SomethingTrainLover

Right blowing the dust off this briefly. So the main range is expected to launch next month and through January. I assume they'll also probably announce the next additions for the UK range, hopefully even start bringing in the NG stuff. I expect the new N scale range to also launch next year now that it's out in the US. Having gotten my eyes on Thomas and hands on Percy, I can confirm a few things 1) They are indeed UK N scale, Annie and Clarabel admittedly are a bit oversized, but Thomas and Percy are in scale. To compound this, the range's upcoming tankers, upon inspecting the promo images off Bachmann's website, are Graham Farish ones with some of the finer, added detail removed. 2) They run beautifully. Bachmann has taken what they've learned from the NG range and implemented it into the N scale range. Going off Percy, and given its fair to say Thomas likely shares the design features, the mechanism is nice and compact, the weight it part of the bodyshell, it's powered by a coreless motor which has a good sized brass flywheel and drives all brass gearing. The wheels all have bearings and running quality without even running it in is fantastic. You can see pics of the chassis setup and a size comparison with a Bachmann Skarloey in the New Bachmann Chassis thread in the Narrow Gauge Modeling section of the forum. I also delved deeper into potential 009 applications and gave wheelbase measurements.

Silver Tay, I think they're called. A few friends use them over NP, bit more expensive but they get the job done quickly and they do custom jobs. Can just send them the NP sample images and ask them for that style, with what text and size.

So figured it would make sense putting this here. So with the new TTTE N scale range from Bachmann now out, there's 2 new N gauge chassis to use for 009 and HOe etc., so by chance, I found both of them in my local hobby shop the day a couple days ago when they were officially released. So today, I sucked it up and bought Percy, who's 0-4-0 chassis was already likely to be considered by us 009 modelers. Now I should note that unlike the previous Tomix N scale Thomas range, which were done a very large scale, Bachmann's is to UK N scale, so these are going to be smaller chassis units than those Tomix ones. Now, onto the part that you lot will be interested in. Looking at the chassis of little Percy here. And I do mean little, I was honestly shocked by the size. Here's him next to Skarloey: Alright, alright. The chassis. The body is essentially in 2 main pieces: the tank-smokebox section and the cab-running board piece. Removing the the former, the mechanism is pretty much entirely exposed. The weight added is attached to the boiler section, and it follows its curves. The mechanism is clearly designed from Bachmann's experience with doing the NG engines in the NG range, the motor is a small coreless type, along with a fairly large flywheel. The motor extends back into the cab, and just above it in the cab is the PCB, no, I don't believe these are DCC ready btw. I think we can agree that there's a lot of room to play with here. Now the cab roof is a separate piece, but it's really on there and I don't want to damage the body quite yet. Flipping the engine over and removing the plate, we get another idea of how well this thing was designed. All the wheels have bearings, the contact/pickup set up is clearly influenced by the ones seen on the NG engines. And to my surprise, all the gears in this are brass not plastic. On a smaller note, looking at the couplings, it can be seen that the Rapido type used are not each just one piece. They actually plug into a NEM socket, which, in theory, I don't know, could maybe almost certainly take 009 NEM couplings. Right few other things I'll cover cause people will probably want to know if or about: 1) Yes, the body can be removed completely from the chassis, I haven't done it yet, but I got close and it clearly will. The only worry I had was that the front part of the running board shares the same screws that hold the cylinders(also their own separate piece) on to the chassis. This isn't a huge deal and can almost certainly be worked around easily, but I figured I'd bring it up. 2) Running quality. Without even running in, the model ran smooth out of the box. Motor is a little bit noisy, but it could be so much worse. I have rather high standards for my models to be able to run smoothly at slow speeds, that goes double for my 009 models, and this crawled at a nice low and slow speed very smoothly, that motor and mechanism are great and that flywheel is a great addition. 3) Wheelbase measurements. So here we go: Driving Wheel Diameter: Approx. 7.4mm Axle to Axle Wheelbase: Approx. 14.6mm Knowing this, I decided to do a some comparisons & calculations to a couple of prototypes, these may be on interest to some of you. First) The Small Englands: Now the wheels are pretty much spot on in terms of size, but the wheelbase is just too short. It's a full 4mm too short, and with the Kato-Peco one hopefully out next year, not a huge bummer. If you do however want to build an England kit, the Tomix Percy is still your best bet. Wheels are a bit big but I believe accurate to the original size(?), and the wheelbase is pretty much spot on. Do need to do quite a bit of work to the kit and to the mechanism block(namely the front of it) to get them to fit properly, but it is currently the best RTR chassis option. Second) Barclay 0-4-0WT/E Class/TR No.6 Douglas: Now since the range was announced nearly 2 years ago, I always jokingly said That Percy's chassis may be a good match for this class. Of course, as much as I hoped with all my heart, I knew the chance of that were unlikely. Well, upon going over the calculations, the wheels are pretty much the same size AND the wheelbase of the Bachmann Percy is shorter...by only .2mm. So, yeah, this is chassis is pretty much dead on for Douglas and other E classes. Of course, cylinder overlays if not an entirely new printed cylinder piece will be needed. At the very least, new crosshead and probably main connecting rod would need to be made, probably an etched kit itself. Then comes to the matter of eccentrics, 2 real options being a static valve gear ala Meridian Corris. No.4 or a mostly working one, but that one would be tricky. Right I've rambled on enough, feel free to ask questions, discuss, maybe theorize what other engines this chassis may be optimal for? If anyone has or is getting the N scale Thomas, feel free to add any pics, measurements and the like.

