I’m looking at a Bachmann 3 truck shay and wondered what the difference is between the one with sound and the one without. Do they have the same electronics but one has a separate sound board and speaker. Does the non sound one still have the pickups for sound? Are they the same engine and the difference is in the tender?
Todd,
I’d recommend looking into the Bachmann wiring diagrams for the locomotive to understand what I’m talking about here…
The main difference between the sound one was the DCC decoder/sound unit. It ties into the main board (in the fuel bunker) with several wires – in the DC version these wires run into screw terminals. There are two wires for power in and then a ton for power out. Outside of that board, all that’s added is a speaker. If you take the bunker off, there are two wires (I believe blue or purple) from the chuff sensor – to the best of my memory those are not used in the DCC version but should be used for any non Bachmann DCC setup.
To my understanding there are serious drawbacks with the stock Bachmann sound decoder setup and if possible it is preferred to use an aftermarket system.
The one without sound is one less Circuit Board you will need to remove before install a control system and a sound system! Plus a set of batteries. Paul
I would think that the one without sound is quieter.
I’m sorry. I just couldn’t help myself.
You guys are comedians…
Let me rephrase. Does the non sound 3 truck shay have all that is needed to add sound except for the sound board and speaker?
It sounds like that is the case with what Robbie wrote.
Another concern is the 3 truck shay runs extremely slow compared to my 2 truck. it takes twice the voltage to get up to speed. If I run them both at the same time the 3 truck is crawling along and the 2 truck is screaming fast. I wonder if this has something to do with the DCC and prior owners experience?
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a shay described as “screaming fast”
Could be. I know my locomotives with decoders do run slower then the same locomotive without a decoder. There is some voltage lost in the H bridge of the decoder, and whatever programming the decoder has.
“Does the non sound 3 truck shay have all that is needed to add sound except for the sound board and speaker?”
Yes, it may even have the speaker, I don’t recall. I’ve done R/C installs on two of them; one had the DCC board, one didn’t. As Robbie wrote, the only difference is that the DCC version has a 4-wire feed going to the DCC decoder, whereas the non-DCC version has those four wires connected to a set of screw terminals on the right next to where they wires leave the board instead. The light functions on the DCC-equipped board also come from the DCC decoder, whereas on the non-DCC version, that wiring harness is plugged into the main PC board instead.
“Another concern is the 3 truck shay runs extremely slow compared to my 2 truck. it takes twice the voltage to get up to speed. If I run them both at the same time the 3 truck is crawling along and the 2 truck is screaming fast.”
If the 3-truck Shay has the DCC decoder in it, then yes, it will run slower than the non-DCC 2-truck Shay when running on straight DC power at a given voltage. In the 3-truck Shay, the track voltage feeds the DCC board, which needs enough voltage to even turn on. (Usually around 5 volts.) Once it gets that 5 or so volts, then it will feed any voltage above and beyond that to the motors, so at 6 volts, it’s feeding 1 volt to the motor, 7:2, 8:3, 10:5, and so forth. Its motors will always be getting 5 volts less than the non-DCC Shay because on that one, the track voltage is being fed directly to the motor.
Later,
K
Thanks Kevin. I was starting to think there was something wrong with this shay that I bought used. That makes perfect sense that the track power is going to the DCC board and then to the motors. I don’t run DCC. The 2 truck shay also bought used has sound and what I think is a DCC board but it runs in step with my other Bachmann geared locos.
I don’t know if I can fix this engine or if I even should try to. It sounds like I should remove the DCC board? It might be better to sell this one and buy a 3 truck without sound then put it in later down the line.
I may be wrong but Tony Walsham on here did an RC conversion for a Shay…it may have included the sound… so there may be info available from Tony…