Bachmann 94xx

[melmerby]

I'm not old enough to remember the days of black and white locos.

They were in colour by the time I was spotting in the 1950s

[TheSignalEngineer]

9 hours ago, melmerby said:

I'm not old enough to remember the days of black and white locos.

They were in colour by the time I was spotting in the 1950s

I remember many of them being in unlined grot livery in those days. You couldn't tell what colour they were.

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I remember many of them being in unlined grot livery in those days. You couldn't tell what colour they were.

I seem to remember that locos were reasonably clean to start with (BR were still getting brand new steam locos) but got progressively grottier as we approached the '60s

 

[mat]

On 21/02/2021 at 16:49, The Johnster said:

I'm really happy (so you should be after all the fuss, Johnster) with my 94xx which is still improving in respect of slow running and smooth stops and starts.  It is easily the best loco at Cwmdimbath in this respect, and the others are all pretty good!  It is also 3 loaded minerals stronger than my best Bachmann 57xx, and up there with the 56xx.  What a superb model.  The Railtec transfers arrived yesterday morning and her identity is now 8497,  allox Tondu May 1953 until 1961.

I do think they do need a lot of time running in mine has improved over time and its haulage capacity is very good

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

I seem to remember that locos were reasonably clean to start with (BR were still getting brand new steam locos) but got progressively grottier as we approached the '60s

 

I think it depended largely on the shed and type of loco. I doubt if some of the new locos like 94xx ever got cleaned between building and scrapping. 

Bushbury usually managed a clean loco for the London trains and the Birmingham -Glasgow would have a nice clean Scot  in the late 50s/ early 60s. Things started to really go down as the diesels came in.

 

[Ian Hargrave]

2 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I think it depended largely on the shed and type of loco. I doubt if some of the new locos like 94xx ever got cleaned between building and scrapping. 

Bushbury usually managed a clean loco for the London trains and the Birmingham -Glasgow would have a nice clean Scot  in the late 50s/ early 60s. Things started to really go down as the diesels came in.

 

The Birmingham Scot was usually a Crewe North ( 5A ) turn .It would occasionally use an ex-works loco such as a newly constructed Britannia 70052 unnamed  which I saw once at W’ton HL.Useful for a comparatively short running in turn as there was a loco change at Crewe for 8P haulage.

 

[The Johnster]

3 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

think it depended largely on the shed and type of loco. I doubt if some of the new locos like 94xx ever got cleaned between building and scrapping. 

It depended on the depot, and the main issue was staff.  Cleaners were in the loco grade of promotion, to become passed cleaners, firemen, passed firemen, and then drivers, and during the BR steam era were a bit thin on the ground in may places.  Promotion, dead mens' shoes, was slow and the work filthy and poorly paid, with seriously unsociable hours for young men who wanted to drink beer and dance with girls.  New factories were opening everywhere offerning cleaner working conditions, better pay, and regular shift patterns, often with plenty of overtime and better chances of promotion.  In those days, if you didn;t like your job, you could walk off it at lunchtime and have a new job for the afternoon.

 

With most sheds short of cleaners, those that they had would often be out on the road firing rather than cleaning locos, the traditional and very effective way of learning about them, and of course the situation varied from shed to shed.  At Canton, famous for clean locos in the 50s, there were sufficient cleaners on hand to turn out locos for Paddington expresses and any inter-regional working to a very high standard, but everything else got pretty filthy pretty quickly and once that dirty, was unlikely to be cleaned until it's next works visit.  There were shed pets at many places that were kept in good visual order, while everything else took on the usual neglected appearance. 

 

This could be deceptive; in the summer of '67 I watched in awe as a Merchant Navy so filthy that is was unidentifiable thundered through Eastleigh on the down main at something I reckoned was in the high 90s with a 12 coach Bournemouth, steam tight and riding like a Pullman.  This was in contrast to the clean MN that had run through a little while before with the up Bournemouth Belle, at a rather sedate 50 or so though there were no leaks on that loco either.

 

8448, to return us to the subject of 94xx, was allocated brand new and presumably spotless to Tondu in 1954 and withdrawn for scrapping from the same shed, having spent it's entire brief working life there, in '59.  I very much doubt that it ever saw an oily rag except for firelighting, despite that Tondu considered it's 94xx allocation as passenger locos (I have yet to find a photo of one on any other type of work)

[Monkey28]

My 94xx has developed a problem running forwards but runs perfectly backwards.

 

It just started doing this when running the other night before that it was perfect 

 

I have made a youtube video showing the issue. I've also included a link to my previous video showing the loco running no problems 

 

 

[The Johnster]

Looks to me as if something is binding a little somewhere.  Check the motion by turning the loco upside down and applying power to the brass eyelets on the bottom of the keeper plate, observing the clearances of the revolving wheels and the coupling rods, but also try loosening the keeper plate bolts in small increments,  a quarter turn at a time.  If this doesn't work carefully remove the keeper plate (carefully because the motor feed wires are soldered to the pickup strips on it), drop the wheels out, and give everything in there a good clean.  I prefer to clean out the coloured grease that the model is factory lubricated with, as it attracts gunge and solidifies after a while, and apply a light non-mineral oil as lubricant.

