It made sence to follow on from the Bachmann Mk1’s with a look at their mk2’s. Arguably a better product with much nicer looking windows but not without some errors and room for improvement.
The most well know applied to the first batch and the blue and grey versions and was simply down to an error in the livery. The grey band is too narrow, it should go down as far as the door bump stops but is half a mil too high. Bit of a catch 22 problem this one. Better painters than I wont have a problem as it’s an easy fix but that pain in the backside white line is a bit worrying for us lesser mortals. Will the benefit of fixing the half mill height difference be undone by a dodgy white line? To be honest im not sure what to do and as I don’t have that many (enough for a Norwich rake) im drawn towards leaving it be so that the rake is consistent.
Another error concerns some of the first class coaches. The bars on the toilet windows being far too low down. Best to try to avoid those ones really although I do believe that this and the livery errors have been corrected on the current models.
Lastly is an error I havent seen mentioned before and I only came across recently. During a discussion on New Railway Modellers someone mentioned that they can’t run these coaches because their layout has third rail and the battery boxes hit it. Looking again at the models they do seem to hang quite low down so a bit of digging ensued.
As can be seen, on a real coach the battery boxes line up with the bogies…
… on the model they don’t and they are out by quite a long way. Luckily they are separate moulding and can be gently levered off. I cut the front mounting brackets off level with the top and carefully sanded the tops down so the the angle matches the Bachmann floor. Below is a before and after picture to give you an idea of how much sanding is needed.
Theres one box the other side that needs doing too. This one has its mounting lugs in the middle and I simply cut them off and again sanded the top to make sure the angle was right.
The modified coach. Other mods are Replica bogies and my steps.
The level of detail you go into is most admirable, and it does indeed make the model look so much better.
Nice work Jim and a subtle improvement. You certainly have a eye for this sort of thing that most would never notice in a million years!
Cheers
Simon
You say that Simon but I missed this one for a good few years!
Hi Jim,
Good spot. I’d be well tempted to overlook the livery issue. I’m not sure the effort and accuracy required would actually be worth it in this case.
Regards
Rob
Hi Jim,
The work on the battery boxes has made quite a difference. Although as Simon says, not many would have even noticed Bachmann’s mistake, the coach certainly looks less low-slung now.
Just one point: is the ride-height of the model correct? The gap between the top of the bogie and underside of the coach seems greater on the Bachmann model than that of the prototype coach pictured. Is it perhaps that the bogie side frames are slightly under-depth?
Coaches fitted with B4 bogies always tend to look a tad ‘stalky’ to me, so perhaps it is only my perception that is out!
All the best,
Colin
Hello Jim and Colin,
It is hard to decide if the ride height is a tad on the high side, without being able to compare both model and prototype side by side at a higher magnification, or with exact line drawings. I think I would go with Colin’s view that they are possibly a bit raised but as near as damn it.
All the best
Simon
Thanks chaps.
I work on a buffer height of 14mm (to the centres from the rail) and that’s what this is. Weather or not the buffers are in the right place is a different matter!
Hi Jim,
Didn’t mean to by hyper-critical re the ride-height. The white background might well have played tricks with my eyes!
All the best,
Colin
PS. Just how many coaches are you producing a week?!
Not at all Colin
I’ll comments and feedback are always welcome no matter how minor they may appear. That’s really the point.
Jim
Just out of interest Jim, why the change to the Replica bogies? Is it a P4 thing or is there something wrong with the appearance of the Bachmann B4?
Hi Jim
P4 wheels do fit better but I also think the replica ones look slightly better too – see http://box5206.temp.domains/~pfounew21764.html
Cheers
Jim