Bachmann LMS Period 1 coaches - disassembly?

[ejstubbs]

I'm thinking of fitting Keen Systems close coupling mechanisms to my Bachmann Period 1 LMS coaches.  Are there any tricks or gotchas in disassembling these coaches?

 

I may only need to remove and modify the bogies - Keen's web site suggests that their CCM will fit directly underneath the coach floor - but I'm not even sure what's involved in taking the bogies off.  They seem to be attached with a screw but I'm not sure whether access is required to the inside of the coach in order to re-attach them.

 

(And yes, I know about the non-prototypical lining and all the other issues with these coaches.  One thing at a time!)

Edited July 30, 2017 by ejstubbs

[RexAshton]

I'm thinking of fitting Keen Systems close coupling mechanisms to my Bachmann Period 1 LMS coaches.  Are there any tricks or gotchas in disassembling these coaches?

 

I may only need to remove and modify the bogies - Keen's web site suggests that their CCM will fit directly underneath the coach floor - but I'm not even sure what's involved in taking the bogies off.  They seem to be attached with a screw but I'm not sure whether access is required to the inside of the coach in order to re-attach them.

 

(And yes, I know about the non-prototypical lining and all the other issues with these coaches.  One thing at a time!)

The screws will be either be self tapping into the plastic floor or threaded into a captive bush.

[Dunsignalling]

I think these are the same fitting as the BG. if so you shouldn't need to dismantle the coach to fit the Keen CCU. Just remove/replace the bogies after they've been altered. One screw, thread in the mounting boss - no difficulty but take care not to overtighten which can strip the thread .

 

There is enough of a recess in the floor for the bogies to clear the CCU, but you may need to trim the part referred to as the delta plate to a 'T' shape to avoid it rubbing on the wheels. IIRC the instructions cover this.

 

The only mods I needed to make to the bogies were to remove the shelf that the tension lock is fitted to and cut a slot in the rest to give just enough clearance to allow the CCU to move smoothly. If using Kadee heads, this will self-centre the arm of the CCU to give reliable coupling and uncoupling.  

 

Make sure the slot is straight and the edges are smooth.

 

John

Edited July 30, 2017 by Dunsignalling

[ejstubbs]

Thanks to both of you for this encouraging information.  I shall approach a selected coach gingerly but with more confidence, and a suitable screwdriver.

 

The only mods I needed to make to the bogies were to remove the shelf that the tension lock is fitted to and cut a slot in the rest to give just enough clearance to allow the CCU to move smoothly. If using Kadee heads, this will self-centre the arm of the CCU to give reliable coupling and uncoupling. 

 

I was planning to use the Roco close couplers (or the Hornby near-equivalent) within the rake.  I use these within my rake of Hornby Period 3 coaches and they seem to work well.  Do you think they will have the requisite centring effect for the Keen CCM?

 

I would use Kadees at the ends of the rake.

Edited July 30, 2017 by ejstubbs

[Dunsignalling]

Thanks to both of you for this encouraging information.  I shall approach a selected coach gingerly but with more confidence, and a suitable screwdriver.

 

 

I was planning to use the Roco close couplers (or the Hornby near-equivalent) within the rake.  I use these within my rake of Hornby Period 3 coaches and they seem to work well.  Do you think they will have the requisite centring effect for the Keen CCM?

 

I would use Kadees at the ends of the rake.

It depends how you plan to use the coaches.

 

If you are going to be keeping them in a rake, only the Kadee fitted ends really need the smooth "steering" effect to facilitate automatic operation.

 

You can afford to have a bit more slack around the Rocos so long as you are OK with lining them up manually when forming up the set.

 

John

Edited July 31, 2017 by Dunsignalling

[ejstubbs]

Having finally got round to trying to progress the modification of my Bachmann Period 1 LMS coaches to use the Keen close coupling system I now find that, even having trimmed the 'delta plate' to within an inch of its life, the wheels still foul the baseplate of the CCU.

 

I think this presents me with three options:

1) Insert a spacer between the bogie and the coach floor.  This would make the buffer height too high.

2) Replace the current 14.1mm disc wheels* with 12.6mm ones.  However, apart from the fact that the wheels would then be too small, it would also make the buffer height too low.  That could be sorted by inserting a compensating spacer between the bogie and the coach floor, but the overall result would likely look a bit odd.

3) Remove part of the coach floor to accommodate the CCU - despite the apparent assertion on the Keen Systems web site that this isn't necessary.

 

If I'm going to go with option 3) then I need to do so working from a proper understanding of how the coach goes together, so that I don't remove anything critical.  Which brings me back to my original question of four years ago: can the bodies of these coaches be disassembled in a non-destructive way, and if so how??

 

* These are what the coaches came with, and are also the standard fitment on the Bachmann LMS bogies that can be bought separately.  AIUI, though, they should be two-hole disc wheels.

Edited December 8, 2021 by ejstubbs

[ejstubbs]

Looks like I've managed to answer my own question.  There are three two shallow tabs along each side of the coach body.  These can be released by easing a narrow plastic blade (I used a thin guitar pick) between the bottom of the coach body and the underframe. Once the tabs on each side have been released, there is a further tab at each end of the underframe which engages rather more positively with the coach body.  To release that you need to gently bend the underframe out from the body, by pulling it in the middle, until one of the end tabs releases.

 

In the immortal words of just about every Haynes manual ever produced: 'Refitting is the reverse of the removal procedure'.

 

Oddly, the one that I used for the above exercise turned out to have some kind of oily substance between the coach body and the underframe on each side.  No idea why that was there.  I'm slightly intrigued as to whether the other examples I have will be the same.  (The coach I experimented on was actually a Replica Railways version of the model bought second-hand.  AFAIK the model was largely unchanged when Bachmann took it over, except for the bogie mounting - certainly the tabs that hold the body to the underframe are in the same place.)  

Edited December 9, 2021 by ejstubbs