Bachmann 47 Body, Lima 47 Chassis

[davie]

Hi, has anyone attempted and succeeded in fitting a Bachmann 47 bodyshell to a Lima 47 chassis?  I know it sounds mad, but with so many modern Bachmann bodyshells available on ebay, it seems a cost effective way of upgrading an old model for £30 without having to spend £150!  Vitrains bodyshells do not fit and are too narrow, Heljan fit perfectly if the Lima chassis is trimmed slightly and Heljan bufferbeam grafted on.  However with Heljan 47 production paused for several years, there are still interesting options to choose from in the Bachmann range.  Any hints and tips would be welcome, D

[MJI]

Lima body is not bad at all, try detailing it instead

[Phil Bullock]

Think I rather pay the £50-60 usually asked for a Bachmann chassis....

[Darius43]

Isn’t that the wrong way round?   IMHO the Lima body (suitably detailed) on a Bachmann chassis would be better.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Hal Nail]

On 02/01/2020 at 20:10, davie said:

Heljan fit perfectly if the Lima chassis is trimmed slightly

Isn't the Heljan body notoriously wide? if it's a tight fit then perhaps unlikely the narrower Bachmann would?

[NickL2008]

1 hour ago, Hal Nail said:

Isn't the Heljan body notoriously wide? if it's a tight fit then perhaps unlikely the narrower Bachmann would?

 

The Heljan chassis is 2mm overwidth, youd need to mill alot of the chassis to get it to fit, im surprised as mentioned by the OP, that the Vi-trains chassis doesn't fit the Lima body, as Vitrains brought out a replacement chassis so that people could upgrade their older Lima class 47 models. The vitrains 47 can detail int oa good model and requires alot less work than the Bachmann and Heljan models, both of which have their own faults, but no excluding the vitrains model as well which also has faults

 

NL

[Clive Mortimore]

I am old and stupid but I can never see why anyone wants to mix and match the different makes of Brush Type 4 1/2s. All the varieties of the big Brushes I have run on their intended chassis bar one. A mate upgraded his Lima model with a Vi Trains chassis and gave me the unwanted Lima underframe. I can't recall why I had a spare Hornby body but it plonked itself nicely on the Lima chassis, no mods to either. I have a GBL running on a pair of Hornby power bogies. The same power unit is in my part built handmade one.

 

The make I dislike the most is the Bachmann, it looks smaller than the others. Followed by Lima, the front always looks wrong to me. Heljan one does look wider next to the other makes but otherwise I like them. The Vi Trains is the best looking RTR one but I still like my semi-detailed Hornby locos. When they are at the far end of the layout zooming at a scale 90mph with a rake of maroon coaches they take me back to my spotting days. See I said I was old and stupid, I still like the Hornby model. 

 

The most powerful one I have is a MTK with two MTK motors, it can pull a Heljan one backwards. When I first got I didn't realise it was the wrong polarity so it went the opposite way to the rest of my locos, so for a laugh trial I coupled it up to a Heljan loco opened up the controller with the direction of travel set for the Dutch loco to go forward, it made a hell of a racket as it went the opposite way to how the motor was trying to propel it.

 

One day I will make a start on my Modern Outline Kits loco that is sitting on the shelf in its box.

[NickL2008]

On 08/01/2020 at 21:35, Clive Mortimore said:

I am old and stupid but I can never see why anyone wants to mix and match the different makes of Brush Type 4 1/2s. All the varieties of the big Brushes I have run on their intended chassis bar one. A mate upgraded his Lima model with a Vi Trains chassis and gave me the unwanted Lima underframe. I can't recall why I had a spare Hornby body but it plonked itself nicely on the Lima chassis, no mods to either. I have a GBL running on a pair of Hornby power bogies. The same power unit is in my part built handmade one.

 

The make I dislike the most is the Bachmann, it looks smaller than the others. Followed by Lima, the front always looks wrong to me. Heljan one does look wider next to the other makes but otherwise I like them. The Vi Trains is the best looking RTR one but I still like my semi-detailed Hornby locos. When they are at the far end of the layout zooming at a scale 90mph with a rake of maroon coaches they take me back to my spotting days. See I said I was old and stupid, I still like the Hornby model. 

 

The most powerful one I have is a MTK with two MTK motors, it can pull a Heljan one backwards. When I first got I didn't realise it was the wrong polarity so it went the opposite way to the rest of my locos, so for a laugh trial I coupled it up to a Heljan loco opened up the controller with the direction of travel set for the Dutch loco to go forward, it made a hell of a racket as it went the opposite way to how the motor was trying to propel it.

 

One day I will make a start on my Modern Outline Kits loco that is sitting on the shelf in its box.

 

Its probably because people have different preferences of models, people prefer the running qualities of the Bachmann chassis so stick with that model, people also like the older models (Lima / Hornby), so therefore look to upgrade their older models with a mechanism that they think will improve the model, but as i've said to others, unless you really know what youre doing particularly if mounting the body on a different chassis its not worth trying to combine two different models , but not all combinations require alot of skill and some are straight forward enough

 

Agree that the vitrains 47 is the better model, it looks alot more like a class 47, and doesnt have such exaggerated window aperatures (Heljan), or a narrow looking body (Bachmann), but one thing none of the manufacturers have gotten right, is the high intensity headlights

 

NL