4-4-0 Conversion, Part 2

When we quit last time the loco was all apart and ready for the strip bath. In this installment we will disassemble the tender so that the tender shell can be stripped as well.

A note on paint stripping, I use 91% IPA (alcohol) available at any pharmacy. Be careful with it, though because plastic parts left in the alcohol too long will tend to soften. While I was stripping the loco I managed to break off one boiler stay (the rod that goes from the smokebox to the front of the pilot deck), the pilot and the bell. All of these will have to be replaced, I was going to replace the bell anyway because the one that comes on the loco looks awful big and clunky, but it also warped the loco body a bit.

At any rate, when we last saw the tender we had the trucks removed. All that is left to do is remove the red brush retainer:

and then the brushes. I work a jewelers screwdriver underneath them to pry them up, this keeps them from bending so that they will lay flat along the tender bottom when they are reinstalled.

After the brushes are removed, run a #11 Xacto blade around the perimeter of the weight on the front and pry it out.

 The motor fills the entire tender, which is why the tender is slightly oversize for the model - it had to be in order to fit the motor.

Pull the motor out of the tender body part-way. It will slide all the way out but first...

 you want to mark the top of it. If the motor goes in upside down the loco will run backwards, easy to fix for sure but just as easy to prevent in the first place. A dab of paint on the top as you pull the motor out and you will know right away how to put it back in.

The tender shell is now ready for stripping. Put all of the other pieces in your parts box, minding that the motor magnets will attract all the steel screws and side rods that we took off of the loco in the last installment. A plastic bag to hold the screws is not a bad idea anyway, and it will keep them from sticking to the motor.

I found it interesting to note that the loco body was molded in white, but the dome and stack were black plastic. I also found it interesting that the tender body was molded in clear plastic.

Now is a good time to paint the tender, but I would hold off on painting the loco until the narrowing is complete. You are going to be grinding into the wheel wells, and fresh paint will just get ruined in the process. The tender can go back together except for the trucks after the paint is dry.

That's enough for today. Next time we will narrow the wheels, pony truck and loco frame and then we will narrow the loco wheel wells to fit the new narrowed drivers. After that the loco can get painted and go back together.

See you next time!

4-4-0 Conversion, Part 1

The victim:

This is the Bachmann 4-4-0 in N scale, in the old Jupiter paint. Note the large drive shaft between the loco and tender. The newer versions of this model have a thinner driveshaft and the paint is in blue and red to more accurately depict the Jupiter as she is now believed to have looked on the day of the golden spike ceremony at Promontory Point, Utah.

The Bachmann 4-4-0 comes in several paint schemes and in a couple of different configurations; straight stack and balloon stack. Older versions of the loco can sometimes be found for a fairly cheap price at train shows, but I have seen them go for ridiculously high amounts on that well-known auction site. If you can find one that runs decently for cheap it is an inexpensive way to get into Nn3, but be warned...it's a gateway locomotive. Before you know it you will be ordering kits from Republic Locomotive Works, then you will be getting Marklin Z scale mechanisms for your conversions, and then it's all downhill from there. But I digress.

The first step is to disassemble the locomotive. First remove the tender coupling screw:

Set the tender aside. Remove the bottom plate screw on the locomotive:

Next, remove the bottom plate and swing the drivers out of the way. The worm gear can be pushed out of the back of the locomotive.

Now pry the supports out of the valve gear hangers:

The steam chests will slide off of their tabs on the locomotive body.

Put the locomotive body, worm gear and bottom plate into your parts box. You will deal with them later. For now we will continue the disassembly of the running gear.

Remove all four screws from the drivers and remove the side rods. Be careful not to lose any of these screws! Put them and the side rods into your parts box.

Now remove the pony truck from the valve gear. You might find it easiest to cut one of the connecting bars to do this.

Now pry one of the wheels off of each axle and remove the axle from the pony truck frame.

This completes the disassembly of the running gear. Put everything into your parts box, we will disassemble the tender next.

Remove the tender truck screws and lift the trucks off of the tender. Mind the truck springs, there are two of them for each truck and they will get lost very easily.

Next remove the coupler from the coupler pocket. You will be fitting a Z scale coupler when you are all done, so these parts will not be used again.

Note the coupler spring...looks a lot like a truck spring, doesn't it? It can be used as one in a pinch.

The tender body does not have to be disassembled any further than this, it contains the motor and that is about it. If you want to take it apart to paint it be sure to mark the motor so that it goes back in the same way, if it goes in upside down the locomotive will run backwards.  I'm going to take this one apart so that the tender can be stripped, but not today.  Put everything in your parts box, we're done for today.

The locomotive body can be stripped for painting as is, the only thing left to do if you must is remove the weight from the cab. It is glued in place, work a #11 Xacto blade in and around it to break the glue bond and it will slide right out. We won't be covering that, I'm sure you can figure it out on your own.

In the next installment we will disassemble the tender so that it can be stripped for painting. In the third installment we will be narrowing the locomotive drivers and bottom plate and cutting into the locomotive body to fit them. After that we will narrow the pony truck, put everything back together, and then the locomotive will be done. In the fourth installment we will reassemble the tender body, narrow the tender trucks and install the Z scale coupler, and then we will join the tender and locomotive back together and we will be done.

