New Nn3 power truck from Showcase Miniatures

[TomBo3]

Just got this new Nn3 power truck today from Showcase Miniatures. The photos show it beside my Searails power truck. The one from Showcase runs smooth and slightly slower then the Searail unite. It looks like the new power truck will fit wherever the searails one will with some slight modification to the loco you want to power. If you want one, better order now as the first shipment to Showcase is only 20 unites. Tried to add pictures but a popup states I'm not allowed to add pictures???

[Chris333]

Think you need 25 posts first.

Here is a link: https://www.showcaseminiatures.net/nn3_scale/0018.html

It looks smaller and with a shorter wheelbase to better match their Shay kits.

[160pennsy]

My Showcase Miniatures Nn3 power chassis arrived yesterday and I also took some comparison photos next to the Searails PowerMAX. This new power chassis is meant to be a replacement for the now OOP Searails PowerMAX which was used in the Showcase Miniatures Nn3 Shay & Climax kits. The wheel base on the Searails unit is around a scale 5’ 3/4” and the Showcase Miniatures scales out to 5’. The rear truck side frames on the new Showcase power unit attach to an etched metal box (comes with the power unit & you have to fold & assemble) that fits over the chassis. If you have one of their Climax or Shay kits just specify which kit & they’ll include the side frames when you order the new power chassis. The rear truck side frames on the Searails unit were attached by first removing the bottom plate and then replacing it with a new cast bottom plate & side frames from the kit.

Showcase Miniatures on left, Searails on right. My initial test run results were similar to what TomBo3 saw...IMHO it seems to run better (and is quieter) than the PowerMAX but your mileage may vary.

[Chris333]

Any problems with wheel wobble on the Showcase truck?  It took me 3 Power Max chassis to get one with straight wheels.

[160pennsy]

Any problems with wheel wobble on the Showcase truck?  It took me 3 Power Max chassis to get one with straight wheels.

No wheel wobble that I could notice Chris. The PowerMAX in my photos does have some wobble when it runs and requires additional weight on top to improve electrical pickup. I'll try to post some videos of each once I get them uploaded to YouTube

[Chris333]

Cool. The short WB should look better under their Shay as well.

[160pennsy]

Some videos of both power chassis running on test track. My power pack is a Rokuhan RC-02

[randgust]

Hey, I may have discovered something.

I just got the Nn3 16-ton Shay kit and power truck.   Power truck works well enough.   But my experience with everything is that I was dumbfounded that the lead truck doesn't do anything at all.  It really, really, should at least have power pickup.   I've got a lot of switches, including Marklin curved.   My Climax works OK, no pickup issues, but a single power truck?

In my Nn3 Climax A, using the Rokuhan SA-001 (which is just a rocket sled out of the box) the lead truck is a classic, end-axle, 4x4 pickup, very free wheeling.   I use it on my Climax A as the unpowered truck and rely in it for most of the electrical pickup; it even uses ears and spring wipers just like the Kato 11-105.   

I'd broken one of the Rokuhan SA power trucks, saved the pickup truck, did a comparison with the printed Showcase truck.  Holy smokes, that pickup truck really looks like it could be substituted for the lead truck on the Shay, file off the sideframes and glue on the Shay ones, set up insulated pickup wipers under the frame, you'd have 4x4 pickup on the lead Shay truck without any additional drag at all.   I've got to try that.  The bolster pin on the Rokuhan 'looks like' it can be mounted to the Showcase frame.  Those Rokuhan chassis are dirt cheap, too.

Stay tuned....

[randgust]

OK, so, so far it looks promising.   Assembling the kit now.

First challenge was putting a second set up pickup wires into the power truck.   Done.  Works.   Use extra decoder wire ends, nice and flexible.

I'd do a build thread on this if anybody wants it.... otherwise just results.

[Chris333]

Those Rokuhan chassis are dirt cheap. I never bought one, but if you get 4 wheel pick-ups from it then it's worth it. You can get the unpowered chassis for $13. http://www.zscalemonster.com/rokuhan/rolling/

[bbunge]

I had noticed the same with the Showcase shay.  I will have a lot of switches and plan to power the frogs, but the pick up the better, so a good lead! 

