Another Bachmann Junior Loco

[relaxinghobby]

 

Here's the Ertl Stepney body on the Bachy Junior Diesel.

I was moving the little circuit board to a new location in the cab and tried the old Tri-ang Hornby Polly body on it for size.

 

 

The Polly sits very high because of the gearbox.

 

 

I have already filed of some off the top of the gear box but don't know just how much or how little could be removed to allow Polly to

settle down to a lower and better height?

 

Has any one done such drastic surgery on their Junior Diesel?

 

.

[NeilHB]

You can actually remove the 'gearbox' - it's really only there to add some weight to the model and the loco will still run fine - I've done it with a few of mine and they run ok. If you undo the two screws nearest you on the side of the 'gearbox' in the last photo it should just lift off if I remember correctly? Like the look of what you've done with the Ertl stepney - am off to raid the boxes from my childhood to see if I've got one to do the same with!

[relaxinghobby]

 

The Bachmann junior saddle tank just looks too tall to my mind so when I aquired a cheap example from a split train set, I set to with

a saw;

 

* 2 mm off cab side and re-profile cab roof to a flatter profile.

 

* Lower foot plate relative to the chassis

 

* Lower saddle tank by cutting off 3 mm from the under skirt.

 

That saddle still looks odd somehow.

[relaxinghobby]

A bit more progress with the saddle tank;

 

 

 

A thin strip of plastikard with pressed in rivet detail glued over the saddle tank to give the impressions of different panels.

Chimney and dome sawn off and sanded smooth, I need to find another taller and thinner one.

 

Bottom of buffer beams sawn off.

[m0rris]

Keep up the good work on this one! How have you found cutting about the saddletank shell, are the reinforced to help protect themselves from the rough and umble expected from tiddlers?

 

Also... (*not wishing to turn this into a q&a session) Would it be possible to swap the wheelsets around easily to provide a chassis that sits slightly lower?

 

Regards,

 

m0rris

[relaxinghobby]

Change the wheel sets?

 

As they come from Bachmann they are 18mm in diameter on 1/8th diameter axels. If you can find smaller wheels say from the Bachmann Percy 0-4-0

and if the axel comes with the same size cog wheel I guess they can be swopped.

 

As it is I've lowered the footplate about 2mm to try to make the loco look lower.

 

Under such a saddle tank shunter perhaps smaller wheels would look better, as it is the wheels look

like the larger wheels of a road engine.

[relaxinghobby]

The work on the 0-6-0 Bachmann Junior Saddle tank continues.

I've managed to lower the footplate and lower the tank and cab superstructure.

 

 

From the side the proportions look wrong, it seems to me that the cab is too far forward and the loco is too short, particularly looking at the side views.

 

 

That saddle tank is very big but is needed to cover the motor and gear box.

 

[relaxinghobby]

Some more cut and gluing has been going on, this ' quick ' project is becoming more like a locomotive sculpture, the perils of not following a prototype. Those big wheels make the model look more like a road engine than a shunter.

 

So perhaps this engine could be a large, heavier, industrial shunter, with tall enough wheels to give it some decent speed, enough

to make it attractive to a light railway to use as a suitable engine to pull passenger trains?

 

The addition of a bunker forward of the cab and the removal of the rear bunker and a top to a firebox to make the boiler seem longer

makes it look better to my eye, the footplate is just 4 mm longer.

 

 

It's quite big for an engine on my layout, but still quite small compared to full sized locos, here it is next to a Hornby Jinty, remember the Jinty's buffer hieght is too high.

 

[m0rris]

Blimey... lots of change there, it certainly improves the look of the loco and stops it looking so top heavy. Keep up the good work!

 

m0rris

[relaxinghobby]

Work on the saddle tank has now reached the stage of adding the details.

 

 

 

 

 

On this picture I've tried to show some of the modeling lost in the shadows and played around with the hue and

saturation adjustments on my Graphic Image Manipulation Programme, the Linux PC Operating Systems version of Photo Shop.

[relaxinghobby]

Some more details added, this project is possibly going to be finished soon!......maybe it won't end

up on that siding called 'unfinished projects'.

