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Well finally, after rigging power from two AA batteries to my camera, I give you the result of my current efforts! My MDC Roundhouse 2 Truck Shay!!! It is to be the future Empire River & Western #11, "Chelsea". (Named after my mate who I love and charrish)
For those of you familiar with the MDC shay kits and it looks a little different, that's because it is. I did not use the boiler supplied with the kit, I used a "Shay Backdate" kit from Wiseman Model Services. It's a strait boiler and old time style "Fluted" domes. Also I didn't really care for the smoke stack styles supplied. The only one I liked was the Large Diamond, but it just didn't look right. So I hacked the top off of the "Congdon" style stack (another option that came with the kit) and used that instead of the regular top. The end result is shown in the pick. Just so you can get a better visual of the difference I'll post a pick with the supplied stack.
After hearing all the horror stories about this kit I was intimidated at first. And it figures, for my first attempt at a locomotive kit I had to pick one of the most contankerous! But I wanted a challenge and it deffinently gave me one! Though surprisingly enough, the most trouble came from the backdate boiler kit! The motor is enclosed by the tender unit, its drive shaft points forward and is attatched to a gearbox. In terms of locomotive annatomy the gearbox is inside the firebox of the locomotive. The new boiler is hollowed out in that area to make room for the gearbox, but not enough in some spots. First I had to trim the right side of the gearbox assembly. Then there was a screw on the left side that was a bother. I couldn't do anything to the screw becuase it served an electrical pourpose. So I borrowed my Grand Pa's dremel tool and used a milling bit to carve out just enough meterial for clearance.
Due to how OLD this kit is, the model isn't even designed the have working headlights! I don't know about you but I like my train's lights to work when running. So I took a power drill and on an angle, drill from where the base of the headlight would be to the bottom rear of the smokebox. (the front part of the boiler) Then using a different milling bit I carve a channel for the wiring. So yeah, I has a working headlight now. Oh! and just to point out, the headlight and bell are after market brass casting details and were not supplied with the kit.
I was surprised I got the thing to a working position in a few days of build time. (I worked off and on on the model, not start to finish in one sitting. Which is near impossible by the way. ^^; ) I put the basic assembly together, just the motor, frame, wheels, gears, ect, what ever it needed to actually move ad nothing more. It ran SO smooth in reverse it would bring tears of joy to a fine model railroader. Forward, on the other hand, was a different story. Shays worked just as well in either direction so my model should do the same.
The rear truck seemed to bounce and shake a bit when going in the forward direction so I first inspected that. A simple solution was swaping the front axel with the rear one and vice versa. It runs very well now. I track tested it again and it was still acting wonky going forward. So I looked at the front truck. Well that was also a simple fix, the universal cup that the drive shaft fits into stood out too far. The drive shaft was forced against the inside and was binding. Thusly I pushed the cup a little further onto the worm gear shaft and problem solved.
Overall performance is good, at higher power/speed settings she's fairly smooth. But at lower settings she isn't. I joined an MDC Roundhouse Yahoo group some time ago so I'll go to the for advice. Perhaps tooth paste in the gears could help.
Well until I hear back from them I painted the boiler and engine assembly. (The three verticle pistons on the side) As well as the air tank, which need repainting, and the tool box and enb beams. I "Super Detailed" the end beams by "Weathering" them with an exacto knife. Along with some rough sand paper and the knife I added wood grain texture to the end beams. On the tender I made a wood fuel load by hand splitting sticks into scale peices of firewood and super glueing them together one at a time. (LOTS of time and paciences)
Well that pretty much brings you to speed on things with the kit. I hope I didn't bore you all with the technical jargen. I hope you all like her! I worked VERY hard on her to bring her this far.
COMMENT IF YOU FAVE!!!!
For those of you familiar with the MDC shay kits and it looks a little different, that's because it is. I did not use the boiler supplied with the kit, I used a "Shay Backdate" kit from Wiseman Model Services. It's a strait boiler and old time style "Fluted" domes. Also I didn't really care for the smoke stack styles supplied. The only one I liked was the Large Diamond, but it just didn't look right. So I hacked the top off of the "Congdon" style stack (another option that came with the kit) and used that instead of the regular top. The end result is shown in the pick. Just so you can get a better visual of the difference I'll post a pick with the supplied stack.
