Bachmann 009 Skarloey Railway range

[The Dorset Wanderer]

Do the Fourfees have Kato chassis?

[Nile]

The ones with side skirts do.

[Stevelewis]

Do the Fourfees have Kato chassis?

 

Yes  Skirted  ones  do  ( 0-4-0  chassis)  others  have  an adapted  Farish 08  chassis  I  believe,  I stand to be  corrected  on  this should anyone  have  other  info.

 

 Any  other  feed back  most  welcome  as  I am  about  to  order  a  couple of  locos  for  a  new  project.

 

I have   had  some very  useful info  from a  member  who has some of these locos,  who gives  them  a  very good  report 

[Stevelewis]

Totally  away  from  the  original  topic,, but  for  info  I  bought  a  couple  of   Fourdees locos  they  arrived  quickly  this  week,  I can recommend  them  smooth  running, reasonably powerful and  quiet.

[47137]

Please excuse me restarting an old topic but it seems sensible to ask here first.

 

I have succumbed to buying a Skarloey. I found the Narrow Planet mod kit on a club sales stand last weekend, and then ordered up an engine to suit. It is a beautiful thing, it seems incredible this is a toy. I would like to fit the new smokebox front and make some interior detailing for the cab, and then maybe tackle the new cylinders. I have run the engine back and forth around a 9 inch curve without problems. Does anyone know, does fitting the NP parts for the chassis increase the practical minimum radius? Bachmann say "Performs best on 11.25" radius curves or greater" but mine seems ok on 9 inches.

 

Incidentally - the thickness of the paint finish has been mentioned. On my model, the paint is a satin finish and the rivet detail is clear to see, not obscured by the paint. The colour is more purple than red.

 

- Richard.

[PaulRhB]

I don’t see why the NP kit would affect it as it doesn’t restrict the axle movement so you should be fine. My unmodified one ran ok on 103mm radius Tomix track but the couplings swing out a lot

[47137]

Well I've been able to borrow the 'Threadshed', and my Skarloey just about makes it around the curves but not whole circuits because the outer cylinder fouls the road at the level crossing. These curves are c.106 mm, so I should be fine if I keep to 200 mm or so on hidden tracks on a future layout.

 

Many thanks.

 

- Richard.

[SomethingTrainLover]

Well, restarting this old thread. It's funny given the talk of the UK license and here we are, with Bachmann now bringing everything TTTE they produce over to the U.K. now. Also, been quit busy repainting my Skarloey into his more realistic form as seen in the original books. Done quite a bit, and he's not completely finished yet, honestly the world may end if I ever truly finish any of my models, but he's been done up quite a bit. Been repainted, relined, gotten proper handrails all around, a (mostly) done cab interior, and the addition of an NP slimline kit, bar kit brackets currently. Still needs to have the lining finished off, as I recently found out that he would have lining on the rear of the cab sheet, and the he needs to be varnished. And I still need to paint the smokebox door, I do like having face-less options as it were.

[PhilJ W]

There was one available on a trade stand at the Romford show this weekend for less than £100. My companions young son, an avid TTTE fan now has it.

[kiltedsignaller]

I have managed to acquire one and would appreciate a bit of advice. When it came in the post, one of the rear wheels was off. I can't see how it can be reattached to the axle. Any ideas, please?

[Nile]

It should just push on with an interference fit.

[MPR]

Just done one of these for a friend using the Narrow Planet kit and additional custom parts.The kit went together well, but I had a mysterious short which eventually went away - without knowing intervention on my part. The lining was done with the Modelmaster 2mm BR mixed traffic sheet - this is right at the limits of printing accuracy (and my ability to get them on straight), as can be seen in the rather cruel closeups. It was decided that the cab was too bare, so I passed the stripped shell back - it returned with the cab support neatly milled away and with a nicely designed and printed backhead. I added a brass hand wheel to this.

Edited April 16, 2021 by MPR
Corrected the autocorrect!

[Nile]

14 hours ago, MPR said:

but I had a mysterious short which eventually went away - without knowing intervention on my part.

That could be the motion bracket touching the chassis, I had the same problem. The solution was to insulate it with some clear sticky tape, it needs to be quite thin.

[SomethingTrainLover]

Admittedly my solution has been to just reuse the original motion brackets lol

[298]

Sir Handel and Peter Sam are new and on page 16 of the 2022 Bachmann catalogue, along with a yellow Rheneas and new wagons:

 

https://resources.bachmanntrains.com/Bachmann2022/html5/index.html

[rockershovel]

Tremendous strides being made in rtr 009 ....

[PaulRhB]

On 12/02/2022 at 06:56, rockershovel said:

Tremendous strides being made in rtr 009 ....

