hidden in the firebox which, in turn, powers the center shafts that turn a double worm shaft in the truck gear- boxes that power the four wheelsets. Only one wheelset per truck is geared to spin the line shafts and the remain- der of the Shay’s unique drive arrange- ment. In a few evenings’ time, I had the trucks mounted under the Keystone frame and powered by a coreless can motor–a nice, small replacement for the square, three-pole open frame mo- tor that came with the NWSL kit. That’s when I took leave of my senses. Why should I build another Keystone Shay according to the instructions? I’d already done that, adding brass detail parts and a scratchbuilt fuel bunker/ water tank because that was easier than cutting out a lot of metal inside the Key- stone white metal casting. By doing some research on line, I found photos and basic dimensions for Class A Shays. I also had copies of sev- eral Shay plans from Model Railroader and Mainline Modeler.
Comparing
some prototype Shays to the Keystone model, I decided to reduce my model’s truck center spacing from 21 feet to 19 feet. Accordingly, I filled the holes that I had already drilled and tapped for the NWSL bolsters. Then I redrilled and tapped them and shortened the
12.
frame, removing 18 scale inches from each end.
New parts Since I had previously scratchbuilt
an HO scale model of the CNJ’s round- house switcher, No. 840 (see the Decem- ber, 2012, issue of NMRA Magazine), I was confident that I could scratchbuild the boiler for the Shay. I didn’t have to turn the stack and domes because they were readily available from Precision Scale Company. Making another fuel bunker/water tank was easy since I had already made one for the original Key- stone Shay.
When I looked at those shiny brass pieces on the Keystone frame with a Keystone cab I thought what the heck, I’ll scratchbuild a cab, too. My material of choice for boilers,
cabs, and similar parts is .010″ sheet brass. The outer surface of the cab would be relatively easy to make, but the “wooden” panels below the win- dows would be a bit of a challenge. I considered using scribed basswood but decided it was too thick. Instead, I fab- ricated the cab walls from two thick- nesses of .010″ sheet with the inner layer representing window sashes and the wooden panels. I scribed the area of the wooden panels to represent indi-
vidual boards and then soldered the two layers together. The finished cab looked pretty good, but with all those nice brass parts sitting on a white met- al frame I began to have second thoughts about the frame. So naturally, I built a frame from K&S Engineering’s Special Shapes channel and other structural shapes. Of course, I had to make the end beams from brass, along with the poling pock- ets and the steps. And the running boards just had to be Precision Scale “wood” etched sheet. By now I knew this whole project was getting out of hand.
Details, details What was I going to do next? The cab interior, of course. Why do you think this piece is subtitled “A case study in obsessive-compulsive detailing?” For every detail I added, I found two more to solder in place. My Precision Scale catalog has all sorts of drool marks on it. After I learned that Precision Scale hadn’t made Shay steam brakes in a long time, I made one of them myself. Oh yeah, I did decide that complete brake rigging was going a little too far, so I simplified it some. I guess there is a limit to how many clevises I can make before my wife has me commit- ted. They’re not really all that hard to
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12: This close up shows the brake levers and rods. 13: Clevises were made from ¹₃₂″ square brass bar. A slot is cut in the end of the bar and a No. 78 hole drilled through the side. Then the ¹₁₆″ long clevis is cut off with a rail nipper. 14: Poling pockets were made using brass
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sheet with rivets embossed in the corners. After they were soldered in place, the holes were drilled in the center and brass tubing used to make the pocket. 15: Here are some rivet plates for poling pock- ets the author didn’t use because the rivets did not line up properly.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
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