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bachmann 170 to 172/1 conversion


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  • RMweb Gold

here is my conversion of a Bachmann 170 into a class 172/1 unit which will be finished in chiltern livery, the conversion is basically a new set of windows and bogies.

 

the windows on the Bachmann unit are a ribbon type whereas the 172 has individual windows so i needed a new set of etches making which is where pete at PH Designs helped out, luckily with my contacts at work i managed to get a full set of dimensions and pictures of the real thing which i forwarded to pete who produced the etches for me, he also supplied me with a set of voyager bogies, i'll leave to pete to describe the ins and out of the etches as he soldered them up for me...

 

anyway onto the pics

 

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donor unit

o

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the main area of work, windows and bogies

 

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voyager bogies

 

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window etches

 

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small etch

 

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rear of etch showing recess for the glazing

 

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unit stripped down ready for the new bogies

 

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wil post the rest of the pics later, struggling with the ipad keyboard, keep accidently using the back browser and losing my edited posts!!

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  • RMweb Gold

and so to the rest of the pictures, back home now using a good old fashoned clickerty clackerty keyboard!!

 

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you can see the difference between the 170 and voyager bogies in this piccie, the wheel centres are different meaning the voyager bogies are somewhat smaller, i think the real things are the same too

 

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this is one of the trailing bogies, they needed a little bit taking off the mounting lug to be able to fit in the existing hole....

 

as can be seen here.....

 

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mounted into the chassis

 

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side on view

 

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completed trailing chassis

 

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reunited with the body (with original windows)

 

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comparison between the bogies

 

next up was the power car, a little bit more work needed on this one, not much but enough!!

 

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here are the voyager bogies complete with towers which i needed to fit into the 170 chassis

 

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these are the removed 170 bogies, you can see the difference between the mountings

 

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the 170 bogies simply screw to the cast chassis, whereas the voyager bogies attach by a plastic lug to the chassis, therefore i needed to remove the plastic lug from the bogies leaving the locating pin proud, to get them to sit at the right height i needed to dremel away the raised locating lug from the chassis and ream out the hole a little bit, quite a simple job, only a couple of minutes work!!

 

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luckily the driveshafts are identical on both the 170 and voyager so they simply slotted in place

 

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the completed chassis (bar the exhaust!)

 

and so to the windows.......

 

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standard Bachmann ribbon windows

 

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simply held in place with tiny lugs, all i did was chop them off with a blade and the windows popped out

 

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body with the windows removed

 

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test fit of the etched windows

 

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another test fit

 

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loose fitted windows

 

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a few of the existing window frames will need to be cut back a little bit before i fix the brass panels in place

 

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bodywork comparison between the 170 and 172/1

 

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next up i will be the job of stripping the bodywork down ready for painting then fixing the windows in place before giving it a dusting of primer, luckily i will be able to glaze it once its painted

 

then i'll have to look at how to make the exhaust!!

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  • RMweb Gold

just realised ive mounted the bogies the wrong way round on one of the coaches, simply need to turn them round on the mount, its not not too noticable but the a frame bracket is the opposite way round, they will be hid behind the exhaust anyway but i may as well do it right

 

the first coach is in the model strip as we speak, hopefully it will do the job, if it does the 2nd coach will get the same treatment tomorrow, if not its rubbing down with fine wet and dry and a fibreglass brush!!

 

i think i may well sound chip this one up too as i have decided to get rid of my 153 so the chip is now spare.

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Hi Jim,

 

Great to see some up-to-date modern image modelling (as opposed to 'modern image' being used to refer to 1960s diesel locos). Surprised nobody else has commented yet!

 

I wonder if Bachmann will see how straightforward this conversion is and bring out a RTR Class 172? Presumably there are some other detail changes in addition to the bogies and windows.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

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Excellent project, looks really good!

 

If anyone wants to go variation-spotting i've detail shots of a LOROL one here as i've not seen one of either the LM or Chiltern ones yet - don't know whether the Chiltern ones will be different, do theirs have a toilet? The LM ones have a cab with a gangway which is an obvious difference!

http://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/Allinthedetails/DMUs/172006-London-Overground

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  • RMweb Gold

ive got a feeling my modelstrip may have gone off, one of the shells has been coated in it for a day and its not touched the print/paint!!

 

also another disaster, i put the chassis out of reach of small fingers only to have it fall off the shelf when a picture in a frame toppled over pushing it off the shelf, falling 5ft to the wood laminate floor, the bogies have been damaged a little bit, nothing that cant be fixed but im really annoyed by it, anyway day off today so i may well crack on with a bit more of it

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ive got a feeling my modelstrip may have gone off, one of the shells has been coated in it for a day and its not touched the print/paint!!

 

also another disaster, i put the chassis out of reach of small fingers only to have it fall off the shelf when a picture in a frame toppled over pushing it off the shelf, falling 5ft to the wood laminate floor, the bogies have been damaged a little bit, nothing that cant be fixed but im really annoyed by it, anyway day off today so i may well crack on with a bit more of it

 

This Coversion looks very good Jim, sorry to hear about the mishap,typical the chasiss has to fall when youre in an advanced stage working on it, annoying when that happens, had something similar happen to a Hornby 31 chassis I had, although that was beyond repair! looking forward to seeing progress on this project! hope you get it fixed

 

NL

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  • RMweb Gold

really narked off, just spent ages updating this thread only for the computer to freeze, anyway i'll redo it tomorrow but here is the latest pic to whet your appetite

 

04357f03.png

 

looking pretty much like a 172 now

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  • RMweb Gold

right lets try again....

