Bachmann announce Class 117 and Class 121 at Collectors Club event

[The Ghost of IKB]

How easy is it to change the destination blind? Anyone done it yet?

Im thinking of pretending they worked in the north west and getting one. M prefixes and man vic destination blinds and a healthy application of rule one would be enough to twist my arm into purchasing one. Did a similar type work out of liverpool at some time? Sorry my knowledge of dmus is poor.  As a lad i only paid attention to locos.

 

Edited March 30, 2021 by The Ghost of IKB

[wombatofludham]

55 minutes ago, The Ghost of IKB said:

How easy is it to change the destination blind? Anyone done it yet?

Im thinking of pretending they worked in the north west and getting one. M prefixes and man vic destination blinds and a healthy application of rule one would be enough to twist my arm into purchasing one. Did a similar type work out of liverpool at some time? Sorry my knowledge of dmus is poor.  As a lad i only paid attention to locos.

 

Class 115 4 car DMUs, similar to the 4 car units that worked out of Marylebone, worked the old Cheshire Lines services out of Liverpool.  

 

[adb968008]

2 hours ago, The Ghost of IKB said:

How easy is it to change the destination blind? Anyone done it yet?

Im thinking of pretending they worked in the north west and getting one. M prefixes and man vic destination blinds and a healthy application of rule one would be enough to twist my arm into purchasing one. Did a similar type work out of liverpool at some time? Sorry my knowledge of dmus is poor.  As a lad i only paid attention to locos.

 

depends on your time period, but Manchester always got the tinpot DMU fleet, not much was transferred away, that wasnt immediately sent for scrap.

 

1. The class 104 is the DMU that puts the Manky into Manchester.

A class 104 defined Manchester DMUs.. they went everywhere and did everything, for 30 years... many drunks have travelled home from Blackpool on these... my childhood wouldn't be complete without these... every day out involved a 104 for me in the 1980’s.

(Heljan -2022)

 

2. Class 101’s also shared Manchester and they could be any livery, indeed after 1987 finding a matching pair would win you a bag of chips... Green, Blue, White, Blue Grey, Strathclyde, Regional Railways they all ran around Manchester... started before the 104s and ended at the turn of the century.

(Lima, Bachmann and Hornby) 

 

3. Class 108’s.. NH’s flagship DMU.. again any time, any place any livery.. Generally well kept, solid until the end.

(Bachmann) 

 

Others...

class 110’s regularly visited Manchester and felt a bit posh, with their extra power, looked a but better constructed and lacked the usual knife slashed beer wet seats associated with Manchester commuter services.

(Hornby)

If you connected at Stalybridge, then a 122 Bubble car would be waiting for you.

(Dapol)

 

And in the early evenings the Diesel Parcels Units regularly did newspaper runs out to Southport via Bolton, Oldham loop

(Heljan)

 

Going back slightly..

 

class 105’s regularly did East Lancs services.. Preston, Colne, Blackburn, Rochdale, Oldham, Trans lancs from Rochdale to Bolton via Knowsley st, Accrington via Bury, and Rawtenstall.

(Bachmann) 

 

class 120’s would run Blackpool services alongside 104’s

(DCKits and Silverfox kits for these.)

 

124’s were on transpeninnes...

for these its a bit more tricky.. the 124 will probably replace Fell as the stuff of legend for wishlisters..

Dapol was the last to make this (yours truly had a short placement at Dapol in the early 90’s which included making these.., Trix before that.

 

and in the late 1960’s there would have been Met Cam 101 predecessors.

(Triang).

 

As for the 117...

I saw a Regional Railways 117 at Piccadilly, I confused it with a 308 and was amazed it was there, it was a sunday when 25kv was off around I think around Macclesfield I recall, as I was heading from home to uni and had a railfreight 47 for haulage on my Birmingham train. Almost certainly that isnt the only time a Tyseley 117 has made it to Piccadilly, but its not a daily thing.

 

other vistors included 114’s, usually Piccadilly from Sheffield, including the SYPTE brown one, 115’s from Liverpool. Some oddball vehicles made it to Manchester into sets at different points.

 

 

Edited March 30, 2021 by adb968008

[Roy Langridge]

Set B432 at Manchester here: B432

 

Roy

[adb968008]

A bit of flickr research brings closer to the north west,,,

(All pictures are flickr urls, not my images)

 

here the GW150 set at Stoke on a Crewe service

another 177 at Stoke.. RR this time..

