Bachmann to produce ex LBSC Atlantic H2 Class 4-4-2

[Denbridge]

Well, I won't be popular on here, but I think some of the model is pretry poor compared to what we have come to expect from Bachmann and Hornby etc. Those rather lightweight springs under the cab are horrid, the over scale moulded cab rails, nowadays almost always represented by scale metal rails, the list goes on. Pretty poor show for a model 6 years in development.

[tetsudofan]

... and a couple of pics from me, first about to leave the station area and head uphill:

 

 

and secondly making its way up the hill with some Brighton Belle coaches, not quite sure how it came to find those!!

 

 

Keith

[No Decorum]

Well, I won't be popular on here, but I think some of the model is pretry poor compared to what we have come to expect from Bachmann and Hornby etc. Those rather lightweight springs under the cab are horrid, the over scale moulded cab rails, nowadays almost always represented by scale metal rails, the list goes on. Pretty poor show for a model 6 years in development.

 

I don’t see why you should be unpopular. You’ve provided a counterpoint to the oohs and aahs (guilty as charged) on this thread. Your points are well made. I have taken a squint at my GNR Atlantic and it seems to avoid the shortcomings you have highlighted. Except, that is, for the springs. There is no consensus on how to deal with trailing wheels. Some think that Hornby’s approach is better. The moulding of the truck is better but the wheels are flangeless and hover in mid-air. Some, including me, prefer the Bachmann approach – flanged trailing wheels necessitating shallower depiction of suspension.

 

We await the ingenious designer who can square the circle and prevent duelling at dawn over the issue. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that the trailing trucks on Hornby’s new Duchesses are a step forwards.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

... There is no consensus on how to deal with trailing wheels. Some think that Hornby’s approach is better. The moulding of the truck is better but the wheels are flangeless and hover in mid-air. Some, including me, prefer the Bachmann approach – flanged trailing wheels necessitating shallower depiction of suspension.

 

We await the ingenious designer who can square the circle and prevent duelling at dawn over the issue. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that the trailing trucks on Hornby’s new Duchesses are a step forwards.

I feel there is a simple solution. Internal truck with flanged wheelset as Bachmann. Independently hinged lightly sprung side frames with full external accuracy which only move out when pushed out by the wheelset action on curves. On straight track are always correctly positioned with no air gaps showing where they should not. Very much cousin to the camming close coupling mechanisms in concept.

 

I 'discovered' this by accident on Hornby's Gresley pacifics modified to take a trailing flanged wheelset in a swinging truck, when I broke the rear bar of the plastic truck moulding. That enabled the truck side to flex outwards when the wheelset hit it on a friend's layout 24" radius curves. A designed implementation should work yet better.

[MikeParkin65]

 

 

(I straightened mine by the extremely inadvisable technique of swift wafts of the blowtorch and 'unbending' while in the alloy's pasty phase between solid and puddle, and there's no trouble at all on 30" radius. While cosmetically the rods are no longer perfect, it is less obtrusive than those eye-catching bends)

 

Presumably taken up by slack tolerances but surely straightening the rod renders it too long?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Presumably taken up by slack tolerances but surely straightening the rod renders it too long?

Yes it should make it too long, but at less than 0.5mm increase in length it's a case of 'what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't bleed over'.

 

I did check that there was enough end clearance for the piston rod representation inside the cylinder block, no trouble, plenty of slack.

[Crouchja32]

Don't suppose anyone has noticed that Hattons has Cancelled their order of Beachy Head? I got an Email about it earlier following Beachy Head's "Disappearance" from Hatton's website. South Foreland seems to be on track for release however. 

[JSpencer]

Don't suppose anyone has noticed that Hattons has Cancelled their order of Beachy Head? I got an Email about it earlier following Beachy Head's "Disappearance" from Hatton's website. South Foreland seems to be on track for release however. 

 

I was wondering about that. Either Bachmann did not give Hatton's their (or any of) full fill or they were overbooked on pre-orders (or that had ordered less than they thought). Last week it was there then it was gone. Kernow, Rails, Model railways direct and others still have them as can be seen on their sites.

