A little while ago a car pulled up at the front of the house and Rod McCall got out. He'd been to Durham Trains at Stanley and bought a couple of the new Bachmann/Farish locos.
I had previously promised I would have a look at fine scaling one for him, especially the 2-6-0 since it had what I thought was the right combination of factors i.e. powered tender with free running loco wheels. An examination of the contents of the box showed this did not contain the extra set of tender wheels that I thought these models came with and as the rear driven axle has traction tyres fitted I wondered if this was indeed a candidate for easy conversion to 2FS. I subsequently learned it is the Black 5 that comes with a spare tender axle.
About the same time I read Chris Higg's comments on the conversion on the VAG. So I determined to follow suit and in common with every other conversion I have done these days I have not reduced wheel tread width, just the flange thickness and depth. Using this method it is possible to leave the traction tyres to perform their intended function.
The conversion is relatively straightforward, the most difficult bit being re-attaching the valve gear on the loco. The pictures show the result. As Rod says, "just needs weathering now...."
Top picture shows the wheels have been machined and are back in the loco, it's possible to see where they have had a little skimmed from the inside face.
Centre picture shows the upturned tender, minus wheels. Note the rear axle position (on the right of picture) does not pick up current, so it would have been a waste had a spare axle been available. It would have been necessary to install new pick up for this axle which would have meant it was not quite such a quick conversion. Note the method of pick up. These wipers simply rest on the top part of the flange. Simple, but effective.
Bottom picture just posed on WBR for the shot. Not an 'N' coupling in sight. This has the shorter of the two supplied draw bars in place and even like this the tender is too far away from the loco so anyone contemplating this conversion needs to consider one made from tufnol or suitably gapped PCB
Mick S
2 comments:
Nicely done. Did you have to move the wheels outwards in order to get the correct back-to-back or was reducing the wheelbacks sufficient?sedsi
The wheels do need to be 'opened up' on all such conversions but since the cumulative effect of machining amounts to increasing the B2B by .5mm then only another .5mm is needed. I have a slot filed in some thin metal sheet which I hold horizontally in a vice. Slide the wheel set in so the back sits nicely on the flat surface and with a punch and a very light tap of a toffee hammer (or similar) gently force the axle through by .25mm. If this is overdone slightly just re B2B the set and all should be fine.
Mick S
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