Graham Farish HAA and derivatives

[Crepello]

I found that the undersized wheels can be replaced with nearer to scale size 3’6’’ coach wheels without any problems, even on canted track. The prototypes had wheels of 4’, as demanded by the civil engineer.

[montyburns56]

The price of these (around £20) seems surprisingly reasonable in light of the price increases that Bachmann have pushed through in recent years. I don't know if that's because they are fairly old tooling or it's just because they are simple to manufacture, but it makes a change to not be shocked by the price of Bachmann's new releases.

[Stu from EGDL]

Hi All;

 

The Scottish version of this wagon with the blue framing and the small saltire would be a welcome addition. The PECO one is incredibly hard to find now and I could do with a few more.

To that end, if anyone has any they wish to swap on a one for one basis (for another colour framing), I'd be interested.

 

Later;

STU from EGVN

[Mike Harvey]

On 14/08/2023 at 11:56, Crepello said:

I found that the undersized wheels can be replaced with nearer to scale size 3’6’’ coach wheels without any problems, even on canted track. The prototypes had wheels of 4’, as demanded by the civil engineer.

The wheels were 1092mm diameter so 3ft 7in, not 4ft 0in. 3ft 6in wheels would be a good approximation in N for a worn wheelset.

[Crepello]

On 15/08/2023 at 19:32, Mike Harvey said:

The wheels were 1092mm diameter so 3ft 7in, not 4ft 0in. 3ft 6in wheels would be a good approximation in N for a worn wheelset.

Thank you Mike. You are quite right. Where I got 4’ from I don’t know! Anyway, as you say, 3’6’’ will be fine, especially as they’re the only Farish alternative.  Do you happen to know the size for the HBA and HEA types too?
 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Crepello
Punctuation

[Mike Harvey]

3 hours ago, Crepello said:

Thank you Mike. You are quite right. Where I got 4’ from I don’t know! Anyway, as you say, 3’6’’ will be fine, especially as they’re the only Farish alternative.  Do you happen to know the size for the HBA and HEA types too?
 

HBA and HEA were 952mm diameter = 37.5inches

[Luke Piewalker]

I was quite impressed to find the Farish wheelsets have a different wheel on each side to represent the brake disc configuration.

[Mike Harvey]

@Luke Piewalker I had forgotten about the diagonal disc brakes on the HAA fleet. A high proportion of the 2 and 4 axle PO wagons had the same configuration. I remember doing some extended field trials on a PGA in the Peak District which produced some interesting results  namely that having disc brakes all round rather than diagonally extended disc pad life by a factor of 4  which was not so surprising. There was also negligible disc wear. What was surprising was discs all round also extended the miles between tyre turning by a factor of 4, and the wear pattern was such that overall wheel life went up by a factor of six by comparison with a diagonal disc set up. It is hard to imagine the financial benefit across the whole HAA fleet if they all had disc brakes on every wheel. Installing from new must have been an option rejected in favour of lower initial outlay, but running costs over 40 years might have been much lower.