Elvinley

Yes the Bachmann club which I joined at The N Gauge show in Leamington last year is fantastic. The magazine is huge and as good as a normal modelling mag. Every year I join the Dapol club solely for the open day and yearly club models.

They did produce catalogues up to that date so I am not sure why they aren't bothering now. To start with they produced small free ones which came regularly and to my knowledge have just done two of the larger ones. Also as members of the club I'm sure we are promised a catalogue each year.

I recieved my Pullman livery 73 today after a long wait of 2 years since ordering! Seems good so far. Etched plates and NEM coupling pockets plus DCC ready make it a higher spec than the old version in Pullman livery. Running in at the moment. Seems fairly smooth but dislikes one of my points. Very light compared to the non DCC 73. The loco comes with magnetic couplings as well as Dapol buckeyes.

Cheers

Ian.

Hawksworths out eh? Ooops. Now I know. Being if no interest to me it's not something I'd have noticed, but it still leaves a list of five I can think of (so there may be others), two of which are ranges consisting of more than one model variant.

 

I'd certainly like to see some progress reported on them this coming weekend. I'm going to the more local roadshow presentation the following week so will also get a firsthand look then.

 

G.

 

And they are the best coaches in N gauge to date. Detail is incredible, but price is very high.

Oh Dear, it is an RTR loco after all, the flycranks are a bit far out, but OK, the face should be flat, but it is correctable, and all the smaller details may not match your particular prototype, but they can't cater for everybody. I am adding windscreen wipers. but that's about it, ...somebody mentioned lifting rings, where exactly are they as most photos do not show the roof. These should be easy to add without affecting the finish.

To much disassembly to put the flycranks opposite the weights at present.

Were the drivers standing to operate these shunters or did they sit? Just trying to get a realistic driver figure to fit to the cab, most spotting/photos of these were too far away to see the driver. Also were they one man crew or two? (BR days in the1950's).

 

Stephen

Sitting or standing depending on what was happening at the time. Good question about crew numbers. Certainly one driver in my time on them but that was only a few years back. The shunter spent plenty of time in the cab as well. Of course there could always be another person being trained up at any time.

The 08 certainly looks the part but are the cranks to far out from the axleboxes?

On all the pictures of the model there seems to be a brass spacer between the axleboxes and the cranks.Compare the attached enlargements. IMG_20161127_092544.jpg IMG_20161127_093249.jpg

Strange really as looking again at the loco I can see no reason why they need to be spaced that far away.

Although that does cost £25 to join but it did mean I also got a Terrier for the same price.

Yes that is true Mike. I was already a member and have been for a few years due to being a modeller with primarily N gauge interests. The membership gives you entry to the open day as well as other benefits. This was the main reason I became a member as the open day has many bargains including NQP items at very low prices. I bought my first O gauge loco for many years at the open day this year. A Terrier for 100 quid which just needed a handrail fixing to the front. N gauge locos were available for £35 NQP but many were OK after a little bit of maintenance work.

Just wondering who obtained the best price...

I got my pair at £163 each from Holt Model Railways who honoured the price they quoted when I placed the order way back when.

Caveat: I had settle for 2 x D3045 as the wholesaler was unable to obtain the other BR Blue versions, so I've got some work to do, including removal of the ladder(s).

Randall

£145 Inc postage from the club.

Hi Thanxs for the advice will get on the phone tomorrow and see what they say.

 

Cheers

No problem. Dapol are good at sorting out any issues. An email to Joel is the best way. My replacement has both lights working and runs much better than the original so was worth sending back.

Hi can someone advise me please just got my 08 trying it on dc there only seems to be one white light working at each end in the direction of travel and no lights on at the rear is this correct or do the others work on dcc only.

 

Cheers

This is not correct and should be returned. Mine was the same but the replacement works both ways in direction of travel.

My replacement arrived and so far behaves perfectly. No tight spot on this one and both lights that it was designed to show on DC work OK. Will be DCCing mine with sound.

Cheers for the reply Paul. I think I've got it

I suppose you are talking about the one's you have encountered. Not all sound projects are the same, and there's more than one quality sound decoder type available.

 

Traction motor sound does feature in my sound project. It's just not featured in the video in this thread above.

 

In this earlier clip a similar project in a Bachmann 08, the traction motors can be heard from about 1 min 55s

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxPIFHyb5hQ

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul

Hi Paul

How come the traction motors don't feature in the earlier video?

Cheers

Ian.

