Adding RC to my Shay will go a long way to making it more enjoyable to use. One of the questions that could only be answered by trial-and-error was if a singe servo on the Johnson Bar would be enough control on my grades, and fine enough control for switching. So rather than plunking down a few hundred on R/C gear only to learn I’d made the wrong choice, my son Matthew and I decided to rig up a test with RC parts from the junk box. We dug out a very old HiTec radio system and servos, put batteries in them and found them to be functional. We tried the Johnson Bar only first as that was the easiest to hook-up. At first I thought of just attaching a rod to the finger control and eliminating the latching pin, but we couldn’t find a suitable rod in the junk box. What we found would work was to remove the finger control bar completely and use the stand to mound a servo horn as a pivot. [url=lsc.cvsry.com/4RC1024.JPG]
[/url][color=blue]Johnson Bar support used as a pivot - Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] We used brass servo mount sleeve to fill part of the oblong hole in the bracket to keep the pivot center from moving. One end of the horn was connected to the Johnson Bar rod with a self taping screw and the other end connected to the servo with a servo control rod. This is the “Quick” part. The Servo was hot-glued to a wood spacer block which in turn was hot glued to the floor of the water tank. The AA Batteries and the Receiver just fit inside the railing around the servo. Set up in this way the water tank cover could not be put back on. This is the “Dirty” part. [url=lsc.cvsry.com/2RC1024.JPG]
[/url][color=blue]Servo hot glued to wood block & floor of the water tank Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/3RC1024.JPG]
[/url][color=blue]Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] After fighting with the old radio system for a bit trying to find neutral we lit the burner and raised steam. Once pressure was up I opened the throttle a full turn and used the R/C to operate the Johnson bar. As soon as we cleared the cylinders of water she was off. We ran the Shay light an put it through it’s paces , stopping, starting and backing through the Wye. It handled the grades just fine and even this old crappy servo gave very fine speed control suitable for any switching task. [url=lsc.cvsry.com/5RC1024.JPG]
[/url][color=blue]Close up of pivot point - Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/6RC1024.JPG]
[/url][color=blue]Close up of pivot point and connection to Johnson Bar linkage Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] The experiment was a huge success. It helped me make the decision to go with a single servo system as soon as I can pony up the bucks for the hardware. In the mean time the Quick & Dirty system will do the job and allow me to enjoy running the Shay on my ground level track without getting on my hands & knees. Jon
