PLD Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 I have now received an example of the new Hong Kong tram by Bachmann and what can be said other than it is a little beauty. Crisp, finely moulded bodywork and a wealth of exterior and interior detailing that leaves many mainstream railway models in the shade including wing mirrors (those at the rear folded in), fuse boxes and wiring conduits on the roof, individual seats and handrails and fully fitted motormans cabs. The windows are modelled in a mix of closed and open positions but are fixed in those positions. Stright out of the box, using the trusty old H&M controller, it is a very smooth runner at controllable speed range from crawl to far too fast. The headlamps light in the direction of travel (by tiny LEDs behind the lenses) but other lights such as red tail lights, brake lights and indicators are only painted on. The model represents the locally built 1950s "type 4/4th generation" cars as rebodied in the 1980s/90s with mostly aluminium bodywork replacing the wooden originals. (for reference the old ‘Peak Horse’ model most closely represents these cars with their original bodywork) My chosen livery is the 2004 Centenary style, a more subtle scheme than some of the advertising liveries that dominate the tramway, but still very well executed by Bachmann with the different shades of green fading into each other and the various graphics well presented. There has been some speculation about whether the model is 00 scale (4mm:ft) or H0 (3.5mm:ft) but it is described in the instructions as 00 and measurement confirms this. All the major dimensions are within a half millimetre of scale for 4mm scale: Prototype Length over body is 29'0" = 116 mm in 4mm scale: Model = 116mm Prototype Width is 6'8" = 26.67 mm : Model = 26.4mm Prototype height to Cantrail is quoted be different sources as either 14'10" or 15' = 59.3 or 60mm: Model = 59.8mm The major discrepancy is of cause the gauge: The prototypes operate on 3'6" gauge track which would be 14mm but the model is 16.5mm gauge. Dismantling the model takes some care. The Body shell clips over the assembled chassis and interior and took some careful effort to remove involving pushing downwards with a screwdriver inserted through the cab door! Onece the interior is removed from the body, the chassis block can be separated from the interior. As can be seen this is very low. It features a very small can motor driving through a double reduction gear set to the rear axle only. However this block as pictured will not run in its own. Power fron the wheel pickups is passed via the spring contacts at the sides to the circuit board the forms the base of the interior then back via the 2 round contact in the top of the block to the motor. To use seperately these two sets of contacts would need to be connected up. Despite being only single axle drive on test it could easily manage a 1 in 10 grade. It is not DCC ready (Specified by the Hong-Kong arm of Bachmann) but a hardwired decoder could be fitted by using the latter pair of cantacts as solder points then insulating between the chassis block and interior. Conversion for live overhead power operation will require some more rewiring and I haven't quite figured that out yet. Oddly the Trolley arm is 'keyed' so that it will only fit on the roof one way round and will not rotate more than a few degrees either way. Anyone using live overhead power will need to replace this as well as modifying the chassis block. Finally to finish a few comparison photos with a Peak Horse model. [Posted as a new topic to keep tidy and correctly titled!] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekday Cross Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 What is the wheelbase, please? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Devil Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 What is the wheelbase, please? Ditto, that looks very promising for a Leeds tippler car project I have in mind, anyone want an un motorized Hong Kong car? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLD Posted June 13, 2011 Author Share Posted June 13, 2011 What is the wheelbase, please? Oops - missed that. Wheelbase =34mm (scale 8' 6"), Wheels are 12mm (3') diameter over treads. For those considering it's usability for other purposes, the highest point of the block is 11.8mm above rail top. Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold tetsudofan Posted June 20, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 20, 2011 Picked up a couple from The Hobby Shop at Faversham on Saturday. Very nice. Hope they do some in full advertising liveries in the future...... Apologies for the unprototypical setting - just testing Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMJ Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I was under the impression that the Peak Horse & Bachmann trams were the same product as the importer for Peak Horse trams was Bachmann IIRC. