Large Scale Central

? for Tim Brian--downsizing Bachmann coaches

Modeling
#1

I’ve wound up with five Bachmann coaches (well, three coaches, two obs. and a combine) and I hardly ever run them because our layout has evolved towards the abominable 1:29. Nobody makes a standard gage wooden coach of reasonable size. Into the 1920s roughly half the coaches in use on standard gage lines were still made of wood. By the end of new production, around 1910, they were 70 feet long. I was thinking of trying to downsize some bachmann coaches. I’m assuming they would need to be lowered, narrowed, and lengthened. Like this:

If only it was that easy. I was thinking–cut the sides down at the small upper window, and you’d be well on the way. In this image I cut out the upper window and added three windows worth of length. But it does not look like it’d be very easy. I’m pretty much a "super glue"modeler–p;our on the CA and hope it sticks. Any thoughts?

#2

Mike,
a worthy project. Would take a fair bit of work though as overall length is around 29 inches. Some of these cars had around 18 - 20 windows, so a feasible result is achievable. Some elevated suburban lines (with Forney power) were around 22 windows in length, with profile similar to the Bachmann (Jackson & Sharp) car. I have gone as far as 16 windows for my line, however, it is narrow-gauge.

    Some early cars had the small crownlight windows panelled over,  resulting in the single window you have depicted, although with a double 'letterboard'.  The end result should have a more realistic distance between the queenposts, each side. As a generic car,  I think that you are onto a winner here.

    Lengthening the cars is not a problem.  Narrowing them would really need a ripsaw with a fine blade,  to get a smooth cut.  If possible,  do not combine pieces from a combine body into a coach body,  as the bodies are different thicknesses and the groove between the boards less distinctive.  Also,  body thickness varies over the length of both the car body and roof moulding.  The plastic is easy to work with and very styrene glue friendly.  A modellor on MLS did some Canadian Pacific cars a few months ago and the end result was impressive.
#3

Thanks Tim. I was thinking of a car of roughly 60 scale feet, around 25 inches long.

I just measured the width of the Bachmann coach body and got just over four inches, which scales out to about 9.6 feet in 1:29. John White’s book on the American passenger car includes a lot of drawings and 9.6 feet is not unreasonable. I might not have to narrow them at all. I could live with them being a little too wide and making them longer would make the width less noticeable, I think.

#4

Mike, I think the coaches could very well be used for 1:29 standard gauge with just lengthening, smaller brake wheels and body mounted couplers. I just lengthened some Bachmann coaches myself and was struck by how much the proportions resembled standard gauge cars in spite of the full size G Kadee couplers I use. Also it’s notable that 1:22-24 figures seem a bit large for the cars even though they are supposedly 1:22.5 themselves.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/richard_smith/2010/Coaches-Disassembled_Jun21-2010_06-Test701FitInterior-Web.JPG)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/richard_smith/2010/Coaches-Disassembled_Jun21-2010_07-Test702FitInterior-Web.JPG)

I did two coaches from four although I could have made three if no mistakes were made (I really only needed two). Number 701 is the deluxe coach and has red upholstery while number 702 is the smoker coach with grey upholstery. The seats are the original Bachmann cut apart and repainted. A water cooler was added on one end of each coach. Try and ignore my oversize for 1:29 couplers and focus on the proportions. I think they look more standard gauge than narrow gauge. I made the coaches 16 window length as opposed to the original 12 windows. This made the body lengths 21.5" and gave a length over platforms of 24". You might want to make them closed vestibule and possibly eliminate the truss rods and replace them with a steel underframe as was done by prototype railroads. While inspired by the work of Tim Brien and Rod Edington my coaches don’t come up to their high caliber but do pretty well for my needs. I still have name boards to apply to the car sides and may put a covering on the roofs to hide the joints a bit more.

#5

That’s interesting Richard–thank you. I think what makes me want to lower them is seeing them next to Aristo heavyweights:

(http://www.mylargescale.com/1stclass/lownote/bach-aristo1.jpg)

The windows in the Bachmann coaches are huge for 1:29 figures, and a 1:29 figure standing in front of the door makes the door look 12 feet high. But you’re right–look at the size relationship to the Annie–the engineer in the Annie cab would look like andre the giant in the Bachmann coach. Scale–it seems to be a pretty fluid idea at Bachmann! I looked at a coach this morning–it looked pretty daunting to cut it down. No way to make a long even cut that I can figure out. And then the door on the end would be all messed up. I suppose I could cut the door out. And make a bandsaw cut down the middle of the small window, hoping it doesn’t shatter and crack, and then nibble it down with flush cutters and files. Hmmmm. May have to back-burner this for awhile

#6

Mike,
this is how Scott on MLS tackled his downsizing on his Bachmann On30 coaches. Maybe similar thinking on your part.

http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/On2/index.html

#7

Mike,
I cut the coaches down on my 10" table saw with a plastics blade and a long miter. A sacrificial piece of 4x4 fits quite nicely inside the bodies and provided stability and support during the cut. I had to remove the grab irons on the car ends to provide a flat surface to rest against the stop on the miter. Two cuts, one on each side, with the blade just high enough to clear the top part of the body did the trick.

I think the same idea could be used to cut the bodies longitudinally except by turning the bodies on their sides with the bottoms against the fence. If saving the ends is important then cut the ends off first using the miter as above. A piece of 4x4 as used above will give support for the cuts.

Incidentally someone measured out the Aristo coaches some time ago and came to the conclusion that they were closer to 1:32 than to 1:29 scale. I’ve never verified this myself as I no longer have any Aristo heavyweights but it might be a good idea to check those measurements yourself if it matters to you.

#8

This has been very helpful–thank you. Being more concerned with simplicity than fidelity, I’d imagined trying to cut them with the ends attached, instead of sawing the whole thing apart as Scott did. This is interesting!

I’ve always suspected the Aristo coaches were skewed toward 1:32. That’s ok by me–I’m more inclined to downsize than to upsize