Bachmann Mogul (early?)

Eaglecliff

Eaglecliff

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Just acquired a nice looking 2nd hand example, everything works... but a test run reveals that it can't pull the skin of a rice pud'n. Thinks... some additional weight might help, so I attacked those cylinders under the footplate, but there isn't a lot of space there because of the way they are attached either side of a downward-projecting piece. I could saw some off between the screw bushes which would give a bit more room, but has anyone any polite suggestions for inserting more ballast somewhere else, or otherwise increasing the available oomph? It's a nice looker but a bit pathetic struggling up my incline with one empty plastic flatcar... And what is the best "heavy metal" for the purpose? Fishing weights?
Yours in anticipation,
Eaglecliff
 
Hi Cliff,

i have one, too, thinking about what to with it. My best thoughts are to make a steam-railbus of it, so it has to pull nothing more than itself and ..say a light passenger car.

The worse thing about it is the missing suspension of the axles. With too less weight, it climbs up every little dustparticle, loosing traction immediately.
For the ("one-day-it-will-come")project "railbus" i am thinking of "stealing" the middle axle and give one of the remaining some place to move, perhaps a little suspension.
The tenwheeler are pulling bad, too, but much better than the little mogul. on the tenwheeler they lifted up the middle axle not even to touch the rails! Same thing!

one more example:
in spite of missing axle-differential-locks, the landrover defender is one of the best off-road-performer.
Why?
because its allwheeldrive and has its wheels on the ground as long as possible.

Thats why the shays are those unbelievable railroad-climbers!

So, in railroading, weight is not the holy grail of traction effort. softdrive gears for adjustable speed and pulling are as usefull than axle-suspensions.

Long speech, less meaning:
the little mogul is nice, but its a toy.

Think about giving her a complete gearbox, that would make -with some individual effort- a very fine model.

Greetings


Frank
 
Hi Frank,
Thanks for that. (or should I say danke sehr?) I'm not really into major surgery yet. I did buy a Bachmann 2-4-2 Columbia (see my "US locos" post from a couple of months ago) but haven't got much further with it. If you remember Rowland Emmett, his 0-2-0 ought in theory to have perfect adhesion - wrong sort of snow/leaves permitting...

Is the mogul 1:29?I now have three Baldwins, the Bachmann 4-6-0, the Aristo 2-8-0 and the mogul, and they are very different in size. The Columbia also appears to be 1:29, either that or it and the mogul were very small engines! I agree that in power terms the mogul is not quite the loco I hoped it might be, but it is a quantum leap forward from the Columbia in build quality and detailing.
In smaller scales, the easiest instant suspension/compensation tip was to file the axle hole downwards a bit, not upwards, so the wheels should drop down into holes.
Auf weiderhoren.
E.
 
Hi Cliff,

sometimes it is strange:
630b4301cb3946bcabad13b69fa6d8b0.jpg


pic from ghost depot

loco-sizes are different, and the cheap big-hauler-line from bachmann are more like some toyline, even though the tenwheeler would make fine looking locos.
But u can find out that there are less efforts in getting them e.g. "in scale".
So it is "meant" to say:
the bachmann industrial mogul seems to be more 1: 22,5 and makes a SMALL loco there.
the tenwheelers are a bit too big for 1:22,5, but dont make a 1:20,3 at all.
the spectrum locos are into 1:20,3, giving good performance an quality. The size-diffrence between the 2-6-0 or 4-4-0 comparing to the "connie" are as far as i think prototypical. Smaller locos come out of a time (1880) where the machines were smaller, the connie is to put in the 1910´s till 1920´s.

ALL bachmann largescale cars are too small and too short, even for 1:22,5, while the spectrum are fitting the 1:20,3 scale well (well enough).
As well as the AMS cars do.

No clue about the aristo-locos, but i think the are 1:29 and thought to make standard gauge locos. closing some eyes, it makes usable narrow-gaugers in 1:22,5.

Greetings

Frank
 
But if you fill it with lead you had better have a spare motor drive for it coz it WILL wreck the gearbox.............................
 
I wouldn't be surprised. Isn't it high time for some enterprising guy... sorry, person, with a workshop to start knocking out complete replacement drives? As I have said elsewhere, in 00 and 0, replacement or scratchbuilder motor/gearbox units are commonplace, e.g. Slaters do a great piece of machinery for their 7mm kits. I know small-scalers tend to be obsessive rivet-counters (guilty - I was one once - in fact, I keep forgetting I'm still a fully-paid up Edwardian Midland 0 gauge 2RFS c.1907 nerd) but I'm beginning to get the feeling that some G-scalers are a bit the other way - if it doesn't come straight out a box, it doesn't register?
Food for thought...
 
Also some people insist on trying to pull rediculously long trains with locos that in reality only chugged along with 3 or 4 coaches/cars on their respective short lines. With respect to the indy mogul it only needs a small amount of split shot here and there to help, but Minimans point is well made, locos slipping are irway of telling you that it's too much.

Add too much weight and you will rip them and it's not necessarily a weak geabox that is to blame. Petty much all of my stuff is Bachmann, or Bachmann derived and I have only ever had a problem with an old series Connie. This was not traction related it was an inherent flaw in the plastic final drive gear prevelnt at the time. I just dont try an pull huge un-prototypical trains with them.
 
Oh, and often lube is over looked, how many of you re-grease and oil and how often?

I feel a new thread needs starting.
 
Hi,

The prime trouble with those locos are that the boiler is virtually full of a circuit board, and in front of it is the smoke unit so it is difficult to get at It does not do much from what I remember so if  he loco is taken apart the motor and headlight can be wired direct (you will need a new GOW bulb as its an LED), the circuit board discarded, and then the boiler can be filled with lead. You could leave the smoke unit in and just fill the boiler (not smokebox) with lead. I use sheet lead flashing rolled up.


The motor sits vertically in the firebox and drives the rear axle; doing much more than that myLargescale.com did a Masterclass on these locos and from those I made a couple of versions. They involved quite a lot of new building work, but you can look at quite a long PDF on them at the following link

http://archive.mylargescale.com/articles/masterclass/porter/Porter_CH1-1.pdf < Link To http://archive.mylargesca...orter/Porter_CH1-1.pdf

and also the drawings that were use are at 

http://archive.mylargescale.com/articles/masterclass/porter/CCPorter-67.zip < Link To http://archive.mylargesca...porter/CCPorter-67.zip

Download both if you are interested, using 'save target as'  they are both large files

Here is the second one I built that has a new shorter 6 wheel (the prototype started off with a saddle tank, and then a 4 wheel tender)  tender as well - 

4d109b13080e48e59cd9c50c98090499.jpg


It is now a much better loco!

An easier look at the rebuilt locos is also at 

http://4largescale.com/fletch/d10a.htm

That also shows the motor in location - as can be seen it is not very large at all!

No downloading needed re the above- also the cab supplied by Bachmann is nothing like the correct size - try a figure against it to see what I mean. 
 
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