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLD Posted June 28, 2011 Author Share Posted June 28, 2011 I was under the impression that the Peak Horse & Bachmann trams were the same product as the importer for Peak Horse trams was Bachmann IIRC. Bachmann (Europe) were indeed the UK importer for the Peak Horse Trams, however the Bachmann Tram being discussed here is an all-new Bachmann (Hong Kong) product which has no connection with the Peak Horse version. Take a close look at the pictures of the two side by side and it is very obvious they are very different products... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Devil Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Oops - missed that. Wheelbase =34mm (scale 8' 6"), Wheels are 12mm (3') diameter over treads. For those considering it's usability for other purposes, the highest point of the block is 11.8mm above rail top. Paul Done! Having tried Pauls HK tram on Grime Street I was pretty impressed with the performance of the motor bogie, very nice low speed running, more so than my Halling equipped fleet, so one duly purchased with a view to 'I wonder what that'll fit', and also the next CAD for a 3d print is underway and it's going to require a scale 8' 6'' truck. I've always thought the P35 truck on the EFE Horsfield looked pretty anaemic, so whilst bored I chopped one apart removed the plastic P35 and substituted cast metal versions which are quite a bit more substantial. That in turn gives more than enough room to fit the motorised HK truck underneath the Horsfield if you remove the metal floor, but it enables you to keep the complete plastic interior without modifcation, giving the ultimate in tramway modelling, a completely invisible underfloor drive that actually works without sounding like a turbo charged coffee grinder or doing a scale 0-60 in sub 4 seconds. Then again most will persist with their 3 pole mabuchi motored white metal framed drive units that to be honest were oudated in the 1980s. Me? I have a feeling that a few HK tram bodies may well be appearing on a well known auction site, anyone after a pink 'High Frequency' tram body............? Pics to follow, when I get chance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 looking for a chassis/motor off of one of these, they run really nice and smooth, will be fitted to a Liverpool baby grand Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Devil Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 looking for a chassis/motor off of one of these, they run really nice and smooth, will be fitted to a Liverpool baby grand Be careful, If you just use the motor unit and connect the pickups directly to the motor it will result in a bit of a disaster. I'm pretty certain that the motor is one of the low (4.5v?) coreless jobs, so if you remove the resistor that's in the pcb that the motor unit fits into you'll end up with a burnt out motor........... Trust me. I've found out the hard way......... If I rember correctly Baby Grands ran on 9ft EMB Flexible trucks, so a 35mm Halling would be as close as a Bachmann Hong Kong, they're also pretty good and can be had for around the £35 mark. John at East Lancs Trams stocks them, but he's no 35mm in at the moment (I want some too) http://www.halling.a...pe=1&referid=72 I assume you'e doing the Tramalan Baby Grand? There will be a 3d print along in the relatively near future............ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 Hi, its for a friend, it is a tramalan and is already built, it has a mechanism in it but its a bit growly and fast. a club member brought one of these hong kong ones and we gave it a run on the tramtrack and where surprised how well it ran, and theres not much weight in them either. he's on the lookout for other mech's but he may actually put a blackbeetle in it, I dont think he's too concerned about wheelsize. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Devil Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 Hallings are a bit cheaper than a BB and have a slightly lower profile, makes it easier to fit a part interior. They're also a bit cheaper, I pretty much use them exclusively, they're much superior to Tenshodo SPUDs http://motorbogies.c...products_id=186 In stock there, but cheaper at ELMTS. They're dead easy to fit, the keeper plate is screwed on with 2 m2 machine screws, if you drill down from above it opens up a blind hole allowing you to use longer m2 bolts to thread into lugs etc fitted to the tram body, they will fit much easier and give you amuch better running tram, the good thing is that for some reason there is a decent market for S/H BEC/ABS trucks on Ebay, so you can flog that for £15-20 and fit a Halling for about £15 more......... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Devil Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 Just remembered, there's some stuff on how I fitted Halllings on my blog, pics make it a bit easier to understand http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/172/entry-4136-fitting-halling-motor-bogies/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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