 

 

 

The small smoke box door is from an old broken K's Beattie 2-4-0 kit. A roof for the cab

is from plasticard, the tank filler lid is made up of disks of plastic punched out with a leather belt

hole punch.

The dome is of unknown origin by way of the bottom of the junk box.

[relaxinghobby]

More details added and the delicate process of getting the couplings to the correct level and distance out in front of the buffers.

 

 

The cruelty of close up photography showing up every little imperfection, hopefully a coat of paint will hide my

modeling bodges?.

 

[Flyingscotsmanfan]

That is one fine looking loco and I can't see any bodges! A coat or two of paint and that will be a beautiful loco, how do the Bachmann Junior locos run by the way?

[Poor Old Bruce]

Working from memory, it looks a bit like a Beyer Peacock from Cannock Colliery.

[ahardy]

Hi there,

 

That looks really good. Out of interest, what is the size of the wheels and also the wheelbase? I havnt got one of these locos yet, but would like to do something similar to you.

 

Thanks

 

Andy

[relaxinghobby]

I'm away from home but the wheels are 18mm and the wheelbase is 28 + 28 mm I seem to remenber.

[relaxinghobby]

I'm home now and can check the dimensions, the wheels are 18mm and the wheel base is 24 + 24 mm.

 

You can't see the progress with the loco body because it's drying in a dust free environment so it can be painted. I've done some gluing of lead weights into corners but I also need to make some weights to put into the sides of the saddle tank. These balsa wood pieces are to make some moulds so I can cast some lead into the best shape, the one on the left is the size and shape of slug that I want.

 

 

[relaxinghobby]

Saddle tank is now in the paint shop, the two crew are from Dapol and Preiser plastic figure sets, the strips of plastic card across their ankles are to enable gluing inside the loco cab.

 

 

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

 

After much fiddling about adding lumps of lead weight I've got a well balanced loco that can pull with all it's might.

 

The trick I use is to get the loco balanced about the point of the centre of it's fixed wheel base, put it on some track and use a triangular file or pencil as a pivot to make a simple see-saw. As I've tried to show in the diagrams.

 

The peppers are a feature available on the Linux Graphic Image Manipulator Programme or 'Not' Photo shop as it is could be called. Why peppers and what are their purpose? I don't know it's probably some whimsy by a singleton computer programmer .

[relaxinghobby]

By the way as a late reply to FlyingScotsmanFan, these little Bachmann junior locos run very nicely, they have two stage gear boxes and it's such a pity that they are not made as proper scale models.

Edited October 12, 2011 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

Now I've got it running at it's best with the weight distribution, I must make an effort to finish the painting.

 

I've tried adding lining with a Rotring Draughtsman pen and ink but it has come out a little tatty. I think it would have worked a bit better if the paint was more glossy.

 

[relaxinghobby]

Loco line up and size comparison.

 

00 scale, a Dapol Beattie well tank next to the Gem Cambrian 2-4-0t with a pre GWR era cab, painting needs finishing.

 

 

 

 

This is super power on my layout, a modified Junior Bachmann with the tank and cab re-arranged.

[alastairq]

I like the big-wheeled tank.......have you noted the Highland Railway's 'scrap' tank, photo in link below? That has [had] a similar look, albeit a side-tanker....

 

http://www.ambaile.org.uk/gd/item/photograph_zoom.jsp?item_id=51159&zoom=2

[relaxinghobby]

Back to the Ertl yellow Terrier type body on a junior Bachmann chassis. See the beginning of this thread.

I've removed 2mm from the bottom of the cab as well.

 

The boiler looked too big, so I have made a new smaller one from rolled up plasticard to make one of eighteen millimeter diameter. It has to be placed very high to clear the top of the motor, it still does not clear the motor properly and the body does not sit down on the chassis evenly. If I put the boiler any higher I don't think it will look right. this conversion continues...

 

 

You can see inside the cab the motor is where the bac-khead would be on a real loco.

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2011 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

 

No real progress since the last post, I have been trying to get the body now with a smaller and lower boiler to fit over the chassis.

 

Re gluing the tanks onto the footplate, after breaking the glue joint by mistake.