After hearing all the horror stories about this kit I was intimidated at first. And it figures, for my first attempt at a locomotive kit I had to pick one of the most contankerous! But I wanted a challenge and it deffinently gave me one! Though surprisingly enough, the most trouble came from the backdate boiler kit! The motor is enclosed by the tender unit, its drive shaft points forward and is attatched to a gearbox. In terms of locomotive annatomy the gearbox is inside the firebox of the locomotive. The new boiler is hollowed out in that area to make room for the gearbox, but not enough in some spots. First I had to trim the right side of the gearbox assembly. Then there was a screw on the left side that was a bother. I couldn't do anything to the screw becuase it served an electrical pourpose. So I borrowed my Grand Pa's dremel tool and used a milling bit to carve out just enough meterial for clearance.
Due to how OLD this kit is, the model isn't even designed the have working headlights! I don't know about you but I like my train's lights to work when running. So I took a power drill and on an angle, drill from where the base of the headlight would be to the bottom rear of the smokebox. (the front part of the boiler) Then using a different milling bit I carve a channel for the wiring. So yeah, I has a working headlight now. Oh! and just to point out, the headlight and bell are after market brass casting details and were not supplied with the kit.
I was surprised I got the thing to a working position in a few days of build time. (I worked off and on on the model, not start to finish in one sitting. Which is near impossible by the way. ^^; ) I put the basic assembly together, just the motor, frame, wheels, gears, ect, what ever it needed to actually move ad nothing more. It ran SO smooth in reverse it would bring tears of joy to a fine model railroader. Forward, on the other hand, was a different story. Shays worked just as well in either direction so my model should do the same.
The rear truck seemed to bounce and shake a bit when going in the forward direction so I first inspected that. A simple solution was swaping the front axel with the rear one and vice versa. It runs very well now. I track tested it again and it was still acting wonky going forward. So I looked at the front truck. Well that was also a simple fix, the universal cup that the drive shaft fits into stood out too far. The drive shaft was forced against the inside and was binding. Thusly I pushed the cup a little further onto the worm gear shaft and problem solved.
Overall performance is good, at higher power/speed settings she's fairly smooth. But at lower settings she isn't. I joined an MDC Roundhouse Yahoo group some time ago so I'll go to the for advice. Perhaps tooth paste in the gears could help.
Well until I hear back from them I painted the boiler and engine assembly. (The three verticle pistons on the side) As well as the air tank, which need repainting, and the tool box and enb beams. I "Super Detailed" the end beams by "Weathering" them with an exacto knife. Along with some rough sand paper and the knife I added wood grain texture to the end beams. On the tender I made a wood fuel load by hand splitting sticks into scale peices of firewood and super glueing them together one at a time. (LOTS of time and paciences)
Well that pretty much brings you to speed on things with the kit. I hope I didn't bore you all with the technical jargen. I hope you all like her! I worked VERY hard on her to bring her this far.
COMMENT IF YOU FAVE!!!!
Category Photography / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 960px
File Size 191.2 kB
It's a REALLY fun kit to put together. Shame they're not made anymore. However this kits are rather contankerous and have a reputation for being difficult to get running smoothly.
The boiler is not original to the kit. It and the domes were a separate backdate kit, available from Wiseman Model Services, to better represent a Shat built prior to 1915. The wood fuel load is 100% scratch built out of twigs. The bell and headlight are addition brass parts from Cal-Scale and PSC. The smoke stack was bashed from two different stacks provided with the MDC kit.
The boiler is not original to the kit. It and the domes were a separate backdate kit, available from Wiseman Model Services, to better represent a Shat built prior to 1915. The wood fuel load is 100% scratch built out of twigs. The bell and headlight are addition brass parts from Cal-Scale and PSC. The smoke stack was bashed from two different stacks provided with the MDC kit.
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