 

 

There seems to be debate on if this is going to Rugby, or Derby in the chat... now going back to my own experience, there was a 1606 Manchester Piccadilly to Rugby turn during this time... arrived stoke 1701 and Rugby at 1913.. and it did stop every lampost, including Stone and Norton Bridge... so this would tally with my own experience of a 117 at Piccadilly and the time of day would be right for me, and was advertised as a Midline service, so a Birmingham based AM would presumably be the norm, and a TS 117 substitute entirely feasible.

 

here is another in Sheffield

 

The units got about, but only the GW set (and the Yellow BT one earlier) really attracted cameras until they were closer to withdrawal, they were just another dopey looking DMU that bumbled about... didnt attract much attention, indeed I only remember the 117 at Piccadilly because I confused it with a 308.. then realised the number of doors/windows and put thoughts about a kit bash, as Limas model was about in RR colours at the time... any other time I’d not have noticed nor bothered, so good chance it did happen occasionally, but camera film would be diverted to 104/110’s or 155’s at that particular time.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2021 by adb968008

[wombatofludham]

T305 was often used on excursions and day trips by Tyseley.  It has been photographed at York and the Settle and Carlisle (on Flickr).  The 117s also were often used on North Wales holiday services so after 1987 when the 117s that ended up at Tyseley arrived at the depot, it's more than feasible they could have worked in the North West.  If I remember correctly, a superficially similar Class 118 was allocated to Tyseley in 1986, plus Bristol allocated sets got to Shrewsbury much earlier, again confirmed by photographs on Flickr, and it's not that much of a stretch to suggest they could have got further north.  The Western seemed to send Class 117 and 118 some distance from their home depots, with "L" branded London units turning up at Birmingham, and Bristol based units turning up in the city via Worcester.  There's even a photo of an all-blue, non corridor unit working through Longbridge on Flickr so you could probably, without incurring too many penalty points on your modeller's licence, justify a 117 in the North West as a unit used by the WR on a North and West service via Shrewsbury, then "borrowed" by Longsight!

[adb968008]

Whilst not 117’s, if you want a bit of inspiration on the northwest 1st gen unit scene in the last 80’s early 90’s...

i dont know what this is (its not a 117, but its not a local unit).. its on a Blackpool with a 101 centre car in it...

 

the last time I saw a 110 on BR..

 

scottish visitor.. in Bolton, or half of it.

 

and a welsh visitor to Bolton..

 

A lot of faraway units came into Manchester, as the 155’s were failing badly.. first the doors randomly opening, then the 153 conversions. At the same time 142 gearboxes were falling off so Manchester endured a prolonged unit shortage that ended up lasting 7 years and brought all manner of knackered stuff, including Freight locos from SP borrowed to run on passenger stock until it settled on 31/4 and 37/4, and Cardiff produced 33’s on Manchesters (there was even a scheduled class 50 turn).

 

So a 117 is no real stretch, especially on a sunday if wires were down, WCML suburbans would need something as I didnt recall seeing 304/5/8’s being dragged.

Edited March 31, 2021 by adb968008

[andyman7]

On 27/02/2021 at 17:38, andyman7 said:

I've not been buying, but the interchangeability of first generation DMUs means all sorts of uses either as parts to adapt or as an 'odd' trailer. Obviously couplings needs adapting.

Having said I'll not be buying a bit of luck with a local auction house has seen an unused Kernow GW150 set come into my possession for under £200, at that price I couldn't resist. I'd already bought a 121 in Blue Grey so this is a great companion.

[Neil P]

I've noticed that the non-sound versions of the 117 have been taken off Bachmann's website, and are sold out in a lot of places. Have they been discontinued already?
 

[Paul.Uni]

2 minutes ago, Neil P said:

I've noticed that the non-sound versions of the 117 have been taken off Bachmann's website, and are sold out in a lot of places.

Only the sound fitted 117 is in the 2021 Combined Volume

[Neil P]

3 minutes ago, Paul.Uni said:

Only the sound fitted 117 is in the 2021 Combined Volume

 

Thanks. Why do manufacturers do this? No wonder the prices of second-hand stock goes sky-high after a couple of years.

 

[Monkersson]

9 minutes ago, Neil P said:

 

Thanks. Why do manufacturers do this? No wonder the prices of second-hand stock goes sky-high after a couple of years.

 

The only people to blame for secondhand prices, are those paying the prices asked.

