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New Bachmann N scale 0-6-0 and 0-4-0 Chassis for 009 & HOe/HOn30


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So figured it would make sense putting this here. So with the new TTTE N scale range from Bachmann now out, there's 2 new N gauge chassis to use for 009 and HOe etc., so by chance, I found both of them in my local hobby shop the day a couple days ago when they were officially released. So today, I sucked it up and bought Percy, who's 0-4-0 chassis was already likely to be considered by us 009 modelers. Now I should note that unlike the previous Tomix N scale Thomas range, which were done a very large scale, Bachmann's is to UK N scale, so these are going to be smaller chassis units than those Tomix ones. Now, onto the part that you lot will be interested in. Looking at the chassis of little Percy here.
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And I do mean little, I was honestly shocked by the size. Here's him next to Skarloey:
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Alright, alright. The chassis. The body is essentially in 2 main pieces: the tank-smokebox section and the cab-running board piece. Removing the the former, the mechanism is pretty much entirely exposed. The weight added is attached to the boiler section, and it follows its curves.

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The mechanism is clearly designed from Bachmann's experience with doing the NG engines in the NG range, the motor is a small coreless type, along with a fairly large flywheel. The motor extends back into the cab, and just above it in the cab is the PCB, no, I don't believe these are DCC ready btw. I think we can agree that there's a lot of room to play with here. 

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Now the cab roof is a separate piece, but it's really on there and I don't want to damage the body quite yet.
Flipping the engine over and removing the plate, we get another idea of how well this thing was designed. All the wheels have bearings, the contact/pickup set up is clearly influenced by the ones seen on the NG engines. And to my surprise, all the gears in this are brass not plastic. On a smaller note, looking at the couplings, it can be seen that the Rapido type used are not each just one piece. They actually plug into a NEM socket, which, in theory, I don't know, could maybe almost certainly take 009 NEM couplings.
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Right few other things I'll cover cause people will probably want to know if or about: 
1) Yes, the body can be removed completely from the chassis, I haven't done it yet, but I got close and it clearly will. The only worry I had was that the front part of the running board shares the same screws that hold the cylinders(also their own separate piece) on to the chassis. This isn't a huge deal and can almost certainly be worked around easily, but I figured I'd bring it up.

2) Running quality. Without even running in, the model ran smooth out of the box. Motor is a little bit noisy, but it could be so much worse. I have rather high standards for my models to be able to run smoothly at slow speeds, that goes double for my 009 models, and this crawled at a nice low and slow speed very smoothly, that motor and mechanism are great and that flywheel is a great addition.

3) Wheelbase measurements. So here we go:

Driving Wheel Diameter: Approx. 7.4mm

Axle to Axle Wheelbase: Approx. 14.6mm

Knowing this, I decided to do a some comparisons & calculations to a couple of prototypes, these may be on interest to some of you.

First) The Small Englands: Now the wheels are pretty much spot on in terms of size, but the wheelbase is just too short. It's a full 4mm too short, and with the Kato-Peco one hopefully out next year, not a huge bummer. If you do however want to build an England kit, the Tomix Percy is still your best bet. Wheels are a bit big but I believe accurate to the original size(?), and the wheelbase is pretty much spot on. Do need to do quite a bit of work to the kit and to the mechanism block(namely the front of it) to get them to fit properly, but it is currently the best RTR chassis option.

Second) Barclay 0-4-0WT/E Class/TR No.6 Douglas: Now since the range was announced nearly 2 years ago, I always jokingly said That Percy's chassis may be a good match for this class. Of course, as much as I hoped with all my heart, I knew the chance of that were unlikely. Well, upon going over the calculations, the wheels are pretty much the same size AND the wheelbase of the Bachmann Percy is shorter...by only .2mm. So, yeah, this is chassis is pretty much dead on for Douglas and other E classes. Of course, cylinder overlays if not an entirely new printed cylinder piece will be needed. At the very least, new crosshead and probably main connecting rod would need to be made, probably an etched kit itself. Then comes to the matter of eccentrics, 2 real options being a static valve gear ala Meridian Corris. No.4 or a mostly working one, but that one would be tricky.

 

Right I've rambled on enough, feel free to ask questions, discuss, maybe theorize what other engines this chassis may be optimal for?
If anyone has or is getting the N scale Thomas, feel free to add any pics, measurements and the like.

  • Informative/Useful 3
  • Craftsmanship/clever 1
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