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Silver Sidelines

Entry posted by Silver Sidelines

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As Autumn approaches it is time to put the garden to bed and to come inside and play trains.

 

I am revisiting the north east of England in the early 1960s and I have resurrected my Bachmann Elizabethan train set. The splendid wooden box contains a model of 60017 Silver Fox with late crest and six maroon Thompson coaches. For use on my layout I had already added some extra lead ballast to the engine as detailed here in an earlier Post.

 

37288441565_bc1825b34a_b.jpg
A4 60017 Silver Fox heading the Elizabethan

 

Firstly a little bit of history. Bachmann marketed ‘The Elizabethan’ to mark the fifth anniversary of Bachmann Branchline. I calculate that the set dates from 1995.

 

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Bachmann Elizabethan 31-1995

 

In 1970 the model train manufacturer Trix had produced an 'OO' scale model A4. In 1974 it was re-branded as a Liliput model. Kader, Bachmann's parent company, bought Liliput in 1993 and according to the entry on Wikipedia modified the Liliput A4 to produce their Bachmann model. Around 2010 Bachmann upgraded their mechanism to make the model more digital friendly but the bodywork remained essentially unchanged from their first model.

 

36908807130_b5b24a659e_b.jpg
A4 Silver Fox on top of Roche A3 drawing

 

In the 1960s Trix models were built to a scale of around 3.7mm to the foot and their Mk1 coaches from that time are distinctly ‘short’. However the A4 was marketed as ‘00’ scale. The Railway Modeller for July 1988 has 4mm scale drawings for Mallard. Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of this issue and instead I have overlaid my Bachmann A4, Silver Fox, onto Mr Roche’s drawing of an A3. The wheel spacing is spot on, as are the overall length of the engine and the width of the cab. I would say that the Bachmann A4 is constructed to a scale of 4mm to the foot.

 

Back to the train set and A4 Silver Fox is supplied with a set of etched name plates, works plates and ‘Fox’ emblems for the purchaser to apply. I have an old faded British Transport colour slide of the prototype to show how the plates should be positioned.

 

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1960s Kings Cross BR A4 60017 Silver Fox

 

I chose to replace the Bachmann plates with new plates from Fox Transfers. Interestingly when the empty Fox fret is placed over the Bachmann name plates there is a difference of some 6mm (18 scale inches), the Fox plates being the longer! (I wonder if either is correct?)

 

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Empty Fox fret over Bachmann plates

 

How to position the plates?

 

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Cardboard templates and bits of emery board

 

I made a couple of card templates for the works plates and the ‘Foxes’ which I could position on the sides of the body relative to handrails / boiler bands etc. I cut the templates with openings / indents to highlight where I should put pencil marks on the body which in turn could be used to position spots of adhesive – Humbrol satin varnish. The Bachmann body is constructed with two black blank name plates. These blank plates are far too thick. For my model of Seagull I was able to prise the plates off the body. However the plastic on Silver Fox was stuck fast and I was left with no choice but to reduce the plate thickness in situ. Luckily the plastic is soft and I was able to make some files using snippets from one of my wife’s emery boards (nail files).

 

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Bachmann Silver Fox with etched plates from Fox Transfers

 

What about the coaches?

 

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Thompson to Thompson coaches from the Elizabethan by Bachmann

 

Back in 1995 Bachmann had still to introduce their Mk1 coaches and the Elizabethan train set was instead put together with Bachmann’s early Thompson coaches. These early coaches are not flush glazed and suffer from a number of geometric inaccuracies. However when run as a set and viewed from a distance I think they are still passable. In my opinion they look even better when the gaps between adjacent coaches are blocked up with corridor connectors.

 

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Card connector

 

I used my tried and tested technique where each connector was cut from a rectangle 100mm by 32mm of black card (Daler – Rowney A4 Canford 150g/m Jet Black card). The centre panel was 16mm wide. The concertina sections on either side were made up of three sections, 16mm, 14mm and 12mm wide. In order to fit inside the dummy Bachmann corridor connector the 14 and 12mm sections were reduced in height by 4mm at the top and 2mm at the bottom. Marking out takes the most time and it makes sense to go for ‘batch production’.

 

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Ten off

 

The Elizabethan was non-stop Kings X Edinburgh Waverly and to enable a change of driver and fireman the tender was also equipped with a corridor connector.

 

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Train to tender corridor connector

 

The tender connector was made to the same geometry as for the Thompson coaches but it required a tiny piece of double sided tape to hold it in position on the tender.

 

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Thompson to BR Mk1 RU

 

I have introduced a BR Mk1 Restaurant Car into the rake of coaches. This was fitted with separate corridor connectors as described here in a previous Post.

 

How does it all work? Well there is a video here on YouTube. I have to say I am rather pleased.

 

http://youtu.be/S2lBkOgNEJI.

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  • RMweb Gold
46444
  • RMweb Gold

Nice entry as ever Ray.

