Emily downunder

T

Tim Brien

Registered
My Emily coaches, sourced some years ago in Britain have finally had a chance to run on my railway. Emily arrived at my doorstep this afternoon and eventually found its way onto the track escorted by four coaches.

The loco performed brilliantly, pulling away smoothly with less than four volts input. A very attractive locomotive. Alas, with no footplate I will have a little trouble fitting my ex-Lionel driver and fireman figures.
 
I look forward to some pics!
 
Good News! Enjoy!

Emily is good and cleverly designed loco, which pulls well, but be warned about the pick ups. It should collect from the rear six wheels. Mine arrived without them all working and while it was easy to spot that one wasn't working, it took a little longer to find that three were not working!

The fault was easy to repair though -Carefully open up the keeper plate to reveal the pick ups, clean and adjust the bearing wipers as necessary and close up again.

The Emily coaches are beautiful, and look even better with a Back to Bay 6 wooden interior fitted. I found the throw of the rigid end mounted couplings on these and the Thomas coaches was a problem on reverse curves in LGB Radius two, although Bachmann are fitting those huge D shaped couplings now to try and mitigate this effect, but Radius 1 was still no go area. All my Thomas coaches all now have swivel couplings and run beautifully, although I still avoid R1s!

Looking forward to seeing the Bachmann Toby sometime soon!

James
 
James,
I checked that all six wheels pickup power. I thought that my trackwork was near perfect but alas, Emily's coaches proved otherwise. I had a very slight grade leading off a straight section of track. Due the rigid chassis on the coaches, as the coack entered the gradient, the forward axle kept travelling level and so when the full weight of the coach was on the rails, the lead axle was not on the track leading to a derailment. Not a good scenario when the track is elevated 24 inches. I corrected the gradient and now operation is fine. I had never experienced this before with other cars.

I made up a simple footplate extension that will attach to the front lip of the tender enabling a fireman and driver to take their positions in the cab. Still awaiting paint to dry before assembling.
 
I don't want to stray too far from this topic, however I have something to add that may be of use after reading Tim's piece.


The rigidity of Bachmann rolling stock is the only deterrent from my buying more of it. The small Bachmann Mogul I just purchased is, however, tracking very nicely through all of my turnouts and not perfect track. The lead truck is not sprung. Instead it has a plunger that keeps it down on the rails. This feature is especially useful when it traverses through sprung turnouts.
http://youtu.be/cnXaqhZzc7g
 
A simple rigid 'fallplate' was fitted to the tender deck. I run ten foot diameter curves so suited the size to allow mating with the locomotive. The fallplate is mounted 0.060" above the corresponding loco cab footplate so hopefully clearance will be OK.

Edit: for those who do not know, the figures were released by Lionel many, many years ago when Lionel made their Thomas and James locomotives.

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Madman said:
The rigidity of Bachmann rolling stock is the only deterrent from my buying more of it. /quote]


Dan,
some years ago when I had a couple of Bachmann four-wheel logging cabeese I was not impressed with the rigid chassis. I fitted a simple form of compensation on one axle. The axle was carried on a one piece metal strap stirrup secured by two screws to the chassis floor. I fitted longer screws allowing the axle to move vertically (the original holes in the metal stirrup required relieving slightly to allow the srew to move freelythrough the stirrup). I then fitted a long screw passing through the centre of the stirrup with a spring under the screw head. This screw was mounted to the chassis floor. The spring force kept the axle in check but the longer screws either side of the spring allowed the axle to rock laterally. The length of these screws determined the amount of compensation.

Alas, on the Thomas range of coaches, the stirrup axle mount is now a two piece affair so compensation could be difficult unless a one piece replacement stirrup was made and fitted to one end of ythe car.
Click to expand...
 
On most of my TTE rolling Stock all four bearings have been modified to allow 1.2mm of fall on the axle. There is no springing or anything complex. The mass of the wheel is enough to keep the wheel in contact with the rail and the stock on the track.

This was particularly important with the Emily coaches, with their incredibly long rigid wheelbase!

Apart from the the rigid length of the wheelbase, the lack of play in the wheels, the fact that the stock does not like sharp curves, or reverse curves, (and won't cope very well with the track that they supply in their own sets), the size of the huge D couplings and quality of the couplings generally (in that they don't couple very well) - this is a good range!