Well it’s a start but a few mods needed for an accurate model of Edward Thomas. 
copyright Jon Wornham

 

 

Bufferbeam shouldn’t have the green step, should go flush to running plate. 
The running plate should step up a mm or two inline with the smokebox and run level to the bunker.

The cab back should step out halfway up by a couple of mm to create a bit more elbow room in the cab. Oh and that flat fill under the saddle tank should be half the boiler and open but it’ll be limited what you can do about that as I suspect the mech is right behind it. 
So with a few tweaks and a new smokebox door it should pass for ET or a Tattoo(ish) loco. 

Edited July 8, 2022 by PaulRhB

[SomethingTrainLover]

12 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Well it’s a start but a few mods needed for an accurate model of Edward Thomas. 
 

Bufferbeam shouldn’t have the green step, should go flush to running plate. 
The running plate should step up a mm or two inline with the smokebox and run level to the bunker.

The cab back should step out halfway up by a couple of mm to create a bit more elbow room in the cab. Oh and that flat fill under the saddle tank should be half the boiler and open but it’ll be limited what you can do about that as I suspect the mech is right behind it. 
So with a few tweaks and a new smokebox door it should pass for ET or a Tattoo(ish) loco. 

More likely a complete body replacement all told tbh. But still, accurate chassis for ET that's for sure. 

Should also be noted that Bachmann decided to design the model so that the trailing wheel is also powered, which is why there's a bulge doing through the middle of the cab. It'll be interesting to see how much more traction and better running it offers(or indeed how hard it would be to remove for anyone who wants a more open cab)

Tbf though, some well placed figures should hide it well anyway.

[298]

14 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Well it’s a start but a few mods needed for an accurate model of Edward Thomas. 
 

Bufferbeam shouldn’t have the green step, should go flush to running plate. 
The running plate should step up a mm or two inline with the smokebox and run level to the bunker.

The cab back should step out halfway up by a couple of mm to create a bit more elbow room in the cab. Oh and that flat fill under the saddle tank should be half the boiler and open but it’ll be limited what you can do about that as I suspect the mech is right behind it. 
So with a few tweaks and a new smokebox door it should pass for ET or a Tattoo(ish) loco. 

 

It's probably about as accurate to a Tattoo class as the Bachmann Thomas is to a LB&SC E2. But I do like what modellers have done with Skarloey and Rheneas to hold the lily and there is something about the 30s & 40s Talyllyn that I'd like to model again....

[PaulRhB]

10 minutes ago, 298 said:

It's probably about as accurate to a Tattoo class as the Bachmann Thomas is to a LB&SC E2

True but for the TR loco it’s not far off 

top photo Bachmann & bottom photo Wikipedia commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_Thomas_(13796797195).jpg

[Butler Henderson]

Wonder if the fact CR 4 / ET would really need a new body tooling open it up for a quick addition to the normal 009 range. 

[Hobby]

I'd suggest filing down the pipe detail under the tank, painting it matt black and then putting in separate pipe detail, once they've been polished up like that lower prototype photo it shouldn't look too bad. Assuming that there's a motor behind the metal another way would be to cut out the metal under the tank, paint the motor black and add pipework which would give it a bit more depth.

 

Quite honestly I've seen worse than that where people have used the Kato 109 chassis under a similar design of body which looks just as bad even though the gap is there! Instead of putting in pipework and other gubbins that fills the gap they leave it open so you can see the top of the chassis!

[PaulRhB]

Agreed, my plan is to open up the lower half of the blank area and file a taper on the bottom edge of what’s left to represent the boiler so there’s a bit extra relief to it. Then as Blair suggests add separate pipes in front on both sides. With the footplate raised to its correct position it further reduces the gap too. 

[PaulRhB]

43 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

Wonder if the fact CR 4 / ET would really need a new body tooling open it up for a quick addition to the normal 009 range. 

I think you’d find the chassis is included in the tooling suite protected by the licensing restrictions. 

[BernardTPM]

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

I'd suggest filing down the pipe detail under the tank, painting it matt black and then putting in separate pipe detail, once they've been polished up like that lower prototype photo it shouldn't look too bad.

 

1 hour ago, PaulRhB said:

Agreed, my plan is to open up the lower half of the blank area and file a taper on the bottom edge of what’s left to represent the boiler so there’s a bit extra relief to it. Then as Blair suggests add separate pipes in front on both sides.

I suspect just by painting the underside part of the casting a semi-matt black and then adding the bright metal pipework in front will do enough to deceive the eye at shows. More work, of course, if you want it to look right in a photo taken at scale ground level.

What were are getting, of course, is correctly scaled chassis that run so much better than the old hand-me-down 1960s/'70s N gauge jobs, so even if you went for a completely scratchbuilt body you're starting at an advantage.