Edited October 3, 2018 by JSpencer

[Ian Hargrave]

The Southern version is showing as sold out on pre order.The BR version went the same way I suspect.

 

Hattons is first choice for many but they are not the only fish in the sea. Try The Track Shack,Derails ( but phone your order here as they're having website difficulties) or Rails.All are post free.

[bigherb]

My Beachy Head one came from Hattons so they have had some.

[JSpencer]

Given that there are no grumblings on here about unfulfilled pre-orders, then they seem to have sold out first. Other shops don,t appear to have many left either.

Better grab them now, because I doubt there will be any left to discount further in 6 weeks.

[tractionman]

Given that there are no grumblings on here about unfulfilled pre-orders, then they seem to have sold out first. Other shops don,t appear to have many left either.

Better grab them now, because I doubt there will be any left to discount further in 6 weeks.

 

another one gone at Hatton's:

 

Bachmann Branchline 31-910 Class H1 Atlantic 4-4-2 39 "La France" in LB&SCR umber - Sold out on Pre-Order

[Oldddudders]

A few H2s on ebay, at a price. One seller has six available.

[chrism993]

I was wondering about that. Either Bachmann did not give Hatton's their (or any of) full fill or they were overbooked on pre-orders (or that had ordered less than they thought). Last week it was there then it was gone. Kernow, Rails, Model railways direct and others still have them as can be seen on their sites.

 

Got the same e-mail, even though I've already got mine - did make me check to make sure I hadn't ordered two by mistake. 

 

Chris.

[JSpencer]

 

another one gone at Hatton's:

 

Bachmann Branchline 31-910 Class H1 Atlantic 4-4-2 39 "La France" in LB&SCR umber - Sold out on Pre-Order

 

 

I ordered one of those to use the money after the 74 was cancelled. As I'm in France, this loco should raise a few eyebrows when I do French exhibitions. 

I can imagine the questions and my reply now "C'est quoi ca?", "C'est un H une." (H pronounced like Hash).

[adb968008]

Rails still has them, as do several others.

[Denbridge]

I don’t see why you should be unpopular. You’ve provided a counterpoint to the oohs and aahs (guilty as charged) on this thread. Your points are well made. I have taken a squint at my GNR Atlantic and it seems to avoid the shortcomings you have highlighted. Except, that is, for the springs. There is no consensus on how to deal with trailing wheels. Some think that Hornby’s approach is better. The moulding of the truck is better but the wheels are flangeless and hover in mid-air. Some, including me, prefer the Bachmann approach – flanged trailing wheels necessitating shallower depiction of suspension.

 

We await the ingenious designer who can square the circle and prevent duelling at dawn over the issue. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that the trailing trucks on Hornby’s new Duchesses are a step forwards.

the representation of detail under the cab could have been moulded properly whichever method of mounting the carrying wheels was used. I feel Bachmann have skimped on the quality and detail with this model. It's a crying shame. It is probably what would have been classed as exceptional 15 years ago, but falls far short of other recent releases.

[Oldddudders]

the representation of detail under the cab could have been moulded properly whichever method of mounting the carrying wheels was used. I feel Bachmann have skimped on the quality and detail with this model. It's a crying shame. It is probably what would have been classed as exceptional 15 years ago, but falls far short of other recent releases.

Maybe, but apart from the kit-built (but unpowered) version a late friend assembled and painted for me, it’s the best H2 I’m ever going to have the chance to own. An RTR Marsh atlantic? Thanks, Bachmann!

[No Decorum]

the representation of detail under the cab could have been moulded properly whichever method of mounting the carrying wheels was used. I feel Bachmann have skimped on the quality and detail with this model. It's a crying shame. It is probably what would have been classed as exceptional 15 years ago, but falls far short of other recent releases.

I can’t argue with that.

 

I feel there is a simple solution. Internal truck with flanged wheelset as Bachmann. Independently hinged lightly sprung side frames with full external accuracy which only move out when pushed out by the wheelset action on curves. On straight track are always correctly positioned with no air gaps showing where they should not. Very much cousin to the camming close coupling mechanisms in concept.