Or, at least, that's the way I have it planned out.

It should be fun!

Stay Tuned

The Bachmann has arrived for its transformation, which will begin this week. It runs OK but could probably use a good cleaning and oiling. It will certainly get that during the conversion.

Double Trouble

The new Consolidation has arrived.

With this one I installed Z scale couplers front and rear. The front was surprisingly easy to do, the dummy has to be removed and the sides and bottom of the coupler box needs to be removed. The Z scale coupler slides right into the hole after that...too far, in fact, when fully seated it hits the pony truck.

I tried modifying the pony truck. Don't. If you carve any of the plastic off you soon find that it is merely a clip that holds the pony truck wheels on the metal frame. I had to glue the plastic piece back on, not easy to do without gluing the wheels to the frame as well. I did, fortunately, manage to get that done.

The next thing to do is carve the rear of the coupler box away. This works, but makes the coupler droop slightly. A bit of judicious filing on the top of the coupler opening angles the coupler up just a tiny bit which, when combined with the droop, levels it out quite nicely.

The N scale coupler recommended for the back of the Connie has an offset that lifts it above the bottom of the tender frame. I had to carve a bit out of the bottom of the tender at the coupler box in order to install the Z scale coupler, but it is at the right height and I really like the way it looks.

I haven't installed a Z scale coupler into Connie #1, and I may not bother, but it is nice to see it can be done without a great deal of effort. It would be even nicer if Bachmann (and all the rest of the steam manufacturers) could be convinced to leave adequate room to install them without having to go through all the bother.

With the couplers installed it was off to the track. Running them together uncoupled shows that Connie 1 is a bit slower off the mark than the new one but a bit faster at the top of the throttle settings. Both run well but Connie 2 isn't as agile in the curves, I had to do a bit of filing on the cylinders to keep the metal pony truck from shorting out on them.

With that done the two locos coupled together ran well, Connie 1 in the lead and 2 in the trail due to the coupler configuration. Either alone runs great, together they pulled a 20 car freight without breaking a sweat and would have pulled more if I had bothered to take anything else out of the boxes.

The next thing to do will be to remove the ATSF markings from Connie 2, something that will get done as soon as I decide to take the time to do so.

What The Heck Am I Thinking?!?

For some reason I've agreed to convert an N scale Bachmann 4-4-0 to Nn3.

I've done a couple of them so far, I sold the best running one and the pictured one makes regular laps around my Nn3 oval. It doesn't back up very well, but all in all, especially considering the extremely reasonable price (I picked it up for $15 at a train show), it's a pretty good loco for the money.

This one started out as the Union Pacific 119, the other one I did started out life as the Jupiter. Since these models were made Bachmann has redesigned them with different paint, better motors and drive shafts. Note the rather large drive shaft on this one, it makes problems when converting them to run on tighter curves.

Garth Hamilton used to have a pretty good tutorial on doing this but I can't find it now. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information anywhere else on the web, either, but there are bits and pieces here and there. That is a shame because the Bachmann conversion is probably the cheapest way to get into Nn3, even though it isn't for the beginner.

Because of the lack of information regarding this conversion I'm going to be taking plenty of pictures during this conversion and documenting the entire thing start to finish. That way if anyone else wants to try it out I can just point the way to the post, or series of posts. This will be the first set of posts with a label.

I guess it is a good way for me to get back into modeling, even if it is just a little bit.

Moar Power!

I have taken delivery of yet another Kato Mikado that will receive the Pennsy L1 treatment like the last one, and todays mail should bring another Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 that I really didn't need, but the price was too good to pass up.

The first thing I did was double-head the Mikes, they run perfectly together and they are going to look great in identical Pennsy L1 dress. The first thing I will do with the Consolidations is run them together and see how they do double-heading.

That is one of the things I really missed about my train-set Connies, when they left so did any chance I had of doubling them up. Now I will have two sets of identical locos I can double-head - or I will, as soon as I can afford another L1 kit.

I also have another Atlas Pacific, this one with its original motor. It runs very well and can be doubled up with either the Model Power or the Arnold, but not with the other Atlas due to the gearing. I'm seriously reconsidering the whole gearmotor thing, I don't like the gear whine I'm getting out of them and I am thinking that a straight drive with a flywheel might be a better option for both the Atlas Pacific and Mikado. That would also give me the option of putting them into lash-ups with the rest of the locos.

On the narrow gauge I have pulled up the Marklin turnouts and test-fitted my FastTracks turnouts. They are longer and so wont' fit in the same hole, but more importantly they are code 55 where the existing Peco track is code 60. I'll have to play around with rail joiners and such to get them to fit right, and then I will have to do something about switch machines. I'm thinking of using some of FastTrack's Bullfrogs that have the integrated microswitches. I'll have to order a couple of them and see how they do. Until then the turnouts have been replaced with straight track and now I just have a continuous loop to run trains on.

Alas no work has been done on disassembling the standard gauge layout. The shed is now filled with daughter and son-in-law's things, and the spare room is filled with daughter and son-in-law. The good thing is I get to see a lot of my infant grandson.

One of these days I won't be the answer to everyone elses problems...