FYI, I haven't played with it much, but the B&O 0-6-0 seems to be a niffy little engine and good runner.  Tom Knapp has put up some nice looking low Nn3 shells ranging from simple to complex to make a 2-6-0.

https://3dptrain.com/pages/seller-profile/t-r-knapp-model-engineering

[randgust]

Took some work, but I got the Rokuhan front truck with the Showcase sideframes on it, rigged up pickup contacts using a couple Kato 11-105 pickup springs bent around (insulated from cast frame with .005 styrene, goo'ed on) and routed the pickup wires under the frame and into the cab.

Put the boiler on the frame to hold the front springs down, and started testing it just with the wires twisted up.

Holy smokes, this is the best performing Nn3 chassis with that change you could ever want.   It simply does not stall now.  I'm going through Rokuhan #6 and Marklin curved turnouts with no hesitation at all.   It's surprisingly quiet.  I'm using the Blue Snail throttle with the 9v battery in it.

I am doing photos of this, even Showcase has asked for them.



Link:  http://www.randgust.com/Shapeways%20Nn3Shay%2010.jpg

Look on the front truck, you can see the pickup wipers reaching down from the frame to hit the ears on the Rokuhan truck.

So there's another design feature I'm trying to defeat, and that's the lack of even cosmetic drive shafts to the trucks from the cylinders.   I did that on my scratchbuilt 25-tonner, this is even smaller, so we'll see if I can beat this one.

Oh, and by the way - this is what Rokuhan sectional track looks like if you paint the ties and weather them, paint the rail, and paint the roadbed dirt color, as this is a logging railroad.  I painted each section before I put it down, a luxury on a tiny layout.

[Chris333]

Doubt you can use any of this for the Shay, but ALZ now sells Z scale parts:
https://azldirect.com/collections/parts-accessories?page=1

[randgust]

With that pickup front truck the performance of this thing is just amazing.    Still building the kit and putting on details.

Made an attempt to put on cosmetic driveshafts with soft black wire insulation.   Nope, fail, still too stiff, even with sliders.  Left them in, just trimmed short enough to look OK on tangent track and not hit anything.

I found traces of some good intentions by Tom Knapp.... the boiler front with the headlight is inexplicably a separate piece.   And behind that piece is a channel.  He apparently left it there to route wires to a headlight.   Get out.  That's as small a headlight as there is... you don't suppose....   I drilled it out, checked is out with a Pico LED and it does fit.  So does the one on top of the cab roof.  It's a much bigger headache to find space for the LED 470-ohm resistors than the lights, but once you get wires to the front truck contacts you now have a wiring potential for all this stuff.

My usual white Pico LED's are too jarringly white, I ordered warm white like my 402's.  Pause on the project.   I did conclude I can get a 470 ohm resistor diagonally stuffed under the boiler, and the second one under the cab roof, so it's just difficult, not impossible.   This bitty thing does have a turbogenerator on the boiler, and those aren't kerosene headlights, so it's possible for them to be on.

Looking at the epic Shay book, I was stunned to see that a two-cylinder T-boiler shay was built new as late as 1906, and that the oldest surviving Shay - the Michigan California 2, looked very much like this kit BEFORE it was rebuilt with a steel cab in the 1930's.   Shapeways also offers it the way it looks today, which is rather unique, to be kind.

I imagine somebody could attempt putting a decoder in this now, it's electrically stable enough at least, if you are willing to fill the entire cab up with wires.   I won't say it's impossible.

Part of my fascination with this is that I've been up to see the 'mystery Shay' that is privately owned in this area, by invitation, for about four years straight, that's a 12-tonner 24" gauge 3-cylinder about the same size as the kit, and it's just a hoot to ride around behind.    The owner is HIGHLY strict about his privacy, explicitly forbids internet postings and video,  and it's a physically secure site, trust me (free range Rotweillers) but this is what triggered my desire to build this kit when you've spent some significant time with one:  https://www.shaylocomotives.com/data/factsheet/sn-3118.htm

[Chris333]

Funny thing about the Mich-Cal Shay is that it started it's life in Michigan. The original Shay is what Bachmann based their On30 model on.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bhl/x-hs19009/hs19009