Dismantling Bachmann Jinty body

[John Fitton]

I have located a few threads on this topic but none so far actually explains how to dismantle the body of the jinty (after its removal from the chassis of course). The difficulty seems to be around the cab and bunker, and I am inclined to guess there are screws under the coal moulding.

John

[David Knight]

John,

Tim Shackelton disembowels a Bachmann Jinty in an article in MRJ 160 which may be of some use to you.

HTH

David

[John Fitton]

Hi David,

Unfortunately I don't subscribe to MRJ! Could you provide a brief description please? I have removed all visible screws securing the body together, and unclipped the boiler and tank tops from the front of the cast base, and the tank sides at the front of the loco are loose. The problem area is around the cab and bunker: they are very firmly secured to the base.

John

[dal-t]

Hi John,

The article says getting the coal out is the key to removing the cab. I quote "If you can't get the coal out,the chances are you won't get the cab loose either". I can e-mail a copy of the article if you like - there are a couple of photos which show the breakdown a lot better than just words can describe.

Best wishes

[grovenor-2685]

There are two screws under the cab floor that go up througfh the bunker and into the coal, they have to be removed, then the coal can be taken out and the cab lifted off. The Cab is held in place by the coal. I do remember having a bit of trouble with this and it seems the coal sometimes has a bit of glue to help the screws. you may have to work a scalpel around the sides of the coal to free it from the glue.
There are also two screws under the top of the tanks that, if I remember correctly allowed the existing side tank weights to be removed, but I'm not keen on taking mine apart again to check!
Regards

PS. You can get quite a lot of weight in the side tanks and dome, as well as using lead to pack out the chassis sideframes.
Tim Shackleton fitted a High Level chassis in his article.

[John Fitton]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I used a dental tool inserted from under the cab floor into one of the (now empty) screw holes to push out the coal. For those who don't know, the coal is another Mazak casting and is fairly deep, so leveraging it out of the bunker is not possible, but pushing it out from underneath works in seconds with no stress to any mouldings. The cab and boiler top lift right off. The side tanks and bunker are one moulding that lift off. A fine blade was used to prise off the bunker from the base casting where it had stuck due to paint etc, but minimal effort was used. A really interesting feature are the vertical cab handrails which appear to be welded into the cast frame, and locate into small holes at the top of the cab doors.

On my model the side tanks weights do not appear to be removable. The point of this exercise is to add weight, and as Mazak has a density of about 6.6 grams/cc compared to lead's 11 g/cc, a significant gain is achieved by removing Mazak and substituting lead. The loco weighs only 6.5 ounces out of the box, a bit of a lightweight. My tests show that a weight of 12 ounces is needed to move 8 coaches up 2%.

This is my first ever P4 steam loco and I have used the Ultrascale drop in replacements. Initial test runs are rather disappointing as binding occurs, almost certainly due to slop in the chassis bearings I think.

I will be getting a copy of MRJ 160 to see the article referenced.

Thanks all.

John

[grovenor-2685]

i didn't do a full write up of mine but some pics here http://www.norgrove.me.uk/Jinty.html
The lead side frames do add quite a lot of weight and I did fit quite a bit in other places. The end result has a lot of tractive effort.
Regards

[Philip Hall]

John,

If the converted engine is binding the very first thing I would look at is whether the coupling rods actually precisely match the chassis. This can be a problem with many chassis, especially some earlier Bachmann.

Philip

[John Fitton]

John,

If the converted engine is binding the very first thing I would look at is whether the coupling rods actually precisely match the chassis. This can be a problem with many chassis, especially some earlier Bachmann.

Philip

Thanks Philip, I will check.

John