[Monkey28]

7 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Looks to me as if something is binding a little somewhere.  Check the motion by turning the loco upside down and applying power to the brass eyelets on the bottom of the keeper plate, observing the clearances of the revolving wheels and the coupling rods, but also try loosening the keeper plate bolts in small increments,  a quarter turn at a time.  If this doesn't work carefully remove the keeper plate (carefully because the motor feed wires are soldered to the pickup strips on it), drop the wheels out, and give everything in there a good clean.  I prefer to clean out the coloured grease that the model is factory lubricated with, as it attracts gunge and solidifies after a while, and apply a light non-mineral oil as lubricant.

 

I have done that Johnster 

 

What I have found is that with the base plate removed the rear wheel with the gear on is moving in an up and down movement.

 

Thinking that the quartering has gone out slightly 

 

Going to either send it back or see what Bachmann say .

[New Haven Neil]

On 18/03/2021 at 16:43, The Johnster said:

Who the ....  Chris Pendleton?

Snip<

 

Chris PendLENton !!!!!!

[Budgie]

On 15/03/2021 at 16:37, Departmental said:

Yes, i was looking to buy a body and put a far better chassis at a different gauge under it. Can in a way understand John's post above, but think it might produce more sales of parts if the policy wasn't so restrictive. Ahh well will have to wait... or not bother with a 94xx at all. 

Sorry I'm so late replying to this: I've been rather sidetracked recently.

 

I you want just a body, have you thought of buying a loco, and selling the chassis to someone else?

[w124bob]

In the "Pannier Papers 94xx vol" there's a comment in one of the captions that the works plates were removed from the contractor built loco's by Swindon because they didn't want to advertise the fact they were out sourced. 

A word of caution for those dismantling the body from the footplate, removing the upper body from the footplate involves 4 tiny screws . They will do there best to escape, once the body is free however the sand operating rods thread through the front tank supports preventing the body from being separated completely. In theory these rods are just a push fit into tiny locating holes on the footplate, mine were well secured by the paint. Only after I split everything did I decide I needn't really have done it, it just makes the cab doors are easier to glue in place. The cab door gap and generally larger proportions of the cab make adding crew easier than other Panniers. I have a second waiting in the queue for weathering, so won't go to the extreme of splitting off the footplate with this one. My pair, 8405/09 join 92079 and 47276 as a homage to the Lickey, so they'll be right at home on my club's OO layout Dewsbury Midland !

[PMP]

On 18/03/2021 at 07:47, adb968008 said:

your mixing historic and current.

When it was released, Branch-line range was very well received.

 

If it was panned as badly as you claim, it wouldn't have endured for the next 20 years (I think 7819 in the SVR set around 2015 was the last release using it).

 

Yes time hasn't been good, but in 1990 rtr DCC didn't exist for a start, Technology moved on, but compare apples with apples.. against its contemporaries in 1990.. Replica, Dapol, Hornby, Lima.. i’d take a Branchline 4MT over a repackaged Dapol,ex-Mainline Scot, or a new Lima Crab..  you cannot compare it, sat in your mailing office in 1990 against a golden ball predicting a Midland 1p in. 2021

 

I think we just agree to disagree and move on, i’m not really that bothered so take the last word.

 

 I will take the last word.

For a start I wasn't sitting in any mail order office in 1990, I was quite clear when I worked in that section of the trade. So lets have less fabrication of facts to suit your narrative please.

 

For the revisionist history section, I've spoken this week to one of the people who used to do warranty repair work at Bachmann throughout that period. They had plenty of faulty returns and the chassis design wasn't liked by them, due in part to the number returned. That was one of the reasons the blister pack chassis were available, to replace faulty ones.

I myself had two replacement chassis in that period, 2x BR 4MT and a B1 which failed, the 4MT was to replace the original mainline chassis, and then the replacement replacement failed. I replaced the B1 chassis with the early comet chassis. 

There were plenty of failures with the Bachmann split chassis designs, not only do Bachmann ex-warranty repair staff recognize it, but many other modelers do, try a google search 'Bachmann Split chassis', that's why those chassis' earned the poor reputation they have.

[w124bob]

First look at 8405, awaiting a crew to come on duty from Modelu3d ! Bromsgrove being an ex MR shed didn't do the usual WR practice of the hose dangling from the footplate. 

Number came from Railtec and includes smokebox and shed plate, no airbrush was used just applications of MigAmmo acrylics and powders.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by w124bob

[PMP]

On 18/03/2021 at 16:43, The Johnster said:

Who the .... was Ian Petherton, then, and what is he doing in my head confusing himself with Chris Pendleton?

