I recently added a live steam Climax and a wood burner 2 cylinder shay to my LS geared loco fleet.
They tested fine on rollers when I was purchasing them.
When I was testing them on my layout they seemed to have problems with the track in certain places.
I inspected the locos just in case there was anything that I had not noticed when first looking them over.
All was well visually.

I decided to run one of my other locos, a LS 2 cylinder shay (this one is an oil burner model).
It went around the track many times with no problem at all.

I took the new Climax over to one spot where it had derailed and noticed that it was rocking showing track that was out of true.
I took my older shay over to the same spot and noticed that it had enough play in the bogies (or bogie springs) to make allowance of the slight track imperfection.
Same was apparent in the one other ‘tricky’ place… but the older shay did not rock as its bogies again had enough ‘play’ to allow for the track.

I checked the bogie springs on the two new locos and they do seem stiff and there is little to no horizontal to vertical play (pitch and yaw)

Before someone says that the track should be amended, it is fixed with glued ballast and as other locos have no problem, it is not an area that I want to muck about with if possible.

Has anyone had a similar problems with Accucraft Shay or Climax bogies (live steam or electric)?
Would ‘softer’ springs help…is there a source for matching size etc?
How can more bogie play be introduced?

I’ve run my Accucraft 3-cyl Shay all over the UK, top to bottom, on all kinds of track that’s in all kinds of condition from utter perfection to ‘huh?’, and never experienced anything like you describe. My Shay, BTW, was the very first one sold in UK, and must have clocked up a literal hundred miles or more by now, seeing as it usually runs every time I play trains. I DO have springing, but it seems fairly stiff to me, but by comparison with any of my Gauge 1 stuff it is as wobbly as all get out.

tac

OVGRS

At the WW & F railway museum, we have had to adjust some of our two foot gauge cars. They should have some freedom to rock back and forth on their trucks. There needs to be like a quarter inch of play on the side bearings between the trucks and the car bolster.

If your climax or shay doesnt have any wobble that could be a problem. You cannot rely on the springs to be soft enough to conform to track with any twist in it.