Westside 3-Truck Brass Shay, help with fixing

[beiland]

I have a very nice Westside brass shay that I was running some experiments on.


Those experiments turned out successful,...but in the process I 'upset' 2 of the drive line shafts. My 82 year old eyes are just not adequate to make the repairs myself,...so i am seeking help

 

[beiland]

Here is a photo with the components laid out,



On that front one of the main engine, the rectangular piece needs to be resoldered to the universal portion of the joint,







On the rear one (to the tender), it requires the universal to be reattached to the existing shaft on the tender,..



I doubt that the rear one requires any significant hardships as it just involves slipping that hole in the universal piece over the existing shaft in the tender's truck, and making sure its secure?

The front one requires that the rectangular 'shaft portion' be very square with the universal as a whole.

 

[NWP Dave]

If you are looking for someone to repair the Shay, you could contact The Shayfixer. https://www.shayfixer.com/
I haven't talked to him in years and I know he can be backed-up on work at times.

 

[fwhitmor]

I'd really like to know what was done to fix it and how it was done. Right now I'm working on a brass engine kit and looking for tips and tricks.

 

[beiland]

The gear driven truck is too loosely constrained,...naturally it needs to rotate freely (twist around its swivel axis), but if you combined that with it being able to lift upwards (as a result of the spring), you really contribute to its derailing potential. All 3 of my trucks on this stock engine, (including this powered truck) are held down with a spring loaded truck screw,..

1) stock screw and spring on the left
2) temporary candidate spacers on the right (old broken couplers)

I'm questioning the need for such a spring loaded screw on this particular powered truck,...perhaps limit this truck to just good solid free rotation, but no rocker motion,....much like we do with our freight car trucks,...one end just rotation, the other end allows rocker.

I am conducting an experiment today with replacing that spring on this truck with a spacer washer(s) to limit this truck to JUST rotation,..no rocker.

I found a spacer piece (other that those coupler fragments) that worked out just fine.