LGB's new 'high end'* Shay IS 1/20.3 scale after all!

I did three of their Jackson-Sharpe passenger car conversions for a pal to take back to US with him. At around £300 for the conversion kit, plus £250 for the car, and about fifty hours careful and painstaking effort on my part, they were never going to be a money-spinner for RG.

They looked nice, but..............................Holeeeeeeeeeeeee etc.

Life was too short for me to do any more, and he took them, and three kits, back stateside when he left.
 
Bump.

I can't help but notice a marked lack of response from our phantom Shay builder and his four incredible models. Anybody heard from him?
 
There were commercially built models (from Japan and South Korea?) available in this scale sometime ago - several were for sale through the West Side forum group a while back (I didn't download images of them).

And for scratch-built accurate replicas of the West Side (locomotives, rolling stock and buildings) you probably cannot go past Bob Poli's Fn3 layout:

 
tac foley said:
Huzzah!!!

I just got a personalised message from Maerklin's spokeperson, advising me that in spite of LGB/Maerklin's rather fuzzy details - no mention of a scale, fer'instance - their brand-new 'high-end' model C-Class Shay IS actually in the more common and useful scale of 1/20.3 - Fn3 to the purists, and will there not only look right on 45mm gauge track, but will fit right in there among other rather more humble track-powered Shays in that scale.


Great news for some of us, no doubt, especially a Euro lottery winner.

*'high-end' is sales-talk for VERY expensive. However, I'd be very happy to watch an example bought by anybody on this forum as it runs around their track.
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Well as am owner of 7 well serviced and looked after shays I think 4000 is Rediculous
Sorry 8 including my latest Creation.
 

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paul delany said:
Well as am owner of 7 well serviced and looked after shays I think 4000 is Rediculous
Sorry 8 including my latest Creation.
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Now you're sounding like a certain person at my garden railway group who says "I've got (four/five/six - pick a number) of them" whenever I turn up with a new locomotive............ ;)
 
David Price said:
Now you're sounding like a certain person at my garden railway group who says "I've got (four/five/six - pick a number) of them" whenever I turn up with a new locomotive............ ;)
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There's always one. I have three - the original two-truck from 1998, a three-truck from around 2008 or so and an Accucraft 3-cylinder steamer - the first to be bought in this country.
 
I now have zilch, as I sold the Accy 3-cylinder Shay due to lack of use :oops: Was I just being lazy? At least someone else can use it and enjoy it :)
 
David Price said:
Now you're sounding like a certain person at my garden railway group who says "I've got (four/five/six - pick a number) of them" whenever I turn up with a new locomotive............ ;)
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To be honest I wasint gloting about owning so many shays ,my point was that in my opinion they were a great design with a few flaws but reliable if your fortunate to have access to a friend with a 3d printer for repairs ,I don't have big resources for buying expensive locos and I just felt 4000 euros a bit rich that's all.
 
Hi Paul,

My comment about the number of Shays you have was not meant to be a shot at you - I have three Bachmann 2-cylinder 2-truckers, a 3-cylinder 2-truck and a 3-cylinder 3-truck (Pacific Fast Mail brass) Shays in 1:48 as well as a 3-truck Backmann in Fn3 (so I'm only one Shay behind you...) ;)

Cannot have enough geared locomotives for my mind...........

Not disagreeing about the price of the LGB Shay however - are your Shays Bachmann products like my one below?

Shay & Mallet at AMRA.jpg

If so, I think they represent better value for money - but of course they are no longer available from Bachmann and the early two truck units in particular had serious issues with their drive trains/gearboxes.

The above unit was a wreck when bought from the US and required serious rebuilding to get it to run properly (rebuild included two new trucks and an engine unit) - it now has a Loksound 5XL decoder, CVP Airwire receiver and a LiIon battery that lasts all day (as does the Mallet on the upper level)

And is the jury is still out on whether the LGB Shay is actually 1:20.3, 1:22 or something else?
 
David Price said:
Hi Paul,

My comment about the number of Shays you have was not meant to be a shot at you - I have three Bachmann 2-cylinder 2-truckers, a 3-cylinder 2-truck and a 3-cylinder 3-truck (Pacific Fast Mail brass) Shays in 1:48 as well as a 3-truck Backmann in Fn3 (so I'm only one Shay behind you...) ;)

Cannot have enough geared locomotives for my mind...........

Not disagreeing about the price of the LGB Shay however - are your Shays Bachmann products like my one below?

View attachment 347502

If so, I think they represent better value for money - but of course they are no longer available from Bachmann and the early two truck units in particular had serious issues with their drive trains/gearboxes.

The above unit was a wreck when bought from the US and required serious rebuilding to get it to run properly (rebuild included two new trucks and an engine unit) - it now has a Loksound 5XL decoder, CVP Airwire receiver and a LiIon battery that lasts all day (as does the Mallet on the upper level)

And is the jury is still out on whether the LGB Shay is actually 1:20.3, 1:22 or something else?
Click to expand...

The jury is in. It IS 1:20.3 to match the Bachmann models.
 
Anyone lucky person able to put up a photo of the LGB " Westside" Shay next to/in line with a Bachmann 55 tonner?

Be interested to see the comparison given West Side's #7 (Lima #2465 of 1911) was one of the smaller three truck Shays at only 60 tons. I believe she's currently still under overhaul at Roaring Camp & Big Tree with a possible return to service this year?

(I only got to drive the "Dixiana" back in 2018 as the #7 was out of service back then)

I'm certainly not spending that amount of money for something that I would then have to pull apart and convert to battery power and radio control - even if it is beautifully built!
 
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