[Markwj]

I have a sound version 121 was just wondering if I can put the sound chip into my117, would it work correctly? Has anyone tried this?

mark

[andyman7]

1 hour ago, Neil P said:

I've noticed that the non-sound versions of the 117 have been taken off Bachmann's website, and are sold out in a lot of places. Have they been discontinued already?
 

 

1 hour ago, Neil P said:

 

Thanks. Why do manufacturers do this? No wonder the prices of second-hand stock goes sky-high after a couple of years.

 

Everything is batch produced these days. The manufacturers have to try and estimate demand, ideally so that the models don't sell out straight away but also don't hand around for years either - which leads to capital being tied up and in the bad old days stock dumping at discount prices which might please the lucky buyers of said bargains but undermines customer loyalty for those who bought at full price and also damages the retail trade.
In the case of the 117s Bachmann seem to have called it right with the non-sound versions, there was plenty of opportunity to buy when these came out but they haven't hung around. 

[meatloaf]

6 hours ago, Markwj said:

I have a sound version 121 was just wondering if I can put the sound chip into my117, would it work correctly? Has anyone tried this?

mark

Yes it will work fine. Nit sure if the sound files are the same on the 121 and 117 but should be pretty similar

[adb968008]

On 24/07/2021 at 11:16, Neil P said:

 

Thanks. Why do manufacturers do this? No wonder the prices of second-hand stock goes sky-high after a couple of years.

 

 

On 24/07/2021 at 11:26, Monkersson said:

The only people to blame for secondhand prices, are those paying the prices asked.

Actually Bachmann are preventing sky high prices doing this.

 

By having the sound version on the shelf, no one is going to pay more for the non-sound version…, whilst the sound version is still around.

[Class 158 productions]

10 hours ago, adb968008 said:

 

Actually Bachmann are preventing sky high prices doing this.

 

By having the sound version on the shelf, no one is going to pay more for the non-sound version…, whilst the sound version is still around.

Like what’s happening with the 159. Some shops have the DC version for more than the sound, think Kernow had it that way 

[Chris56057]

Rails have got the NSE 121 on discount for £199 - just wondering which sound file this has on board? Is it one of Bachmann's own ones? 

Edited September 26, 2021 by Chris56057

[robertcwp]

On 24/07/2021 at 13:08, andyman7 said:

 

Everything is batch produced these days. The manufacturers have to try and estimate demand, ideally so that the models don't sell out straight away but also don't hand around for years either - which leads to capital being tied up and in the bad old days stock dumping at discount prices which might please the lucky buyers of said bargains but undermines customer loyalty for those who bought at full price and also damages the retail trade.
In the case of the 117s Bachmann seem to have called it right with the non-sound versions, there was plenty of opportunity to buy when these came out but they haven't hung around. 

Blue/grey 117s were on sale on stands at GETS at the weekend, so some are still around it seems. I assume they were not the sound ones as the price I saw was £260.

[dj_crisp]

Hi All

 

I'm after a bit of help after playing around with a Bachmann 121 chassis.

 

When running both my 121s seem rather loud - has anyone got any tips on quietening the mechanism?

 

And now I'm trying to sort out which non-sound decoder to fit - options for a pluz22 decoder seem to be Bachmann inhouse or Zimo or ESU? I've tended to stick to Zimo or ESu after many failures with other brands but was sure if there is a mapping issue if i use those - Not bothered if it can be easily re-mapped using a sprog to fix,

 

Thanks

Will

[Kaput]

Bachmann's branded Plux22 decoder is a Zimo and the factory sound ones are Zimo so there is no mapping issues with them. Generally shouldn't be mapping issues with any Plux22 decoder since its one single standard instead of a mess of different "standards" like the 21pin ones.

[dj_crisp]

Thanks!

I shall check them out

 

Cheers

Will

[drgj]

Will- Have you run the mechanism in as in the instructions? It should quieten down once this is done.

 

I have a Bachmann locomotive that sounds quite whirry but if I take the body off it is quiet. There may be some resonance being set up on this and maybe yours.

 

[dj_crisp]

4 hours ago, drgj said:

Will- Have you run the mechanism in as in the instructions? It should quieten down once this is done.

 

I have a Bachmann locomotive that sounds quite whirry but if I take the body off it is quiet. There may be some resonance being set up on this and maybe yours.

 

 

Thanks... its been on a rolling road and one way is better than the other. I shall give it a bit longer and see how it goes (with and without the body to see if there is any difference).

 

Cheers

Will

[NickL2008]

Hi - has anyone attempted to renumber their 117? How well do they respond to thinners / T-cut? Thinking of renumbering my one

 

NL