Bachmann H1 Class Atlantic

[WD0-6-0]

A late Royal Navy architect friend of mine once wrote "It probably killed as many painters as it did barnacles".

Marine paint us pretty horrible stuff! Whether it's old red lead or even new paint none of it is even remotely good for you!

 

My second H1 is lovely, no paint issues and runs like an absolute dream! Sits lovely alongside my C1 and H2, a very interesting family line!

[Edwardian]

Anyone fancy making after-market bogie brakes?  It would be good to get her at least back to 1913.

[GNR Dave]

I seem to remember one of the Bachmann pre-production samples in the members lounge at Warley two years ago was fitted with bogie brakes. Maybe a limited club edition is in the offing ?

 

Your post 322 in the H2 thread has a picture.

Edited November 21, 2018 by GNR Dave

[Martin S-C]

I received my model of this yesterday and it is simply superb. The official Bachmann photos of it do not do the model justice, really exquisite.

I think this one ranks alongside the SECR liveried C Class as the best looking model they've made. I am sure the umber liveried model will soar in price if you are a collector.

[brittannia]

Received my La France today, put a Bachmann Decoder into it , put it on programming track and the factory capacitator went off  with a bang like a roman candle firework, all the innards  hanging  out of the capacitator, .decoder and loco survived the trauma, normally I would have put a Lenz silver in, but having the Bachmann decode spare, I  thought I would use it.

Have to see what Bachmann make of it, supplier has no more

[brittannia]

Just an update on my H1 explosion, the loco runs fine, what I think may have happened is that are 2 pieces of metal weights and these have been slightly covered with a badly fitted piece of " Sellotape" it just about covers one corner and about 0,5cm of the weights and I presume the capacitor was touching the weights.Will contact Bachmann tomorrow for their view on the fireworks, the problem is that I have a 5 year old grandson who likes to "help" , just glad he was not present I think the loud  and visible smelling .explosion would have scared him.

[Oldddudders]

Just an update on my H1 explosion, the loco runs fine, what I think may have happened is that are 2 pieces of metal weights and these have been slightly covered with a badly fitted piece of " Sellotape" it just about covers one corner and about 0,5cm of the weights and I presume the capacitor was touching the weights.Will contact Bachmann tomorrow for their view on the fireworks, the problem is that I have a 5 year old grandson who likes to "help" , just glad he was not present I think the loud  and visible smelling .explosion would have scared him.

Having put a decoder in an H2 last week, the capacitor leads were trapped under the sellotape, but not the cap itself. So I wondered as I took the tender apart on La France today whether it would be different in view of your ill luck. Same story as the H2, though. These are quite the biggest caps I’ve seen on a RTR loco, and don’t appear in any of the diagrams on Bachmann’s service etc sheet. Both locos run nicely.

[brittannia]

Latest on the Capacitator explosion. according to Bachmann the 100uf 50v is only there as a television interference deterent, so it does not act as a stay alive unit as I thought it might,. Bachmann said cut it off if I want to keep the model.or send it back to the Model Shop for a replacement or refund.
I will cut the two leads and keep the model

[Jenny Emily]

I picked mine up on Friday and gave it a review. Certainly in this livery it is one of the finest models Bachmann have done. I haven't run it yet as my shed layout is inaccessible because the shed is full of building materials and tools for my garden railway rebuilding.

 

[JSpencer]

Well I finally got mine. Slight issue with the slide bar fouling the connecting rod in reverse but otherwise fine.

 

I decided to take some pics showing the evolution of the 3 designs. As you know Marsh was extremely impressed by Wainwright's SECR H class that he want the same in a modified for the LBSCR, After many modifications the H1 was the result followed by the H2....

 

 

 

Sorry..... What was that???? ..... Really....   Oh........

 

Ok apparently it was not the H class that impressed him but rather Ivatt's C1 of the GNR. Now hang on, why did he not call his design the C2 and C3?

 

 

 

The great thing about the H1 in LBSCR and H2 in BR is that you capture many of the minor modifications during their lives (ok, they have not done the bogie brakes yet...). Hmmm was the H1 cab roof always different to the H2"s shown here or did both start the same and evolve the same?

 

[Oldddudders]

I think Marsh found C2 was already taken as a designation on the LBSCR......

[Wickham Green]

I think Marsh found C2 was already taken as a designation on the LBSCR......

.............. though most got X-rated later in life ............. ( with C3 boilers ! )

[Richard Jones]

Well I Hmmm was the H1 cab roof always different to the H2"s shown here or did both start the same and evolve the same?

 

IMG_8192.JPG

All the Brighton atlantics ended up with the extended roofs in Southern days - certainly by the time they were cut down to composite loading gauge, if not before - I'll check Bradley when I get home!

[Ruston]

I have just seen one of these on display in a model shop. It has no smokebox door handles and I understand that some small parts on RTR locomotives are often provided for the buyer to fit, so is this the case, or is it just missing?

 

This, and the GNR atlantic, are so far removed from my own modelling interests but they are among some of the best looking locomotives ever made, IMHO. I think if it wasn't for the doubt over the smokebox door handles being missing I might have bought it on the spot to put in my display case.

[Oldddudders]

My H1 has a smokebox door handle factory-applied, and picked out in silver.

