Bachmann Hall with Martin Finney and Brassmasters Chassis

[johndarch]

I have had a Bachmann Hall sitting in a drawer for a long time doing nothing. It was purchased at a time when Brassmasters were talking about producing a Flexi-chas for it. That never happened. However, I have had a Martin Finney Hall kit and a Brassmasters Hawksworth tender kit lurking in my stock cupboard for over twenty years. So this could be a (relatively) quick conversion, I thought. Ho, ho. Having checked that the loco would work (although the wheels would have to sit slightly higher in the chassis due to the thicker running plate on the plastic body), I set about the tender. The frames were sawn off, slimmed down and fixed to a 60 thou styrene base to allow the chassis to drop between the frames at the correct height. The chassis was built pretty much as the instructions and mountings fitted into the body. I don't like plastic coal, so it was cut out and replaced with plain styrene and the tops of the side tanks (obscured by the plastic coal) rebuilt in black styrene. Das modelling clay was then used to form a base for the real coal and given a coat of paint. There is still a lot of detailing work to do on the body.

Tender 08.jpg

Tender 10.jpg

Tender 06.jpg

Tender 11.jpg

Tender 12.jpg

[triumph3]

John,
I have taken a simpler approach, converted the Bachmann chassis by fitting Gibson wheels and a set of Ultrascale wheels in the tender.
The loco is a Bachmann Modified Hall, to be numbered 6994 Baggrave Hall. I now need to modify the front frames (with a Brassmasters etch) as Bachmann did not quite understand the Modified Hall front footplate.
As Robin Whittle has said a few times, converted RTR run round his Barrow Rd layout without problems. As a back up I have a compensated tender chassis from High Level.

David

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IMG_4322 (2).JPG

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[johndarch]

Two reasons for using the Brassmasters chassis.

1. I would have had to fit pinpoint bearings in the plastic chassis after first removing the excess plastic and wasn't happy that I could make an accurate job of that.

2. More importantly, I wanted to wire the loco and tender on the American system and that would only be possible with a brass chassis.

John

[johndarch]

Crikey, I haven't posted anything here since I was working on the tender. The loco is now finished and ready to be dismantled for a visit to the paint shop. I bought the loco some time ago to run on an 00 layout that I was building for a friend and also because, at the time, Brassmasters were considering doing an Easi-chas for the Hall. That never happened. I had a Finney kit in my stores but it didn't cover the later Halls with the fire iron tunnel, so I decided to combine the two. The body isn't perfect, there's a slight twist on the footplate and because of this the cab tilts forward a bit (it look worse in the photo than it is). It has a CSB suspension (rather than compensated as designed in the kit) and the bogie is sprung with a pair of Alan Gibson sprung pickups (see the discussion on springing bogies last month).

Loco 30.jpg

[davebradwell]

The 2 photos show how worthwhile the extra work has been, particularly around the cylinders with proper slide bars and crosshead and no great void around the bogie wheels. Correct size cylinders and fuller rods. It'll glide along the track on its springs, too.

Of course other folk will make a different balance but this one suits my approach.

DaveB

[johndarch]

Leckhampton Hall is back from the paint shop.

Loco 33a.jpg

[Dave Holt]

A lovely looking model, John.
Dave.

[johndarch]

5945 on shed having taken on coal and a crew. Used my camera instead of the phone so the colour rendition should be better.

5945 on shed.jpg