Bachmann Class 170 - 3 car to 2 car?

[Sir TophamHatt]

I read in another thread that the Bachmann Class 170 has the same chassis for all 3 coaches.

 

Does this mean I could buy a 3-car unit and swap the bodies to make it a 2-car unit?

 

The picture I looked at shows a different arrangement of under body boxes and such for the centre motor car on a 3-car unit.

 

Thanks for any advice.

[JackB95]

I believe so yes. I plan on turning my XC one into a 2-car. The chassis has the right shape given they use the same tooling for the 2 and 3 car versions in the shop where the 3-car ones have the motor in the middle. You might be able to take the underframe of the dummy driving vehicle and put it on the motor chassis, but haven't got one to hand to check.

[Sir TophamHatt]

How does the coupling area work with this?

Sorry, I don't have a 3-car to check.

[Red Fox]

The undeframe detail clips in to the chassis, the only thing that can make it difficult to swap between centre and end coaches is how much glue the person who assembled it decided to use which varies between either the bare minimum and excessive and nothing in between!

 

The bogie frames also clip on so the ones with the couplings can be easily swapped round.  I've never had any trouble with 170 bogie frame clips but the ones on my 158's regularly break so one does need to be careful.

[adb968008]

A long time ago in an age before Covid…

2017 Bachmann announced a flutter 

of 170’s including a Scottish &

a Southern, but then 2018

amended the plan and

Announced a retool

of the 170 but in

2020 they said

no more info

On the new

170 until

Ready

….

158 took 7 years, that was before Covid.

Realtracks 142 is approaching 6 years and weve not seen an EP yet.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by adb968008

[newbryford]

So far, I've converted a XC 170 3-car to a 2-car. 

Swap the motorised chassis to an outer body, remove the NEM pocket from the motor chassis, swap the dummy BSI coupling and away you go.

The 170s share the same mechanics as the original 158s.

So:

I bought a 3-car Northern Spirit unit and 2-car Northern unit.

 

A quick chassis swap - one outer of Northern with the NS centre -  and a repaint of the centre car and I had a 3-car Northern unit and 2-car NS which was sold on.

[Sir TophamHatt]

11 hours ago, adb968008 said:

 

Yeah, which is on my potential to buy list, but I don't know another way of resolving my problem, apart from buying another 170.  The Central Trains livery seems to be mostly 3-car units and as the end cars don't have the motors, I'd have to do some swapping about for a 2-car unit.  Shame Bachmann don't get a move on with their 158 liveries (CT Green) or Realtrack with their 156 liveries (CT / RR livery) as those would be perfect for what I want.

 

But if I can buy a 3-car unit and swap the bodies over to make a 2-car unit, could probably sell the spares or keep to convert back and re-sell at a point in the future, hoping there will be an apetite for these after the new ones are released.

 

I guess I could buy the old 158 as a stop gap (and I'd have fun upgrading the lights, chipping it and such), but it would have to be cheap as chips as I can't imagine it selling that well as new liveries are produced.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Sir TophamHatt

[TomScrut]

On 26/09/2022 at 23:06, adb968008 said:

Realtracks 142 is approaching 6 years and weve not seen an EP yet.

 

But we have now!

[adb968008]

3 hours ago, TomScrut said:

 

But we have now!

Yes that post aged well !

Edited October 7, 2022 by adb968008