Even the measurements for the engines aside, which do match 4mm:1ft standards, there's one major fact that just solidifies it...the fact that most of the range's rolling stock is reused Mainline toolings and they scale with the Bachmann engines, even considering the TVS proportions. and Tbf, Thomas's buffer height on the front is just tall enough for the tops of the buffer heads to make sufficient contact with most other stock. What a lot of people have done, given the Bachmann model does need a fair share of work to make it accurate to both the original G1 props and the CGI model, is shave the front bufferbeam down from the bottom and just raised the height of the buffers' location on the bufferbeam. Also, touching on the Ho-OO thing again, Bachmann have been playing it a bit clever with how the range is marked for years anyway. Cause I don't think they've explicably, or at least on the packaging, said the range was HO scale, but rather HO gauge. Hell, look on the boxes most if not all of them say HO/OO gauge. Actually, thank god they put that on the packaging because when I was like 11 or 12, I happened to be looking at a Bachmann Emily I had managed to get my parents to get me. And I noticed the HO/OO gauge on the packaging, and this made me curious as to what OO was. Eventually I finally remembered to actually look it up, and imagine my shear wonderment when I saw all these engines and rolling stock that actually had things the engines on Sodor had; buffers, bufferbeams, hook and chain couplings, the overall style. Blew my mind, cause all I had known was HO and American Steam in general, not like the many books on the subject that I had access talked much about steam outside of North America outside of Rocket and occasionally Flying Scotsman. Was able to convince my parents a year or so later to get me a OO engine off eBay for Christmas, and that Christmas I got a Bachmann LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0. And there was the start of that addication. Right, may have gotten a bit carried away with that reminiscence.

For now at least, Bachmann did immediately say that Mattel's plans won't be effecting their plans for the range(s).

You uh, you sure about that? Cause you do know that these are the exact same toolings as in America and the rest of the world? Some of the detail parts have been thickened to meet the younger UK age requirements, but externally they're exactly the same. This is because the range is and has always been OO, just marketed as HO and HO/OO gauge. So uh, no idea where you saw that the American versions are smaller than the upcoming UK ones :P. And yes, its been known since they officially unveiled the first entries into the UK range earlier this year that they would be fitted with a Next18 socket and be DCC ready. I'm fairly sure that there was already a thread just hasn't been posted in in a good while cause there's been little to no updates other than the estimated release window.

Honestly all I want is an update on the Hunslets. Last we got was what? 2 years ago? Given they clearly had the CAD at the very least quite far along given they gave us 3D prints of them, I would hope they have an EP by this point.

Well it never carried the nameplates or Apple Green(albeit plates were cast and it was illustrated wearing apple, but those aside, wouldn't be entirely out of the realms of possibility for them to do a couple "what-if" liveries for either W1 build.

Well tbf, don't think everyone wants their W1 already made with a headcode ;P. I do hope that the lamps are how they appear to be, that is placeable on or over the lamp irons.

Hoping for an update on the Englands in the next couple months. It's been what? Ten months since they showed off one of the early chassis prototypes?

Really? Just got mine in, spokes look fine

Well that was quick, Personally I'm just going to dig my feet in and wait until Hornby make preserved Stepney, keep BW as is. Just have wait 4 more days for it to get across the ocean.

Same ngl, I've been waiting for either this very model or Stepney in preservation IEG, which ever came first, and honestly, still will get the latter if they ever make it(please make and please make it a regular release). But yeah, had to spend more than I'd like (That USA membership cost and shipping hurt especially) but lord if I'm not excited. And in defense of Hornby, they didn't really hype this up, it was only on here, I only found out when I woke up this morning lol. Not speaking for everyone of course, but it's a bit unfair to say they were hyping this up and spreading this everywhere as if they were going to have a bunch of new reveals, model or livery wise.

I have never been one to get a membership just cause of a loco I wanted...So I now have a Hornby membership cause I have honestly been waiting for an A1x in IEG since they announced the new terrier, it was only going to be Brighton Works or Stepney in preservation, which ever came first, and BW came first. Granted, still am very likely to pick up A1x Stepney in preservation IEG, wink wink nudge nudge Hornby.

Hornby one is ridiculous

They should be. Given they're going for a 3+ demographic, lot of the extra detail bits like the couplings and lamp irons were thickened to meet regulations. The UK ones are also going to be DCC ready, 18 pin, and I think the may have gotten a needed and better motor across the older models in the range. Should be releasing at some point this year, along with the new N gauge range. Probably been delayed due to the pandemic.

and tbf, they're perfectly in scale for what they're representing, the TVS models. They're not exactly meant to be Alfred and Judy ;). Still, they form a decent basis for freelance industrial engines. Actually converted mine into such, don't have any picture's on hand though.