If you buy it with the knowledge that you are going to have to modify it to make it work well, that is fine.

Sadly I don't think it is that child friendly though and if you gave a child a Bachmann Thomas set and said "here is your train set, go and set it up and play with it, they probably couldn't get it to work well, without experienced adult help.

With LGB and Playmobil, this has never been an issue. Still it is very cheap. Maybe that is what is important?

James
 
Tim,

Like fall plate and those excellent figures. Good work, which I am sorely tempted to copy. Pity no similar figures are available today.

I do see the odd Lionel Thomas set on e-bay, which is usually going for a King's ransom.

No dis-respect to Lionel, but I think that the figures were the best part of the Lionel Thomas range.

I wonder if anyone produces copies them?

James
 
Tim,
I've tried similar experiments with a pair of Bachmann Thomas gondolas. Worked well enough to run a train via R/C control, so that speed could be controlled through turnouts. I wound up selling the wagons.

James,
You are spot on when it comes to expecting to modifying Bachmann rolling stock and locos, to get them to perform the way they should.
 
One of the problems I had with the Emily coaches was flange squeal, this was cured by a couple of drops of WD40 on the track, problem solved!
Also I did not have to attended to the track for the three days of the Gold Coast Show.
 
Re: Oops 2

Thanks for those links Tim,

Those figures would look good with my James or Emily, especially if I installed fall plates to provide space for them. Sadly, drivers for Thomas and Percy will need to be sawn off at the waist to get them in, which is a pity

The postage would not be so bad, if a two or more sets could be bought at once, so I will look out for more of these.

Appreciated,
James
 
James Day said:
Sadly I don't think it is that child friendly though and if you gave a child a Bachmann Thomas set and said "here is your train set, go and set it up and play with it, they probably couldn't get it to work well, without experienced adult help.

James
Click to expand...

Oh, I don't know James. My two grandsons (ages 7 and 2 1/2) have been belting the bejasus out of Thomas, Annie and Clarabel for the last couple of years and, apart from bows in the roofs caused by leaving them out in the sun when the temperature was 45 celsius in the shade and some coupler issues caused by juvenile enthusiasm, they have had very few problems. All my stock is battery, so of course Thomas has been converted, and I got a bit sick of replacing the D couplers so they now run Kadees like the rest and they're fine. But the actual workings are pretty near child proof so far as anything can be. Thomas has taken a toss or two off my elevated track (about 18 inches fall) without suffering ill effects and overall I'm very satisfied with the purchase. To the extent that I've got an order in for Toby which is currently the youngest's favourite character.

Steve
 
Re: Oops 2

James Day said:
Thanks for those links Tim,

............... Sadly, drivers for Thomas and Percy will need to be sawn off at the waist to get them in, which is a pity.

Appreciated,
James
Click to expand...




James,
I have delegged a couple of figures for Thomas and Percy. The 'unused' body portions would make a macabe lineside detail. When I was buying mine, if I used the less expensive auction only facility and not the more expensive 'Buy it Now' option, the cost of shipping would mysteriously increase dramatically.
 
Steve,

They are certainly mechanically robust, as you say, and the bodies are robust too. No complaints about that.

If you have replaced the troublesome (horrid) D couplings, then you have tackled one of the major issues, which does tend to underline my point about the range not really being suitable for children, straight out of the box.

Converting to battery power would also eliminate the wheel wear issue that appears over time. Both my Thomas and Percy have recently received replacement wheelsets (bought from Bachmann.com in America) as after three years of reasonable use, the plating on the old ones had worn through and current collection had became very unreliable.

I too am waiting for Toby, the Raspberry syrup tank, blue open wagon and whatever else they release. All will pass through works to receive genuine LGB couplings at the LGB height, and possible bearing modifications before being allowed out on the track, but run and enjoy them I will!

James
 
Duck would be great, as would Daisy, although I imagine that would cost more than Emily!

In the UK rumours about what is next in this range are rife. For example Toby was said to be arriving in July at one stage, (although to be fair, which year was not mentioned). Then things turn up unexpected and unannounced, like the Emily coaches did, a long way ahead of Emily.

James
 
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