 

I went to a show at Wembley specifically to see 'North Sheilds', and had a wonderful view of the backs of the punters that were about 6 deep around it.  A phenomenal layout which, along with some of Iain Rice's output at that same time, was very influential on my thinking, and still is. 

That would be unlikely. The layout being a ‘stay at home’ has only been exhibited twice, once to the MRJ show at Westminster Central Hall, and once in Newcastle.

[Steamport Southport]

10 minutes ago, PMP said:

That would be unlikely. The layout being a ‘stay at home’ has only been exhibited twice, once to the MRJ show at Westminster Central Hall, and once in Newcastle.

 

More unnecessary pedantry. 

 

it's obvious he's probably mixed Wembley up with Westminster. 

 

 

Some really do need to realise this is supposed to be a forum about toy trains, not Hansard. People make mistakes. Get over it.

 

 

Jason

[PMP]

On 22/03/2021 at 17:37, Monkey28 said:

My 94xx has developed a problem running forwards but runs perfectly backwards.

 

It just started doing this when running the other night before that it was perfect 

 

I have made a youtube video showing the issue. I've also included a link to my previous video showing the loco running no problems 

 

 

It sounds like one of the two front pickups may be disturbed from  resting  on the wheel rim, and is ‘clicking’ on the spokes, which is why it only clicks going forwards. 
 

And the requested colour picture 

[PMP]

4 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

More unnecessary pedantry. 

 

it's obvious he's probably mixed Wembley up with Westminster. 

 

 

Some really do need to realise this is supposed to be a forum about toy trains, not Hansard. People make mistakes. Get over it.

 

 

Jason

I’d be very surprised if anyone mixed up the MRJ show with any other. If you went, you’d know why.

[Captain Kernow]

On 17/03/2021 at 19:05, adb968008 said:

I stand by my belief in their day nothing wrong with Bachmann split chassis (I note the edited post to insert Mainline), mainline certainly had its flaws I will grant that, but Bachmann largely resolved them, hence why so much business in spare chassis for upgrades was created

I had an original Mainline J72, which I had weathered and reliveried as a sold-out-of-service example to the NCB.

 

When the original split chassis gave up the ghost, I bought a replacement Bachmann split chassis and tried to fit it to the Mainline body, but something had been changed in the cab area, and the new chassis would not fit, so I had to sell it on.

 

I then built a Perseverance chassis for it, which the loco still retains.

 

[Captain Kernow]

Out of interest, has anyone yet converted one of the Bachmann 94XXs to EM or P4,please?

 

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, PMP said:

That would be unlikely. The layout being a ‘stay at home’ has only been exhibited twice, once to the MRJ show at Westminster Central Hall, and once in Newcastle.

My memory playing tricks again (don't mock, you'll be old and useless one day as well).  It was Westminster Central Hall, the only time I've ever been there, wonderful old place.

 

It was a bit of a dissappointment, that particular layout being the main reason I'd made the schlep up from Cardiff.  I'd been seriously impressed by the magazine articles and wanted to see it in the flesh, running.  I'm sure I enjoyed the other layouts there and did some shopping, but my memory cannot provide the details.  If this show was open on Sunday, that's the day I'd have gone; there was a train up from Cardiff in the morning which was a 50 hauling coaches, a Bristol BRD turn, and being Sunday, with the inevitable delays and diversions, you could guarantee a fast run to make up time into Paddington.  I timed it on one occasion at 114mph, sustained between Goring & Streatley and Pangbourne, the fastest I have ever clocked with a locomotive hauled train, and in a mk1 coach at that!

 

These London shows from the 1980s sort of merge into each other in my memory. 

Edited March 27, 2021 by The Johnster

[Budgie]

2 hours ago, PMP said:

That would be unlikely. The layout being a ‘stay at home’ has only been exhibited twice, once to the MRJ show at Westminster Central Hall, and once in Newcastle.

What was the MRJ show? As I remember them the shows at the Westminster Central Hall were the MRC (Model Railway Club) show.

[cctransuk]

1 minute ago, Budgie said:

What was the MRJ show? As I remember them the shows at the Westminster Central Hall were the MRC (Model Railway Club) show.

 

The MRJ show was a one-off, legendary / infamous exhibition, organised by the Model Railway Journal publishers.

 

Legendary for the selection of superb layouts displayed; infamous for the length of the queue, and the density of the crowd once inside.

 

I can vouch for both - I was there!

 

John Isherwood.

[PMP]

12 minutes ago, Budgie said:

What was the MRJ show? As I remember them the shows at the Westminster Central Hall were the MRC (Model Railway Club) show.

As John has mentioned above, it was sort of the model railway equivalent of the 1966 cup final, at Central Hall in November 1990. I’m genuinely surprised (age notwithstanding) that the other layouts can’t be recalled or that it could ‘merge’ with the other London shows.

Edited March 27, 2021 by PMP
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