Farish bargains

[Roy L S]

I have actually added the fourth A2 I threatened, but went for a 60527 Sun Chariot from Rails, largely as I couldn't be bothered to change yet another tender crest.

 

Hopefully it will be as reliable as the other three, and stronger than two of them (rice pudding comes to mind.....)

 

Les

 

Just to explain that 60526 can manage eight coaches on the straight and level, 60538 can manage six and 60539 five.  Given that the A2 was amongst the most powerful of BR's steam fleet (being rostered for jobs 9Fs couldn't cope with) I'd say none of them is really good enough in that respect.  I'm seriously thinking of using spare A1 traction-tyred wheels to give them a little more grunt.

 

That's what I did with "Sun Chariot" Les, and with the second tyred wheelset it certainly lives up to expectation.

 

Just a shame Bachmann penny pinching didn't provide customers with the choice of a second tyred wheelset in the box, not unreasonable for a loco listing at £160. 

 

However I can live with it at the price I paid for mine!

 

Roy

[Jim Martin]

Happy days indeed. Too good a price to pass up on, even though I have no immediate use for one. It will sit nicely next to the Revolution Pendolino & Class 321 though, ready for the day when the WCML layout makes it off the drawing board and into reality!

  

I suspect the main problem was lack of stock to run alongside them.Fortunately RevolutioN have stepped into the breach with their forthcoming Pendolino and 321 meaning that the modern WCML is now a realistic possibility.

A modern WCML layout could use a lot of Class 350s. I visit Berkhamsted quite often and some of the most impressive trains are the 12-car sets that sweep past on the fast lines en route to Northampton and Birmingham.

 

If you were modelling the route south of Milton Keynes, I'd say you'd want as many as five sets to reproduce the various combinations that you can see alongside one another. Fortunately for me, the Birmingham to Liverpool service is only ever a single unit.

 

Jim

[Les1952]

That's what I did with "Sun Chariot" Les, and with the second tyred wheelset it certainly lives up to expectation.

 

Just a shame Bachmann penny pinching didn't provide customers with the choice of a second tyred wheelset in the box, not unreasonable for a loco listing at £160. 

 

However I can live with it at the price I paid for mine!

 

Roy

 

60527 arrived and checked for function.  Then chipped and run in on DCC - I no longer have an analogue test track.  Haulage test after an hour running in shows she will start nine Pullmans on level straight track but struggles to keep them moving through the Radius 2 part of a Peco curved turnout, which both ends of Croft Spa's fiddle yard have to get more trains into said yard- the ruling curves otherwise being R3 inner and R4 outer.  That makes 60527 the strongest of my A2s by about half a coach - still not strong enough for the fish or fast goods trains which will have to continue with Dapol A4 or A3 haulage.

 

I haven't any spare A1 tyred wheels as they are all in use on A1s......  Must try to get some more.

 

Les

 

edit - even with the extra tyred wheels the A1s still aren't strong enough for Mr Simon's fish train, which runs with an A3 or occasionally a Britannia.

Edited June 26, 2017 by Les1952