I think you will find all the answers you need at George's amazing web side. Here's the link to the pertinant page.

http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips6....html#batt

Good luck.

If you have a battery Plus store near you you can get the exact replacement battery even looks like it.  You may also want to check the speaker it could be defective if your getting a bad sound.  Have you tried charging the battery that is in it.  To do so you need to set on a test track and turn the power on and turn the volume down and let it charge for an hr or so.  Of coarse you would need to have it on rollers to do.  Later RJD

Wouldn't the fact that for a given voltage, the shay runs slower actually make the situation better?

That would be that you can run a higher track voltage (since the shay runs slowly), thus charging the battery better?

Regards, Greg

The battery is old. It's not holding a charge and needs to be replaced. The good news is that the battery is relatively cheap. The bad news is that, depending upon how it was installed, it might be somewhat difficult to get to. In all probability though, it's going to be easy to get to. My guess is that the Sierra unit, speaker and battery are all in the tender! Check George's site out for how to get in. It's not hard. Changing the battery could be as easy as plugging a new one in or possibly having to loosen two screws and wire the new ones into their place. Let us know what you find.

Also Sierra had a bad batch of batteries and I did at the time get a replacement from them.  Guess that option is gone.  If the sound system has the on/off switch wired in it's a little more than just plug it in.  You will need to cut wires and re solder.  Later RJD

Wouldn't the fact that for a given voltage, the shay runs slower actually make the situation better?

Only to a point. The B'mann Shay isn't geared a whole lot slower than the "rod" locos. They're not the slow runners you'd expect given the prototype. When I run at shows, I run my trains at a prototypical speed (somewhere around 15 scale mph if it's a rod loco), and I'm routinely being lapped by B'mann Shays on the adjacent track. On one hand, it's humorous to watch, but on the other, it's such a waste of all that monkey motion that goes around in such a blur you can't appreciate it.

If I recall, one of the early criticisms of the Sierra sound in the Shay was that when you ran the Shay at prototypically correct speeds (somewhere between a snail's pace and a moderate jog), it never received enough track voltage to actually charge the battery. I had two B'mann Shays, but I never ran either of them.

If you want a Shay that's geared for prototypic speeds, Accucraft's West Side Shay fits that bill. At 20 volts, it moves along at a whopping scale 11 mph!

Later,

K

But He could just run it a bit faster to do the charge.  Later RJD

Absolutely, and that's what most folks do. In fact, when you see a Shay running in the garden at a prototypical speed, it almost looks like it's standing still. It's come to not look remotely out of place at all to see a Shay running at a scale 15 - 20 mph or more. I think most modelers would be surprised to see how fast their trains are really running. You can take the Lionel away from the modeler, but... ;)

Later,

K