Bachmann V2 release update

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davidwest
GER D14 4-4-0 'Claud Hamilton'
Posts: 337
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Location: West Midlands

Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by davidwest »

You aren't alone. Livery issues aside.The Hornby Thompsons are in a different class. Excuse the pun, :D
davidwest
GER D14 4-4-0 'Claud Hamilton'
Posts: 337
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 12:18 pm
Location: West Midlands

Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by davidwest »

Sound equipped versions now appearing.
Hatfield Shed
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 1664
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:34 pm

Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Hatfield Shed »

Now have one in my hands. (It's BR liveried because I model what I saw from the late fifties on.) It's the best RTR OO V2 yet produced, runs very sweetly and quietly on DC (it's on extended run test ahead of decoder fitting, pleasingly possible without the tender, which is good) and overall looks right enough; should pull well at 11 oz, and I can doubtless add more weight, an unwanted speaker will shortly be deleted once it has completed my standard 12 hour 'infant mortality' detection procedure.

There's space aplenty at the rear to remove the plug in tender connector doohicky, and make a plain bar connector to reduce the overall wheelbase to scale and prevent the weak spring causing the loco to crab along when a real load is behind (and I can usefully transfer the neat four pole plug and socket onto a DMU ). I might even make wired connections to the tender pick ups which are low drag, though not as smart as Bachmman's scheme of collection off split axle pinpoints as seen on their coaches.
nzpaul wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 10:29 am I think the issue is the Bachmann smokebox is larger in diameter than the Hornby A3, not so much a case of the door won't fit but may be too small and look out of proportion. I wonder if Bachmann have a fat boiler again or is the Hornby A3 a little bit undersize?...
Having waved the 'very nears' over them, The Hornby A3 is 24mm diameter (as suspected), this V2 model 24.5mm. You'll need micrometer eyesight to detect that deviation without the smaller Hornby smokebox door substituted for the Bachmann moulding. I'm going the Tim Easter modification route on mine; and will remind anyone interested that while we do tend to wave design dimensions around, these machines were handbuilt and the standard error on the metal fabrication of loco works was approximately 1%.
mick b
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 3727
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 4:43 pm

Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by mick b »

Sorry :shock: :shock:

At £200 plus, you shouldnt have to do any of the modifications you have listed. Crabbing Tenders , gaps etc etc :lol: It maybe best because the only competition is over 20 years? old and from the same supplier.

Bachmann should have never put them up for sale at those prices, and should have redone the bodies at a minimum.

Unless the customers do not buy them ,then nothing will change !! and the standards will probably get even worse in the future.

The LNER version is simply dire.The BR version being simply Black or Dark Green hides the faults better, it doesnt solve the running faults and the actual poor design e.g Tender connection .
Hatfield Shed
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 1664
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:34 pm

Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Hatfield Shed »

mick b wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:51 pm ...At £200 plus, you shouldnt have to do any of the modifications you have listed...
Then again, there isn't a RTR OO loco I haven't modified thus far, they are manufactured to what is presumably the manufacturer's assessment of the modal point of their customer's requirements. For sure I'd like better, but with a primary interest in operation I find the present compromise acceptable. Overall RTR product is a starting point better - and still cheaper! - than I can achieve by building and finishing a kit, and I can use the skills obtained back in the day when kit building was the only way to decent models, to quickly and easily improve what the manufacturers various provide to obtain a running model that meets my requirements. As ever, YMMV.
Pebbles
GER D14 4-4-0 'Claud Hamilton'
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Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Pebbles »

I'm of an age where chopping the trailing truck off a Triang Princess,that that cost a couple of pound's to replicate a Black 5 was the thing. Airfix kits from Woolworth's about 2 shillings . Trivial outlay by today's standards! Paying out the sums quoted and then to correct fundamental problems, and in the process ruin a paint finish (that has bumped up the cost), doesn't seem, irrespective of whether or not I can afford it, a justifiable expenditure. You makes your choice and pays the money. All I will ask is where has all the fun of simple cheap modelling gone to?
mick b
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 3727
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 4:43 pm

Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by mick b »

A possible sad fact is the majority of people nowdays buy r.t.r , many are collectors, and not interested in performance either.

Therefore cheap kits if they really existed (check currency converters for how much a cheap kit would actually be in todays prices), are now not viable to makers to bother selling them .There is simply no demand for them, or the profits for the likes of Hornby and Bachmann and their owners percieve they need to survive .

The number of new Model Railway kits of any standard, are diminishing every year, how many new Loco kits have been made in the last year, hardly any that I am aware off.
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nzpaul
LNER Thompson B1 4-6-0 'Antelope'
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Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by nzpaul »

Pebbles wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 8:12 pm All I will ask is where has all the fun of simple cheap smodelling gone to?
I think fun and cheap are ably demonstrated within the pages of this forum. Graeme's Stirling Goods loco is the best example, I would leave the simple part out but as for cost it's fairly low, time commitment and effort are high.
My own half built C11 owes me less than £20 so far and I can't see it's monetary value going much beyond that, effort and time are substituted for cash. Not everyone's cup of tea to plough dozens of hours into one loco or coach or whatever though, so money needs to change hands. The amount of money is getting pretty serious now but if Hattons are to be believed, they'll all be worth more if you ever want to sell them.

Paul
Hatfield Shed
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
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Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Hatfield Shed »

Pebbles wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 8:12 pm ... All I will ask is where has all the fun of simple cheap modelling gone to?
Hasn't gone anywhere.

