks

gg

[Tom Lapointe]

No flywheels in either the 3 or 2 truck Shays, GG; they both use the same power trucks, with a single motor in each truck.  Thus the 2-trucker is a dual-motored unit, the 3-trucker is triple-motored.   They run at prototypically slow  speeds (unless you crank the track voltage up to something ridiculous) , so there isn't much momentum to worry about.  With the motors actually down inside the trucks, there isn't room for Bachmann to stick a flywheel in there anyway.                      Tom

[GG]

Thanks Tom, looking at trying to install DCS on this Shay type.

Can be done however DCC looks tempting but I would need to run electrically independant inner an outer loops...

MTH on outer mainline... the DCC Shay logging on the inner spurs etc..



gg

[Tom Lapointe]

OK, GG, if you're thinking of DCS installation, I now understand why you were asking about flywheels.   

I haven't worked on any DCS-equipped locos myself, but from what I've read of the system's workings, they use an optical encoder working off of a striped disk on the flywheel to provide feedback about motor speed to the the decoder board.  Even if it were possible to easily retrofit the Shay power trucks with flywheels (it would require replacing the existing motors with  physically shorter motors to allow space for a flywheel), there would be a problem due to the motor's physical location down inside the power trucks; the optical encoder disk in such a location would probably be very quickly spattered with lubricants from the gearing  ; & I can tell you from my own experiences maintaining CNC machine tools 20 years ago that optical encoders do NOT like dirt  of any sort!  In a model steam loco with the motor in a more "conventional" location (such as the firebox), external to the gearing, this isn't a problem. 

I understand some of the newer DCS decoders support DCC  ; I'd suggest you ask Raymond4449 in the DCC forum of mylargescale.com what he'd suggest for a DCS decoder in the Shay, he's pretty much considered the "resident DCS guru"  there.                     Tom

[GG]

Thanks for the great feedback Tom.  Well appreciated.

I pretty well figure that I will be working with DCC on my inner loop where these beautiful Bachman Shays will live (logging line) and I will reserve the outer loop as my mainline which will feature the advantages of DCS.

Best of both world.

Thanks

gg

[Peter O]

The DCC/Sound version of the 55 ton Shay has been seriously marked down as it was not a big seller. People criticized the lack of functionality under DC and the relatively low volume. If you are not looking for high volume, it is a great deal when you factor in the cost of adding a suond decoder to the regular model.

The model numbers is 82699 and I think 82698. Has the following functions:

1) Bell
2) Long whistle blast
3) Short whistle blast
4) Blowdown
5) Generator startup
6) Water into tender
7) Coal into tender
On/off

Good luck. Peter.