New Bachmann V3s

[Kestrel]

There's photos of the new V3s on MREmag

http://www.mremag.com/images/Reviews_Ba ... TVk-M-.jpg

http://www.mremag.com/images/Reviews_Ba ... P05EFI.jpg

[S.A.C. Martin]

So, suffering an extreme bout of insomnia, I decided to consult my Yeadon's volume on the V3s this morning as I have one of these new V3s on the bench, despite have professed to deciding not to purchase them (as I had forgot I had made an order at Invicta for two of them and I always support my local model shops).

I was very surprised to find that I actually quite like the new model when presented with one in the flesh! It was run in at Erith Model Railway Club last night and between a few of us members we observed that the new chassis is excellent.

Picture of running in the V3

Weighty, smooth running and rather finer than we had anticipated, if not quite as fine as say the Bachmann A2 (it is still recognisably a Gresley V3 chassis though).

The model I have is 67690 with cycling lion. It has extremely fine lining out and is better liveried than I remember the original split chassis models being. It is intended to back date this model to an appropriately numbered and allocated near-Stratford example.

On page 18 of the Yeadon's volume for the class is a photograph of NE liveried 490. This seems to fit my time frame (1946-49) and also has the right bunker type (hopper) but has GS buffers (so the Bachmann ones will need changing). The Bachmann model also appears to share the straight outside cylinders too.

This I think will be my first of the two V3s to be renumbered.

The question is, has anyone ever improved the Bachmann model before, and where did they start? To my eye, the smokebox door is too bulbous and needs changing, together with the chimney which looks overly awkward and possibly the dome too. If anyone has done changes before, what after market parts did you use?

The rest of the model is more or less okay to my eyes, the buffers being the next most urgent part of the model to be changed (which need GS buffers for no.490).

Overall a nice update on an older model by Bachmann, but I still baulk at the price. £140 or thereabouts RRP too rich by far when you consider Hornby's Railroad 4-4-0s have a similarly updated chassis and are being sold at around £80 RRP. Not sure Bachmann can justify that high price - I got mine at Invicta for an agreed £110 which is quite heavily discounted.

On balance though...much better than the re-chassised Gresley V2 model Bachmann recently sold, if still in my opinion too high in price overall.

[Hatfield Shed]

I felt it was detail component finish and fit that needed attention the first time around. Thinning the edges of the frameplates at the front, reinstalling the steam pipes, adjusting the glazing for a better fit, stuff like that. (The entire bunker slides off to the rear, making work within the cab relatively simple.)It'll be a major polishing job to get it to look well alongside Hornby's L1; they have rather stolen the show in LNER suburban tanks with that item.

[Sea Eagle]

Hello Simon. I believe the GE section locos were all from the same late batch of V1s with straight pipes and hopper bunkers, but 180lb boilers from new. By the time of your modelling period though V3 conversions were well underway. Don't think there are any external differences to the boiler, but they were sufficiently heavier to put the V3s into RA7 rather than the RA6 of the V1s - noticeable if the livery includes an RA classification on the tank sides. Buffer beam class designation will of course also be different. I'm sure Yeadons has the date of conversion for specific prototypes. The GE locos were Westinghouse fitted until the early 1950s by which time they had been transferred to the North East or Scotland - so you would need to add the Westinghouse gear to your model. Post war livery was plain back until into the cycling lion era when lining started to appear, but there should be a good selection of late LNER and early BRITISH RAILWAYS lettering and numbering styles to choose from for your period. The smoke box door step was a later BR addition as of course was the shed code plate so whatever you do with the smoke box door those will need to go. A nice project - I'm thinking of going down the same route.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Gents, thank you for your replies.

I felt it was detail component finish and fit that needed attention the first time around. Thinning the edges of the frameplates at the front, reinstalling the steam pipes, adjusting the glazing for a better fit, stuff like that. (The entire bunker slides off to the rear, making work within the cab relatively simple.)It'll be a major polishing job to get it to look well alongside Hornby's L1; they have rather stolen the show in LNER suburban tanks with that item.

I agree, it'd take a lot to make it as good as the Hornby L1. That's the benchmark for me for tank engines - the J50 is almost as good, but not quite as fine running in my opinion. Buffers and the vacuum pipe on the front end are easy changes to make the model better. I'm using the Hornby L1 spares pack to sort that for a front coupling/etc.

Hello Simon. I believe the GE section locos were all from the same late batch of V1s with straight pipes and hopper bunkers, but 180lb boilers from new. By the time of your modelling period though V3 conversions were well underway. Don't think there are any external differences to the boiler, but they were sufficiently heavier to put the V3s into RA7 rather than the RA6 of the V1s - noticeable if the livery includes an RA classification on the tank sides. Buffer beam class designation will of course also be different. I'm sure Yeadons has the date of conversion for specific prototypes. The GE locos were Westinghouse fitted until the early 1950s by which time they had been transferred to the North East or Scotland - so you would need to add the Westinghouse gear to your model. Post war livery was plain back until into the cycling lion era when lining started to appear, but there should be a good selection of late LNER and early BRITISH RAILWAYS lettering and numbering styles to choose from for your period. The smoke box door step was a later BR addition as of course was the shed code plate so whatever you do with the smoke box door those will need to go. A nice project - I'm thinking of going down the same route.

That is a great shout - thanks SE. Westinghouse pumps to be ordered for my pair then. I'm going to have one wartime NE and one LNER. I've toned down the number of BR liveries in my fleet, preferring a more uniform approach with LNER branding.

I reckon it'll be a pretty straightforward job though I regret somewhat the need to remove all of that lovely lining out...Might see if one of my older V3 bodies is a straight swap.

[Sea Eagle]

Simon - Bachmann cat no. 31-609 is a plain black Stratford loco with a Westinghouse pump. It's V1 67673 (formerly 478) with a small cycling lion, albeit incorrectly labelled as a V3. The prototype was never converted. It was renumbered 7673 in July 1946 and retained LNER branding until the end of 1949 - BR from January 1950, transferred to Heaton in November 1950 and Westinghouse brake removed in February 1953. Body is a straight swap onto the new chassis - no mods required.

[Hatfield Shed]

The Bachmann models with mechanism upgrades I have sampled have had different fixing points. But what with the body and mechanism dimensions remaining the same.it's about ten minutes work to adapt an old body to the new mechanism. In the case of the V2 you could clearly see inside the new model's body where the moulding tool had been slightly altered, and simply copying that revision inside the older body made it a fit.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Simon - Bachmann cat no. 31-609 is a plain black Stratford loco with a Westinghouse pump. It's V1 67673 (formerly 478) with a small cycling lion, albeit incorrectly labelled as a V3. The prototype was never converted. It was renumbered 7673 in July 1946 and retained LNER branding until the end of 1949 - BR from January 1950, transferred to Heaton in November 1950 and Westinghouse brake removed in February 1953. Body is a straight swap onto the new chassis - no mods required.

That's interesting - I think I have that model somewhere in my stockpile. I'll have a quick look later on. Many thanks for the heads up.

The Bachmann models with mechanism upgrades I have sampled have had different fixing points. But what with the body and mechanism dimensions remaining the same.it's about ten minutes work to adapt an old body to the new mechanism. In the case of the V2 you could clearly see inside the new model's body where the moulding tool had been slightly altered, and simply copying that revision inside the older body made it a fit.

Good shout, thank you.

One thing I want to make abundantly clear - the price comparison and its perceived highness is fair in my opinion, particularly when you place it alongside a Hornby Thompson L1, a similarly sized tank engine with an excellent specification.

Truly, the two models are similar for running capabilities but poles apart in overall finish.