While I bought my V2, Mekpak, a couple of very cheap s/h constructed wagon kits, an old GF coach of a type a friend is on the look out for, were also purchased. The wagons have already been 'reconstructed' to correct the deficiencies that made them cheap, and now await filthing.

Meanwhile larger project nearing completion, a second old H-D 8F body (under a tenner) modified to fit on a friend's current design Hornby 8F mechanism. He's going to detail the old body from parts from his scrap bin. (Purpose of this activity, with the weight of the metal body the model acquires the traction an 8F should have.)

On the subject of 'cheap' it needs an economist to work out where model railway items - kit parts or RTR - stand relative to disposable income, which is what matters. All I know is that I now have adequate disposable income relative to the cost of model railway items, which I simply didn't have back in the sixties and seventies, which made 'cheap' very important for hobby purchases.
Hatfield Shed
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 1664
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:34 pm

Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Hatfield Shed »

The V2 has completed its acceptance test running and decoder fitting; excellent performer which unlike the previous mechanism can achieve scale maximum speed and some more. It has now been attacked from several angles. I have yet to fit the final replacement loco to tender link through the drag boxes (following the pattern that Bachmann used so successfully in the past) having unscrewed the attachments for the supplied swinging link; but for now a crude bent wire link that keeps the combined loco and tender wheelbase at 225mm much improves the ensemble appearance. Now for the Tim Easter smokebox mod. , and carefully removing the cab rear window glazing.
Woodcock29
LNER Thompson B1 4-6-0 'Antelope'
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Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Woodcock29 »

I weakened and have just been assessing my newly arrived 4791 for what I will need to do to it!
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the rivets on the footplate. There are a lot of rivets on the upper footplate surfaces, particularly along the sides below the boiler. My study of V2 photos seems to indicate these mostly shouldn't be there! Contrary to that the very obvious rivets on the front curves of the footplate above the buffer beam are mostly absent. Only the upper rivets being present.
My local railway mates call me a river counter - this is simply the proof!
I need to run it in to make sure it runs well at least before I start pulling it apart to make improvements which will include removing the smokebox front, thinning it down before refitting it as well as changing engine to tender coupling.
Andrew
Hatfield Shed
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
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Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Hatfield Shed »

Woodcock29 wrote: Fri Feb 11, 2022 12:56 pm ... as well as changing engine to tender coupling.
In case it is helpful, once the body is off the mechanism, the outside footplates under the cab are only retained by clipping into the cab side, and are very flexible, making it easy to access the cab underside and unscrew the mounting of the loco to tender coupling doohickey.
Woodcock29
LNER Thompson B1 4-6-0 'Antelope'
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Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Woodcock29 »

Thanks Hatfield. I have already spent half an hour this afternoon pulling it apart to see which parts do come apart. Unfortunately it appears that the cabsides, V front and firebox are reasonably firmly glued together as I had hoped I could separate the V from the firebox so I could remove some of the well overscale band on the V so I could repaint and line the V but it doesn't appear to be an easy task which it would have been if I could separate the parts.
Reducing the thickness of the smokebox front and glueing that in place appears to be not too difficult as the weight in the smokebox can be used to push the front out and this also slid the handrails out ok and then I can fit proper knobs to the bent around side handrails onto the smokebox front.
I've just been checking the price of Comet valvegear as the Bachmann parts are so heavy looking and definitely spoil the fine proportions of a V2.
Andrew
Woodcock29
LNER Thompson B1 4-6-0 'Antelope'
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Location: South Australia

Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Woodcock29 »

I have been pawing over heaps of V2 photos and have concluded that most of the rivets/bolt heads included on Bachmann's V2 footplate are fiction.
I'm also wondering about the the fact that the safety valves are set into an open top chamber at the front of the cab roof rather than just being set into the roof as on A4s.
Does anybody have a photo form above of the cab roof of a V2?
Andrew
Woodcock29
LNER Thompson B1 4-6-0 'Antelope'
Posts: 686
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:59 am
Location: South Australia

Re: Bachmann V2 release update

Post by Woodcock29 »

I have just about finished the upgrade of my Bachmann V2 No 4791.

The last task was to fit Comet valve gear which vastly improves its looks in my view.
In summary, I have:
  • thinned the smokebox front
  • changed the loco-tender coupling to a hook on the teder and bar on the cab drag beam
  • reused the electrical plugs from the inards of the oversized Bachmann engine/tender coupling for tender pick up connection
  • removed virtually all the rivets off the upper surfaces of the footplate as they didn't appear to be there in LNER period
  • fitted Comet valve gear but reused the Bachmann return cranks - moved the cylinders back by 0.8mm, made the valve gear so that it is in forward gear and the valve rods actually move backwards and forwards with valve spindles in the valves
  • removed the circular plates off the centre of the cylinders which were not on the first batch of V2s - still need to replace some of the vertical rows of rivets I damaged! And add the red lining as I've painted the cylinders black after first overall at Doncaster
  • added heads to create the handrail knobs where the boiler side handrails are fitted to the front of the smokebox - simply by building up dobs of PVA glue on the bends
  • fitted the fully flanged Cartazzi wheels
I'm still contemplating whether I'll have a go at removing the heavy band on the front of the V of the cab and repainting it with V in the lining much lower down.
IMG_1466 ps s.jpg
Andrew
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