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Bachmann announce GWR 'City'


Andy Y

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The haulage power is not brilliant, though as stated in previous threads, Bachmann haulage tends to be poorer with the steam engines compared to Hornby etc. My Truro will pull nine Bachmann mk 1's but it required modification to the tender drawbar. I filled the front of the tender with lead and inserted packing washers on the connecting pin until it lifted the tender a fraction, but placed all the weight on the drawbar causing the back drivers to sit more firmly on the rails.Down side is the front tender wheels sometimes stop rotating on some of my poorer laid track, but a small price to pay.

 

Anyone who kit builds GWR 4-4-0's will appreciate this. Forward motion forces, tend to lift the year wheels off the track a fraction with only the front drivers doing any work. Not my idea - I stole it from Pendon who stole it from Swindon.The Pendon 4-4-0's all haul very long trains as the tender weight 'sits' on the back of the loco and the leading tender wheels just float, carrying no weight whatsoever.

 

My un-modified City of Bristol will only haul five coaches, though that is all I want from it as it is modeled in the twighlight of its' career at Bristol hauling shorter Weymouth semi fast services.

 

Mike Wiltshire

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The haulage power is not brilliant, though as stated in previous threads, Bachmann haulage tends to be poorer with the steam engines compared to Hornby etc. My Truro will pull nine Bachmann mk 1's but it required modification to the tender drawbar. I filled the front of the tender with lead

 

What do you use to glue the lead in Mike.Is there no effect on the plastic.

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What do you use to glue the lead in Mike.Is there no effect on the plastic.

PVA. Leave it to set hard before moving. it does not stick to the plastic but moulds itself to shape and is a tight fit when the chassis is screwed back on.

 

Mike Wiltshire

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Anyone who kit builds GWR 4-4-0's will appreciate this. Forward motion forces, tend to lift the year wheels off the track a fraction with only the front drivers doing any work. Not my idea - I stole it from Pendon who stole it from Swindon.The Pendon 4-4-0's all haul very long trains as the tender weight 'sits' on the back of the loco and the leading tender wheels just float, carrying no weight whatsoever.

 

 

 Tell me about it Mike , I spent hours getting my K's Bulldog balanced and have ended up with a solution like your's .

 

 I still need to do a bit more refinement to get a slightly closer coupling but at least now it does'nt just sit rail grinding

with minimal loads .

 

 You just about make out the floating front tender wheels in this photo .

 

post-6765-0-91161500-1388579483.jpg

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....Anyone who kit builds GWR 4-4-0's will appreciate this. Forward motion forces, tend to lift the year wheels off the track a fraction with only the front drivers doing any work. Not my idea - I stole it from Pendon who stole it from Swindon.The Pendon 4-4-0's all haul very long trains as the tender weight 'sits' on the back of the loco and the leading tender wheels just float, carrying no weight whatsoever.

 

Particularly encouraged for compensated chassis.

 

May work for CSB-fitted 4-4-0s; will be looking at this for the GNR(I) "S"-class.

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  • 2 weeks later...

How likely would it have been that the Cities would have still had the fully lined garter crest livery in the 1920s?

 

HIt and miss as they were no longer front line engines and they continued in plain unlined green for some time after 1922 as they were a low priority for a repaint. Certainly these engines destined to last until the early 1930's were more likely to receive a full repaint and lining, though tender swops could dictate whether it was garter or crest towards the end of their lives.

 

If you asking in relation to the Bachmann Model, be aware that most if not all, the Cities were not attached to the small narrow tender that the model comes with in the late 1920's but the wider type as below (hence why I rebodied the tender on mine).

 

post-9992-0-34981400-1389461346_thumb.jpg

 

I have copies of shots of Halifax, a friend was collecting for a Bachmann conversion. A 1927 dated image shows large tender, unlined green with plain GREAT WESTERN on the tender. I am looking at an image of DeGlehn 104 at the time of withdrawal, another engine no longer in front line service and it is still in unlined livery.

 

As is often the case, a clear dated photograph of your intended engine is the only way to be accurate.

 

Mike Wiltshire

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Not seen that one before. Thanks for the link.

 

It highlights the challenge of finding dated images. This one states 'circa' which only gives a guidance. The shot is taken at Leamington where 3711 was allocated, but only for two months before withdrawal. From 3711 last Swindon overhaul in 1928 it was allocated to Wolverhampton three times, Tyseley, Chester, and finally Leamington all in the space of less than two and a half years. After WWI 3711 spent alot of time at Chester. I do not have the tender records for this period but it was not unusual to attach larger tenders due to the longer runs required from this far North. Leamington engines had a much shorter radius of work where lower capacity tenders could cope. For comparison 3716 City of London was certainly attached to a large tender in 1921, but being mainly a Bristol area engine, needed a higher capacity tender for the longer runs.  I do wonder if 3711 was non too reliable with the transfer record. Since the end of WWI 3711 was shoppped at Swindon five times and once at Wolverhampton. Six works visits in twelve years!