 

I 'discovered' this by accident on Hornby's Gresley pacifics modified to take a trailing flanged wheelset in a swinging truck, when I broke the rear bar of the plastic truck moulding. That enabled the truck side to flex outwards when the wheelset hit it on a friend's layout 24" radius curves. A designed implementation should work yet better.

It could be productive if one of the talented people at Bachmann got to work on this. A thin web at the front of the truck to facilitate flexing, perhaps?

 

I still feel that the con rods would look better if the bends (if necessary at all) were kinks at the big and small ends.

 

Please excuse me. Despite all the shortcomings, I’m going now to add an Ash Un to my order for an Ash Deux.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

the representation of detail under the cab could have been moulded properly whichever method of mounting the carrying wheels was used. I feel Bachmann have skimped on the quality and detail with this model. It's a crying shame. It is probably what would have been classed as exceptional 15 years ago, but falls far short of other recent releases.

 It isn't skimping. This is the chosen compromise to get the model around the grossly underscale R2 curvature of set track. Not the ideal compromise in my opinion, but there has to be compromise because of this requirement.

 

You can have full depth frame detail relief on the fixed frames if the chosen compromise is no flanges on the rear truck wheelset, (or no wheelset at all). 

 

You can have full depth frame detail relief on the fixed frames and a flanged rear truck wheelset, but then the model requires larger radii ( greater than 750mm).

 

Fit a flanged wheelset in the rear truck and the required sideplay for R2 means that one of three compromises has to be employed:

shallow relief of the frame detail;

a swinging truck with full depth detail relief but air gaps where there should be none;

independently hinging the side frame with full depth detail relief to allow displacement on the inside of smaller rad curves;

[JSpencer]

 

I 'discovered' this by accident on Hornby's Gresley pacifics modified to take a trailing flanged wheelset in a swinging truck, when I broke the rear bar of the plastic truck moulding. That enabled the truck side to flex outwards when the wheelset hit it on a friend's layout 24" radius curves. A designed implementation should work yet better.

 

I was hoping to see something like that for the Rapido Stirling single front splashes rather than the "screw'em on at the distance you prefer" solution they gave us.

 

Despite it's potential short comings, I'm still glad someone did an RTR Brighton Atlantic (indeed even both types of Brighton Atlantic tender locos). 20 years ago, we would not have believed anyone doing such small classes in RTR.

I remember 30 years ago, it was nigh on impossible to convince any manufacturer to make a rebuilt Merchant Navy, simply because it was only in BR late crest green and that they had proof that for any model to be viable, you needed a prototype that had had 3 liveries (apparently end of life full blown grime was not a livery!). And here we are getting these small classes...

[WD0-6-0]

I couldn't resist so Here is Beachy Head, London bound on an RCTS railtour.

Detail pack and real coal added as well as having the coal space weathered.

Headcode is based on a photo of the real 32424

[locoholic]

Well, I won't be popular on here, but I think some of the model is pretry poor compared to what we have come to expect from Bachmann and Hornby etc. Those rather lightweight springs under the cab are horrid, the over scale moulded cab rails, nowadays almost always represented by scale metal rails, the list goes on. Pretty poor show for a model 6 years in development.

I agree about the representation of the axlebox and springs under the cab - it reminded me of my Hornby Dublo A4. But otherwise I think it's a very handsome model.

[Wickham Green]

I agree about the representation of the axlebox and springs under the cab - it reminded me of my Hornby Dublo A4. But otherwise I think it's a very handsome model.

Maybe there'll be a 3D version on shapeways before too long .................. no hurry, my malachite H2 seems to be as far off as ever !

[robmcg]

The BR H2 looks lovely but like others the detail under the cab looks rather 'flat' and I'm wondering if it is the same exact moulding as the GNR C1  ?

 

Which does look rather good...

 

 

Maybe it's just the paint which makes the difference and weathering might improve the BR H2's looks?

 

typo edit

Edited October 18, 2018 by robmcg