[JSpencer]

I picked mine up on Friday and gave it a review. Certainly in this livery it is one of the finest models Bachmann have done. I haven't run it yet as my shed layout is inaccessible because the shed is full of building materials and tools for my garden railway rebuilding.

 

 

Nice vid. The only comments I have are that Beachy Head was an H2. While only 3 H1s saw BR days (withdrawn by 1951), all the H2s made it.

Beachy Head, the last H2 went in 1956, the Bluebell commitee was formed in 1959. So I doubt they would have had plans to save Beachy Head.

Bluebell's replica is of course of an H2, not an H1 and I'm glad they chose Beachy Head rather than doing the next number in a sequence.

Edited November 27, 2018 by JSpencer

[Richard Jones]

All the Brighton atlantics ended up with the extended roofs in Southern days - certainly by the time they were cut down to composite loading gauge, if not before - I'll check Bradley when I get home!

 

OK, according to Bradley (part 3)

"37, 38 & 39, when new, had short cab roofs, but following complaints of inadequate footplate protection, 40 & 41 entered service with extended roofs. No change was made to the first 3 before the grouping, but Maunsell then extended the roofs of all five engines to give the firemen reasonable protection when removing coal from the tender. All roofs were then of the same length"

 

The roofs were further altered to met the composite loading gauge in 1935 -37

[Tramshed]

Nice vid. The only comments I have are that Beachy Head was an H2. While only 3 H1s saw BR days (withdrawn by 1951), all the H2s made it.

Beachy Head, the last H2 went in 1956, the Bluebell commitee was formed in 1959. So I doubt they would have had plans to save Beachy Head.

Bluebell's replica is of course of an H2, not an H1 and I'm glad they chose Beachy Head rather than doing the next number in a sequence.

Although 3 of the H1 class made it to BR days only 2 of these could be said to be original H1's since the former 39 'La France', by then 2039 and named 'Hartland Point', was rebuilt by Bulleid in 1947 with sleeve valves as an experimental test bed for the Leader project. Doubtless just a matter of time before someone offers a sleeve valve mod though not something I would attempt myself!

[Ruston]

Little and Large; both Leeds-built engines.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

...This, and the GNR atlantic, are so far removed from my own modelling interests but they are among some of the best looking locomotives ever made, IMHO ...

Do wonder if one or two of the other contemporary atlantics might just get a model over time. Each class I am sure has its enthusiast following, but the NER group along with Reid's design for the NBR are all of them 'crackers'. And why not? We are nearly all out of pacifics...

[Dick Turpin]

Do wonder if one or two of the other contemporary atlantics might just get a model over time. 

 

I can certainly picture a Reid Atlantic in full North British Railway bronze green livery splendour! bring it on I say.

[No Decorum]

Now that we (nearly) have one NB locomotive, another becomes more desirable. I suppose we would be doomed to run it with LNER coaches.

[Oldddudders]

Now that we (nearly) have one NB locomotive, another becomes more desirable. I suppose we would be doomed to run it with LNER coaches.

One step at a time! We are now seeing passable Pre-Grouping locos, at least. But there are no LBSC coaches to go behind La France, nor will there be any time soon, as they were hardly standardised in the fashion of some larger companies. Conversely, I hear that sales of the acclaimed SECR-liveried birdcage coaches haven’t been instant. What is an RTR manufacturer to think?

[Wickham Green]

One step at a time! We are now seeing passable Pre-Grouping locos, at least. But there are no LBSC coaches to go behind La France, nor will there be any time soon, as they were hardly standardised in the fashion of some larger companies. Conversely, I hear that sales of the acclaimed SECR-liveried birdcage coaches haven’t been instant. What is an RTR manufacturer to think?

Perhaps they should think "I know, I'll do a model of a Chatham 'D' class - that should wake the market up !" .................................................. and perhaps there shouldn't have been a 'perhaps' in that.

[No Decorum]

One step at a time! We are now seeing passable Pre-Grouping locos, at least. But there are no LBSC coaches to go behind La France, nor will there be any time soon, as they were hardly standardised in the fashion of some larger companies. Conversely, I hear that sales of the acclaimed SECR-liveried birdcage coaches haven’t been instant. What is an RTR manufacturer to think?

 

Having to run Southern coaches behind La France was exactly what was in my mind when I said that an NB Atlantic would be doomed to pull LNER coaches. What does an RTR manufacturer think? Glorious SECR Birdcages but no express loco to pull them. A glorious LBSC express loco but no LBSC coaches for it to pull. Until things match up, I will put not-altogether-correct coaches behind locos but it would be so much nicer to have a good match.

 

One decent example of pre-grouping thinking I can think of is the Midland goods loco and Midland brake van produced by Bachmann. We could do with more of that. I sound repetitive but I do think a pre-group RCH wagon would be relatively cheap to produce and would go on earning for years with both company and private owner liveries.

 

Bachmann’s SECR Birdcages are remarkably fine coaches but I have a little thought which niggles. The livery is quite subdued. Would the coaches have sold better if the livery was a little brighter, such that more people would have gone “Oooo!” and fished out their wallets? Must I report at dawn with a blindfold for even suggesting such a thing?