 

There is a image of 3711 on eBay at the moment showing her in the scrap line minus tender with no obvious evidence of lining.

 

Back to the original question, it is highly unlikely, as offered by Bachmann, the black frames/garter crest was seen in the mid-late twenties, unless you can find an exception. I had the same dilema with Atbara's and Flowers which resulted in mine being painted in unlined green.

 

Mike Wiltshire

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I agree with Mike that the continued presence of lining on Cities (and indeed, any of the 4-4-0s) after the mid-20s would be very unlikely.

 

Most of the large-wheeled 4-4-0s did tend to end up with 3500g tenders at the end of their lives, so the 3711 picture is probably not a typical one. Some of these larger tenders probably came from Halls and Castles, which were then migrating upward to 4000g. In turn, the 3500g tenders on the large-wheeled 4-4-0s were transferred to Bulldogs when the big 4-4-0s finally disappeared in 1931. 

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  • 5 months later...

Has anyone else had trouble with the front bogie on a city? Mine derails constantly and I think the spring is to harsh, lifting the second wheel on the pony constantly, has anyone else come across this ??

I have this problem with the Bachmann 43xx.

 

It runs much better in reverse.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just Read through this thread, so the model of city of Bath is generally correct but how long did it keep this pre WW1 livery ? although as I understand it probably had its tender changed before withdrawal in the early 30s

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  • 10 months later...

Hi Mike,

 

Just a thought, but are the driving wheels in upside down? If you remove the bottom/contact plate that retains the wheels, remove them and then turn them over 180 degrees, the rods should be the right way up. I have managed to do this with several engines whilst repairing them, only to have to strip the wheels out to correct my goof. Just make sure the worm and gears mesh ok.

 

Matt

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Hi Mike,

 

Just a thought, but are the driving wheels in upside down? If you remove the bottom/contact plate that retains the wheels, remove them and then turn them over 180 degrees, the rods should be the right way up. I have managed to do this with several engines whilst repairing them, only to have to strip the wheels out to correct my goof. Just make sure the worm and gears mesh ok.

 

Matt

 

Hi Matt, oh heck  :O never ever considered that! if they were would there by any other implications?

She runs sweetly now and I fitted those horrid axle tie bars, which would have to come off if I take the wheel set out.

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Had a bit of a problem with 'lumpy' running on my City. Checked and found that 2/4 pickups were not aligned with the driving wheels and none of the tender pickups were collecting from the axles. One axle had the pickups all scrunched up inside the body: guess that was an original assembly fault and the other pair of pickups were not making contact with the axle. A bit of judicious persuasion and unbending all round finally  got them working correctly. Now runs sweetly.

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Hi Mike

 

Well I guess if its running ok leave well alone.

 

I know some wheel sets are handed due to the gear on the axle being offset to one side. If that were the case it wouldn't go together anyway. I haven't had to take my City apart so can't confirm one way or another.

 

I have also had problems with the contacts getting caught in the wheel spokes and not touching on the tender. Having gently repositioned with some tweezers, it runs as you say sweetly.

 

I've just seen your other post about pulling out the crank pins, sounds like you have solved the problem.

 

Matt

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  • 7 months later...
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Bachmann are due to release '3708 Killarney' later this year finished in unlined green:

 

http://www.Bachmann.co.uk/image_box.php?image=images1/branchline/31-728.jpg&cat_no=31-728&info=0&width=650&height=247

 

What are peoples thoughts on the choice of prototype? Also any idea of it's allocation at the time modelled?

 

CGW do replacement nameplates for 3708.  Additionally they also do plates for '3714 City of Gloucester' and 3715 City of Hereford' Would these be suitable locos to model using 3707 as a basis?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Mark

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http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/m_in_440_city1.htm

 

Some allocation info here Mark, none at Newton by the looks of it.

 

That's great Robin.   ;)

 

I'd forgotten about that site which is a bit daft really having only recently used it for researching a couple of Hall's I'm  re-doing from the Hornby Railroad range!

 

No chance of them going near Newton in the late 20's.

 

More a personal favourite and I've never treated myself to one before.  

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

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  • 7 months later...

Just bought myself one of these.  Great model but I noticed that one of the little pieces holding the handrail has gone missing.  Does anyone know if where I can get spare handrail knobs from that match the others on my City of Bath

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Try contacting Bachmann's spares department via the website. My original NRM CoT shed a crank pin at my club at Christmas and I have recently received a replacement (though had to buy crank pins and coupling rods all together just for one tiny part). Spares weren't available at the time of the incident but became available when the recent re-liveried City arrived in the country - worth getting in touch to see if they have the parts you need.

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