The story of the Class D 4-truck Shay noted that the project started with two 3-truck Shays with the tender being robbed from one to double the size of the other, plus add one more truck. That left the engine part of one 3-truck Shay that was now down to 2 trucks. However, as is, it was not prototypical of a 2-truck Shay. The “tender” part needed work. The tender - water tank and coal hopper (or oil tank) - are integral to the engine on a 2-truck Shay.

To turn my “left-over” Shay into a true 2-truck Shay, I needed to extend the frame, and extend the hopper to become a combination water tank and coal hopper. The frame needed to be extended in such a way that it was truly structural because any time I pick a Shay up, I tend to pick it up by the ends of the frame. The ends of the Shay are normally the most structurally sound yet accessible lift points.

I used aluminum angle pieces bolted onto the original frame to extend the frame structurally. These parts would hide inside the hopper, and plastic I-beams would be glued in place on the underside for looks - giving visual extension to the original metal frame.

I needed to add a Revo wireless controller, and wanted to also add a Phoenix sound board. Plus I needed to cram a speaker in there somewhere. It was a tight fit, and to make space, I completely removed the original control board. The Revo board could directly drive the motors. I replaced the smoke unit and put its voltage regulator up front by the smoke unit. I rewired all the lights, replacing them with LEDs where they were not already LED. The only thing I wouldn’t have room for in this version of the Shay was a battery - that would have to be in the trailing car.

The end result is pretty close to what the factory original Class B 2-truck Shay would look like. Mine has wireless control (Revo) and Phoenix sound specifically programmed for a Shay chuff. In the end, my extension turned out to be 1/4” too long, but it still ended up pretty close to correctly detailed.