 

Some top tips on a few simple tweaks to get the best out of this set.  Those corridor connectors are brilliant.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

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Silver Sidelines

Thanks Mark

Those corridor connectors are brilliant.

Cheap and cheerful.  I cannot believe the set is over twenty years old!

 

Regards

 

Ray

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  • RMweb Gold
Mikkel
  • RMweb Gold

Hi Ray, welcome back from the great outdoors :-) 

 

I remember that set being released and seeing the adverts in the mags. Frightening to think it is 22 years ago!  Some good tips there. I like the smooth quiet running demonstrated in the video, and that nice subtle hint of the clickety-clack. 

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Silver Sidelines

Thanks Mikkel

 

...... Frightening to think it is 22 years ago!  Some good tips there. I like the smooth quiet running demonstrated in the video, and that nice subtle hint of the clickety-clack. 

Yes - clickety click, I should have mentioned that I have substituted metal wheels on the coaches for the original plastic offerings.  I recollect that was physically quite difficult as the plastic bogies were very rigid.

 

Regards

 

Ray

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steamfinale

Just came across this - very impressive. I've also used flexible (paper) corridor connections to a slightly different design to good effect for some time. I was pleased to see the same technique used by the Bath Green Park guys when I visited their base at the WSR a few years ago.

The main let-down, having made the effort, can be the gap remaining between loco and tender, especially on older models. Cab doors and a fall plate are always an improvement. I make cab doors (set at an angle) from scribed plasticard and fall plates from a bit of guitar string to provide the hinge, lightly recessed into the cab-sides, and old metal toothpaste-tube or wine bottle foil to do the rest.

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Silver Sidelines

Good to read.  Some helpful additional ideas.

.I make cab doors (set at an angle) from scribed plasticard and fall plates from a bit of guitar string to provide the hinge, lightly recessed into the cab-sides,and old metal toothpaste-tube or wine bottle foil to do the rest.

I have made use of wine bottle foil - often for repairs.  Toothpaste tube was often mentioned in the Railway Modeller in the 1960s but where to get it now?

 

Thank you, regards  Ray

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Mark Laidlay

I've just come across one of these sets, any suggestions as to what they are worth now-a-days?

 

Mark in Melbourne

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Silver Sidelines
6 hours ago, Mark Laidlay said:

I've just come across one of these sets, any suggestions as to what they are worth now-a-days?

 

Mark in Melbourne

 

Hello Mark

 

There have been two good looking sets on eBay this last fortnight.  One was sold for £199 and the other was still on offer at £140.  I was even tempted but what could I do with a second set?

 

The pine box is big and heavy.  I like polished wood and have refinished at least one box.  So you have the cost to Australia to think about.

 

The positives are that I like Bachmann's A4s.  That said the chassis for Silver Fox does not have darkened valve gear.  It is also probable after all these years that some or all of the wheel joiners will need attention.  The driving wheel 'insulators' as Bachmann call them can be bought directly from their technical service department in Leicester for not a lot of money.  The black plastic joiners for the pony truck wheels become brittle but can be salvaged with super glue.  My Silver Fox has been fitted with a later chassis from Seagull - even better get one from Bittern.

 

30578357458_3eb6d86a98_5k.jpg

 

42638070340_fedd1dc43d_5k.jpg

 

Silver Fox on the 'non stop' - replacement chassis from Seagull and etched plates and plaque from Fox Plates

 

Moving on to the coaches, run as a rake I think they are passable.  The maroon colour is satin and dull as if weathered.  I have had a couple of boxed sets and ended up buying a separate replacement coach off eBay as one of my original coaches just didn't seem to have much paint on it!  That said when I sold my original coach I didn't receive any complaints.  The coaches supplied in the set have plastic wheels on pinpoint steel axles.  I swapped in some new Bachmann metal wheels.  The old bogies are made of very rigid plastic and swapping wheels was difficult.  I have in mind that I ended up swapping a couple of complete bogies from eBay because I had damaged the originals.  Beware the early Bachmann Thompson bogies are different to the later offerings with the narrower couplings and are completely different to the very latest super detail coaches.

 

Does that help?

 

If you have any specific questions, let me know.

 

Cheers Ray

Edited by Silver Sidelines
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Mark Laidlay

Thanks, when I said "I've come across one of these sets" I should have set I found one in a deceased estate.  So I am looking to sell it.  I am an Australian prototype modeller (Victorian Railways 1965) and am trying to not become a collector of all and sundry.  Thanks for the info, I couldn't find any on eBay.

Mark in Melbourne

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Silver Sidelines
On 19/03/2020 at 10:57, Mark Laidlay said:

Now I've found one .......

 

Thanks Mark

 

The price I feel is sometimes in the eye of the beholder.  At the end of the day is there a demand?  Yes but probably not from collectors.  The engine on its own is probably more sought after than the complete boxed set which takes up space and costs a lot of money to Post.

 

I found four items currently listed on the UK eBay site - I think one is the engine only.

 

Good luck

 

Ray

 

 

Bachmann Elizabethan.jpg

Edited by Silver Sidelines
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