 

so id got as far as loose fitting the windows, the next bit was actually fitting them up

 

the first thing i had to do was cut back some of the existing window frames so they didn't show behind the glass

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with the smaller panels i completly cut them away

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i then glued the windows in place using a thin run of superglue

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then masked off the existing yellow ends and gave it a coat of primer (having rubbed the body down of course)

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i could then see where the gaps were showing so i rubbed it down a bit and filled them with miliput which i let cure then rubbed down some more

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once happy i gave the unit a coat of white

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again rubbed down any rough bits and touched up, still a couple of gaps but its going to be in a blue area

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once happy i masked it off ready for the blue

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which it duly got

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once dry i demasked it to see how it came out, very happy with it, a few paint bleeds but nothing a touch up didn't sort out

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an ideal companion for my chiltern 165

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next up was the doors, for this i had to remask the whole unit again as i needed to airbrush the blue as it fades out towards the top

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onto the spraying

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kitchen towel removed

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masking removed

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finished product including the rudimentary exhaust

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i then added the red line using fox transfers

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starting to look very much like a chiltern unit now

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i started to put the cantrail stripe on but it must have got damaged in storage as it started to break up once i touched it so i'll have to order some more

 

other jobs needing doing are another coat of (the correct shade) of yellow below the front window, yellow band above the disabled door, things like buttons painting in, chiltern decals (somehow!), numbers and finishing the exhaust.

 

then theres the glazing, pete has done it so i can cut the Bachmann glazing back to fit in the new frames but i might look at something different using "tinted" plasticard as it will be easier for me to cut to size and fit to the unit

 

oh and of course the 2nd coach!!

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  • RMweb Gold

Looking very nice Jim, pity there weren't any around yesterday at Banbury :cry:

 

there should have been one knocking about, i was covering another drivers job when i flew past you yesterday as he should have been working the 172 test train (5z72) unless it was caped coz of the incident in wembley

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really narked off, just spent ages updating this thread only for the computer to freeze,

 

Oh, the number of times I've done that... I now copy and paste my RMWeb entries into another document before pressing the 'go' button, just in case!

 

On a more positive note the 172 is looking impressive. Hurst Models used to do smoked glazing, you'll find them on the internet. The etched glazing units seem to stand ever so slightly proud of the bodyside, although this is barely noticeable once the filler and blue paint is applied, so perhaps if these etches are produced for other customers the brass could be a fraction thinner? Not a criticism, just friendly advice!

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

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  • RMweb Gold

i got the frames looking what i thought was flush but you cant really tell until you have primed it, as you say once the blue is on its not as noticable, thats why i have only done one car, i can learn from my mistakes, i did similar with the 165, the first one was totally dismantled where as the 2nd one was not, and it came out better

 

to be honest e real thing does have a seam along the top edge of the windows anyway, the bottom is however flush

 

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i may well paint the 2nd coach with an airbrush instead of aerosol too

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Pete - Thanks for the photo and explanation. Great to see products like this on the market... maybe one day there will be as many 'bits and bobs' available for the modern image modeller as there are to modellers of steam and classic traction :)

 

Jim - Apologies, your photo of the real thing shows that I should have kept my mouth shut! I believe these bodysides are made from extruded aluminium, so rather than modify the extrusion for the Class 172s, Bombardier probably built their own version of the etched brass windows to replace the style of glazing used on the Class 170s, hence the visible seam.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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  • RMweb Gold

Hurst Models used to do smoked glazing, you'll find them on the internet.

 

just ordered some glazing from the hurst site as well as some cant rail stripes, also enquired about some custom decals for the units, he has done me custom decals in the past for an arriva unit i made so hopefully he may come up trumps for me

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  • RMweb Gold

simon, i used humbrol "french blue" on the model, its lighter than the blue on the Bachmann 168 but when i put the can next to the blue on a real unit it looked pretty damn close, closer than the Bachmann model infact

 

as well as the 168/0 im planning on doing the chiltern mk3 loco hauled set in its new colours complete with electric doors, im hoping to try and get some drawings for them at some point

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  • RMweb Gold

to compliment the 172 ive made a start on a class 168/0 unit, basically a cab swap on a Bachmann model with a Hornby networker....

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hopefully the weight will help to bond the step to the body a bit better

 

i will need to file down the roof corners to get them a bit rounder where the Hornby cab meets the Bachmann body but its quite close so wont need much, then its paint the ends, fill in the light clusters etc and we're done

 

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only other problem is the 168/0s are all 4 cars so ill have to try and get a spare centre car to add to the existing 3!

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Nice work on the 172 and 168 Jim.

 

Have you considered an LM 172 as well? Maybe worth dropping a line to James of Wells Green TMD as he has been busy converting a 170 to a 377 - they key point being that he has created a resin moulding of the gangwayed cab...

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