As much as I'd like to see the P1, I'd much rather see them focus on more P2 variants, certainly the P2 was made to take a different nose section at the very least, evident by where the front of the P2 separates from the rest of the bodyshell.

So I'm looking to add a section of "rope" for the bell, anyone got references, drawings, anything that shows how it was laid out across on the J70s?

Last parcel I got took around 2.5 weeks to get to NY, another package took over a month though it has taken that long from that seller before there was a pandemic. On the other hand, a package I sent to UK hasn't had it's tracking updated in a over a month now, last notification was it was being processed through the Jamaica processing center.

Well from my experience, not particularly easy to remove although I believe they can be. Mind the skirted variants don't have the eccentrics as there's very little room with the skirts on.

And now back to our usually scheduled modeling. So a few weeks ago I was able to acquire a complete, but damaged Meridian Models Talyllyn Brake 5 kit. The damage was from the guy who i bought the kit from, who cut off all the stubs on both side pieces if the model. For those who don't know, you're only supposed to cut off ONE side of stubs on each side piece. So after a bit of work, I replicated and replaced the missing stubs with styrene substitutes, which were then filled in and smooth. The model was then built and painted in sections before I wound up with this: Skarloey Railway Stock No.5 "Beatrice" https://youtu.be/DipMOgG9-vs With Beatrice now down, my focus goes to Coach No.3 "Jemima" and getting her built.

Now I am well aware that Railway Series modeling certainly isn't to everyone's taste, so I present this commission I recently completed. It's TR Old Lady Dolgoch The engine received a full application of the NP Dolgochification kit, and the livery is one inspired by the red livery Dolgoch wore prior to her current one. The initial plan for the livery by the owner was to use DTBmodel transfers, which I quickly found were unacceptably fragile and just godawful. As such the only ones used were the cylinder lining and the left hand splasher. Mind the sheet didn't even have various small parts of the livery included. So I talked with the owner, god the masking tape and my calipers out and bordered the entire thing by hand. Then I used .35mm white lining from Fox Transfers and lined the entire thing out, also by hand and including all the small parts of the livery ommitted by the DTB sheet. I was lucky to have a small straight strip along with the one full sheet I did have, cause I used all the straights. So dire was the amount of lining situation that or the smaller straights, I cut the small straight sections off the larger corner pieces. The boiler band lining was also absent, so I decided to just add plain black ones, which isn't entirely inaccurate as in one of the variants of this livery Dolgoch lacked the white lining either side of the black boiler bands. Of course, I also painted the wheels black and rods red and I decided to reuse the model's original whistle piece, carefully cut the base down to size, painted it, and then glued it on the right of the dome, making sure it was just visible when looking out of the right hand spectacle window. The original box was then modded to take the new additions and it was sent back to it's original owner. Of course before I sent it off, I had to take a few pics ;P. “However, small railways generally have small accidents. The wagon will need a little repair, but The Old Lady goes right off to work again” And of course, some with the her twin, The Gallant Old Engine

Only some. It’s only an issue with the blue coaches tbh. Looks like the reds were quickly modified before being sent out, as the coupling hooks are sanded back, no completely, but noticeable enough and enough to actually make a difference. Given I only have the one blue, and it’s all I need, it’s a none issue right now

Well It's been a while. So let's just start off simply, the coach stock. Bachmann's Red and Blue NG coaches are in fact accurate, if anyone is unaware at this point, to their respective TR prototypes, Red is accurate to Coach 1-2 and Blue to Coach 4. So of course that would make them accurate to the SR equivalents. As such, I picked up 2 reds and one blue, to make Coach 1 "Agnes", Coach 2 "Ruth", and Coach 4 "Lucy". This was a relatively simple conversion, all coaches were sprayed with a coat of Tamiya primer and then painted into the Skarloey Railway's standard coach livery in the books, blue with cream/white/light biege/light tan. Interestingly I have found that of the models of done of them, I'm one of the only people to have done it with the full cream surround as per the illustrations, most others going for full blue ends. As seen in SR Brakevan No.9 "Cora", built from a Rodney Stenning Ex-Corris Brake 6 kit. Now here's where some of you may groan; the faces. I decided to take after a couple Japanese modelers, who were using the sticker faces that go on the coaches from the Thomas Plarail Capsule range, course it's near impossible to find an untouched one for any decent price, but many with them applied and in very good nick for cheap. 2 different ones were bought, and the faces cut to size and then peeled off the toys. There were then applied to Agnes and Lucy. Now mind this is more of an experiment and prototype, I have a few ideas going for any future faces, and that's also why the face is a bit messy on Lucy. Issues with the communication cord detailing wasn't considered. I do plan to eventually replace the face of course, and ideally find away to make them easily applicable and removeable. They also have received their respective SR stock numbers, Agnes No.1, Ruth No.2, Lucy No.4 and Cora No.9. I also need to replace the glazing in the coaches, that's the result of the fumes from the glue not having an escape and building up as it dried. Currently still need a Meridian Models Coach 3 and Brake 5 kit to complete the full "vintage" set and I'm currently awaiting for a package that contains them to arrive.