Lionel Legacy Shay

I like my Cass version.  I had it running all day on the PIHR modular layout at a Greenberg show last month and it ran and smoked like a champ.  It was also a real attention-getter with the general public.  The only downside to this engine, IMHO, is that the space restrictions inside limited the size of speaker they could put in it, so it is not the loudest engine, but I can easily live with that.

 

Here are a few shots from that show:

 

 

 

 

 

Andy

Does it have the sounds of a shay?

Heres video that was posted by  member michRR714 awhile back:

 

 

 

 

I also have the West Side Lumber #5 and like it very much.

Apparently not, according to the video posted above. Not enough chuffs for the speed it was moving.

I thought a shay had a completely different sound, or is that a heisler?

I had heard issues with this engine when running on O-36. What were they?

I don't know about any issues others may have had.  I just finished running my Shay for nearly an hour and most all of the curves on my layout are currently O36 (FasTrack).  I didn't experience any problems at all.

 

Now I have to move a bunch of stuff and crawl under the layout to retrieve a half dozen Industrial Rail log cars that are boxed-up and hidden away along the back wall.  Will also be using an Alaska RR Bobber caboose, but that, fortunately, is already on the layout.

Mine will not make it smoothly around O-36 curves when the cylinder and drive mechanism are on the inside of the curve: the drive shaft's slip/spline fitting (to length and shorten as the trucks turn) will not slip/shorten quite enough and the whole thing binds, then the loco shudders and makes unpleasant noises: I really haven't tried it much.  It goes very smoothly on O-36 curves where the mechanism is on the outside of the curve, and it does 42 and up nicely.  

I recently bought a new Legacy Sugar Pine Lumber Co. Shay. The whistle is one of the best I've ever heard, and it can be made to really wail with the Legacy whistle control, there's an incredible amount of smoke (have to keep it on low), and I'm happy with the chuff sounds. The only drawback is that the engine is a bit oversized. These were 3' narrow gauge engines, and when the SPLC Shay is next to an SP cab forward, or any other scale steam engine, it looks big. I believe the basic tooling for the Shays came from K-Line. By the way, the old Sugar Pine Lumber Co. is still around, operating as the Yosemite Sugar Pine Railroad. It has about 3 miles of track and is a great ride.

Climaxes, Heislers, Shays, and Willamettes are all geared steam locomotives, thus the cylinders ALL drive some sort of crankshaft arrangement. Naturally the Climaxes and Heislers are only two cylinder machines, but depending on the over-all gear ratio, will have a high speed exhaust sound, just like a two cylinder Shay. The big three cylinder Shays and Willamettes will have even MORE exhausts per revolution.

 

Thus, in a general way, all the various geared steam locomotives will have VERY rapid exhaust sounds at pretty much ANY speed over 3 or 4 MPH. At 10 MPH the exhaust sound will be like a continuous roar, when under load.

 

The video posted above of the three cylinder Shay, does NOT have near enough the number of exhausts for the speed it was traveling.

A correction to my earlier post re: the 2-truck Legacy Shay:

 

The locomotive itself runs fine on O36 curves, but I soon discovered that the train it's pulling does not.  Coupler swing on the locomotive is insufficient to guide a trailing car (IR log cars, in this case) through those tight curves.

 

The 2012 Signature Catalog specifies O31 as a minimum.  I don't think so!  It should be fine on O42 and wider.

 

I will likely have to relegate this beauty to display case duty until such time as I fit the layout with wider curves.  I'm not a big fan of resetting things after derailments and shorts at a full 18 volts.

 

And although I'm not a stickler for prototypical sound effects, I must admit that I, too, was expecting a more rapid-fire chuff rate.

Yes the YMSPR is a great ride but all their Shays are West Side Lumber Co. Shays. All of the SPR locos were scrapped right?

Yes, sadly I believe all the SPLC engines are long gone. But it's sure OK that WSLC engines are still running. The YMSPR is a nice operation. Oops, I'd omitted the "mountain" in the rr's name in my earlier post. Just ran the Shay again, and one more exhaust chuff would be much better. 

Interestingly enough I have no problems running my K-line shay (from which the lionel is based) and have no problems running on 0-31. Maybe what's different is that the K-line came with longer electrocouplers to allow for the tighter radius. 

I wonder if you could retrofit a longer coupler to the Legacy one?  I've been eying them, but I also have mostly O36.

The K-Line and Lionel electrocouplers are the same length, I had mine side by side and they are the same. The difference is in Lionel's operational manual and one additional hole at each end of the engine. K-Line's operational manual clearly STATES that the engine may have problems with some rolling stock operating on O31 track. Their solution to the problem is to move the eletrocoupler to the end of the engine. Lionel's frame shows the 2 holes in the frame on each end. On the K-Line frame there is a 3rd. hole needed for the move which is not on the Lionel version.

 

I had my instructional manuals for both together and I can't locate the K-Line manual at this but as soon as I find it, I'll post the part on moving the coupler.

 

Paul

It's nice to know what people are thinking of the Legacy Shays and I can guess everyone who posted on here that owns them likes them.

I really like mine.  It's nice to have one that smokes.

I have my MTH shay set to 12 chuffs per and I don't know how close to prototypical that really is.   However from personal experience on hearing shays in person and watching mine go about 5-6smph it seems a pretty close match.

 

And ya at 5smph it is quite a chuffing roar.  A shay doesn't really travel any faster then 10mph anyway..  

 

I’ve also wondered what the prototypical exhaust rate on a 3 cylinder Shay would be so I decided to do the math.  A typical Shay of this type had 36 inch diameter wheels and a 2.25 to 1 gear ratio between the crankshaft and wheels.  A speed of 5 miles per hour would result in about 11 “chuffs” per second which is, as you said, essentially a roar. 

There should be six chuffs per revolution of the drive shaft.  Just follow a main rod/crank shaft with your eyes, and use that as a guide.  Too bad none of the manufacturers actually sync the sounds on a shay properly - it's just approximate.

I have my eye on a K-line Lackawanna Shay with TMCC and Rail Sounds that's listed on eBay. I do not have a Shay and the above posts are helping me decide on a Legacy or the TMCC K-line. Comments appreciated. 

May I suggest you listen carefully to an MTH Shay. I have a Sunset/3rd Rail Western Maryland "Big 6" 3-truck, 3-cylinder, Shay that has been up-graded to DCS, and it sounds just like the prototype exhaust.