What a great little model; real VFM, in my view.  Sadly, I didn't read the small print on the decoder and so it looks like a Christmas tree just now; but that can be changed.  

 

[attachment=774025:AEE2774E-EB78-4140-A28B-0B178E5853F9.JPG

That's correct for shunting. One red and one white both ends.

Will be going back. Tried it with a chip and the running was transformed but still just one lamp.

The back top light doesn't operate. Surely a white and red at the bottom would have been better for DC users?

Just test run mine and the only lights that are working are the top front and cab light. Also has a tight spot atm.

Got mine today.

 

major grumble as far as I can see is the lack of windscreen wipers.

 

Other than that it runs like a dream, its relatively quiet and an absolute bargain. The gearing is spot on for a shunter too.

 

Even if the price goes up to £199 (and noting the new Jinty is priced at £225) I can't see how Heljan can charge £399 or whatever for their smaller 05 and they already did the development work for the OO model.

 

Anyhow some pix

 

Shunter5.jpg

 

Shunter2.jpg

 

Paul R

Wow never noticed the wipers! Should have as I used to work on 08s. Have ordered one as it looks great imo.

As I have a love of both in decent quantities it does mean I have seen a lot of issues but to be fair I have plenty of locos that (for the time being) run very well. We do expect a lot of these tiny machines but they deprive us of increasing amounts of hard earned cash.

It's the split gears, overheating motors, broken tender to loco wires, wobbles, noisy mechanisms, poor pickups, bad back to backs, dodgy valve gear, dodgy soldering, slack QC and dodgy components that make N gauge life interesting.

Absolutely true, but I just haven't heard of many issues with steam outline as opposed to diesel. A few less gears to go wrong I suppose.

Unusual to see steam outline locos with split gears.

Hi Andy, I apologise I did not intend to offend. I will not let my frustration get the better of me in future, I value and appreciate this forum and in no way want to insight any conflicts.

Andy has kindly reactivated this topic so those of us who do have this problem can discuss and hopefully find a solution. Is it wrong lubricant, storage temperature, faulty part etc lets use this opportunity to discuss and see if we can find a common denominator. Pete

I had another look on BR Lines this time at their spare parts for sale. Interesting part No. GF2503 Pack of 4x 12 tooth gears £3.60 (Latest thicker gear) and Part No. GF2504 Pack of 6x 16 tooth gears £5.90 (Latest thicker gear) 

 

Does anyone know what the "(Latest thicker gear)" means? I hope I don't regret asking that question! Does it mean that Bachmann have already solved their split gear problem and produced a new tooling for a thicker gear that does not split? if this is the case then when were these gears produced and when did Graham Farish start using them in their locos? or are they a third party part? Obviously I cannot contact BR Lines today but would be very interested if anyone on this forum has the answer. Thanks in advance Pete    

The 'latest thicker gears' refers to the gears being of the later type that were considerably thicker than the previous Poole ones. I think this was in the hope they would not split. They do still sometimes split as we have noted, but probably less than the older ones did.

It's interesting that in the few days this topic has been active over 500+ people have viewed it. I would say a topic about split gears in Graham Farish locos is about as interesting as watching paint dry. Especially when it's a subject which has been talked about on this forum alone 80, no sorry now 81 times previously, it's a fact! This got me thinking does this mean that the majority of these views are from people who have had or are currently having problems with split gears in their Graham Farish locos? I know one person is currently unsure there is a problem, would be interesting to find out why they bothered to read the topic in the first place? If it didn't affect me I wouldn't have, life's to sort! I guess what I'm trying to say is if we are to stand any chance of Bachmann taking ownership and deal with their problem once and for all, we ALL need to take a bit of time to post our examples of split gears in our Graham Farish locos past and present how it affected us and costs to repair etc. Could someone post a message to fellow hobbyists on other forums about this topic giving as many people as possible the opportunity to have their say. If we fail to do this then I fear, this topic will just slip into the archives as it has the previous 80 times and it will be business as usual for Bachmann! Over to you Pete

My examples are as follows:

 

A last but one generation class 20 bought brand new had 3 split gears straight from the shop.

 

A Warship now running on 3 axles due to split axle gear.

 

A 47 with the same issue.

 

A 57 same.

 

I have had problems with Poole locos as well but in the dim and distant past. I do have a fair collection of locos so this is a relatively small percentage.

My locos are display cased in the living room where temp is fairly even. Have had lots of split gears over the years.