APOLLO Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Wonderful Lima , 5 seconds and your in, nowt broken either. I don't dare touch my newer locos though !! Brit15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragtag Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Well, the Christmas arrivals have been done. A Heljan 33, 2 Bachmann 37s and 2 Bachmann 66s done without a hitch. It seems to be the newer Hornby ones which give me trouble. Wonderful Lima , 5 seconds and your in, nowt broken either I hear that one Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetfoot Mike Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Wonderful Lima , 5 seconds and your in, nowt broken either. I don't dare touch my newer locos though !! I'm having enough trouble just doing a body swap on a Bachmann 57xx (yes, I have finally discovered how NEM couplings come out, but that's going to involve a pair of very small tweezers, which is MORE expense (unless I can steal a set from the wife)). Chipping? Heck with that. I'll pay Gareth @ Trains4U, and gladly. Then I KNOW it'll work afterwards Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomp Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 My contribution as a brand new DCC user... Bachmann's Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0, nightmare to disassemble and reassemble, and I've still never managed to get the loco body off. Hornby 50 - came apart and went together like a dream several times. Hornby new HST - powered power car came apart and went together perfectly. Dummy power car now has no lights owing to the fit at the front being far too snug and the sprung contacts being bent out of shape. If I can't reassemble it properly, I'll either send it to Hornby for help, or solder the wires on. I haven't tried my other new locos yet, but I'll be getting there as funds permit the purchase of more decoders. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killybegs Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Interesting. I struggled unsuccessfully to remove a Hornby Class 50 body, is there a knack, but had no problem with the Ivatt2-6-0 once I had identified and located the correct screws. However, getting the the rear screw back in is a bit of a ***. Had I realised that the DCC ready socket is in the tender I wouldn't have had to take the loco body in the first place. I wondered where those wires were going! The tender body came off relatively easily once the rear coupling assembly was removed to give access to the fixing screw. Bit more difficult getting it back on. As I was fitting decoders to a client's locos all day yesterday, I can vouch that the Bachmann 37's are the easiest and the 66's and 47's aren't bad. I did find that the ZTC 8 pin plug in decoders that were supplied to me fouled the roof on Bachmann 47's, so I shall have to find a way round that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Mc Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Hi I have to agree Hornby/Bachmann can be difficult to get the bodies apart. The Brits and the Clans are a superb piece of model engineering but as pointed out a real pain to get back together. Spare a thought for some of the Euro models.....some of them make Bachmann/Hornby a joy to pull apart. I once spent 6 hours spread over 4 days trying to pull a lilput tank loco apart and it beat me. I couldnt work it out and removed every screw I could see. No joy. Yes I agree manufacturers need to provide better and clear instructions or as was suggested videos on how to pull it apart step by step. martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted February 1, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 1, 2010 Oddly, having regard to the general theme of this thread, my recent forays into UK-prototype DCC conversions have been quite easy in the body-off bit. The latest, an ebay Bachmann Ivatt 2-6-2, turned out to need only two screws removed under the bunker for the whole shell to slide off. That was the end of the easy bit, of course, because I now beheld my first example of that electrical abomination - the split chassis. Little springs between the motor terminals and the left and right hand chassis sections were not what I wanted to see! Having parted the two halves by a few mm, mind you, it then got easier, and with suitable heatshrink round the now-soldered motor connections we seem to be ok. The DZ125 is sitting on the cab floor, and I have yet to decide how to replace the backhead, but it hardly shows anyway. It pulls 3 Maunsells with no effort, and I'm not sure I will be asking it to do even that much very often. So I now have a tank for my Torrington branch services, and must just get on with the small matter of building the layout to run it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted February 2, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 2, 2010 I've just done a Roco HOe locomotive. Very clear instructions, screwless access to the DCC socket (pull cab roof off), even the blanking plug had little grippy bits moulded on. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the fuzzler Posted February 12, 2010 Author Share Posted February 12, 2010 You'll have seen me moaning about the atrocious Heljan 14, trying to get into it, trying to get a chip and harnes to fit, and then trying to squeeze the bonnet back over the said mass..... I've been looking at other sites to see if anyone else has had a go, and stumbled across the Trains 4U site. It seems that the Bachmann 4CEP (thankfully no interest to me) seems to be a particularly ar$ey thing to get into as well. Seriously folks, why on earth should it be like this ? Can't we just have a couple of screws to secure body to chassis ? The manufacturers tell us that we have to periodically oil/grease the mechanisms, so we do need to remove the body even if just using DC. And they know that we're going to go in and fit DCC decoders becasue they're putting DCC sockets in there too. I'm really really getting fed up with this DCC business. It seems we're all guinea pigs, fumbling around with imperfect technology (all the tweaks needed to RTR DCC Sound locos comes to mind), and having to risk breakage to lovely rolling stock to fit a chip that manufacturers know we're going to fit. Some might find it fun, but my precious spare time (and money) is too rare to be wasted experimenting and fettling with stuff that should work properly. Arrgh !! There, rant over. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold mudmagnet Posted February 28, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 28, 2010 I've just fitted a decoder to the latest Bachmann Class 08 ( a great model, by the way ), but struggled to get the body off. You have to remove the couplings and the sockets and a few screws underneath, but no mention is made in the paperwork supplied. Also, the body will then only come off by releasing the clip on the cab onto the rear buffer beam and removing the small 'pipe' which is soft wire that runs from the front of the body onto the chassis. Removing the wire took quite a bit of force to pull out, thus bending the wire in the process, now proving difficult to get back. In the process I managed to break one of the plastic hand rails and another popped out. Both handrails re-fitted, so no major issue. Fitting the decoder is another issue, but got one fitted and all working ok. Its a real shame that Bachmann have not (a) considered making removal of the body easier and (B) not making the instructions clear on the paperwork. The loco is sold fitted with a 8-pin DCC socket, so surely they would expect a number of purchasers wanting to remove the body? I have a few other Bachmann diesels and these call come apart relatively easily and have diagrams identifying which screws to remove. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwrman Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Hi, I don't know about anyone else, but it would be nice to be able to remove the fuel tanks to put speakers in without having to dismantle the whole loco. Nigel. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
59004 ( was Shedcombe....) Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Hi, I couldn't be more happy with the way the chassis on the Bachmann 150 is fitted within the body. Two scews at the corridor end, one centered behind the cab. The two small tabs on the sides of the body hold it in place still. Squeeze the sides away a little, and they tabs click out of their position. You can easily refit the body leaving the screws out, as all remains in place well by just the tabs. All models should be like this really. Regards, Michel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the fuzzler Posted March 16, 2010 Author Share Posted March 16, 2010 Hi, I couldn't be more happy with the way the chassis on the Bachmann 150 is fitted within the body. Two scews at the corridor end, one centered behind the cab. The two small tabs on the sides of the body hold it in place still. Squeeze the sides away a little, and they tabs click out of their position. You can easily refit the body leaving the screws out, as all remains in place well by just the tabs. All models should be like this really. Regards, Michel Good ! One of these is on the to do list, so that should ease the workload a little, and balance out the 153 that still needs to have its body taken off. Need to get more credit cards to wedge in the body..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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