Piko 4-wheel railbus-will it do R1 curves?

B

BenjaminB

Registered
Country flag
Morning all

I'm having a clear-out and consolidation of my garden railway stock, and fancied getting a railbus to trundle round as an alternative. I thought the Piko 4-wheel railbus might make a good start for a conversion into a British W&U-style machine.
Before I trade-in some bits and shell-out for one, will the railbus handle R1 curves and points? Tight, but were annoyingly unavoidable when I built the line...

Thanks,

Ben
 
BenjaminB said:
Morning all

I'm having a clear-out and consolidation of my garden railway stock, and fancied getting a railbus to trundle round as an alternative. I thought the Piko 4-wheel railbus might make a good start for a conversion into a British W&U-style machine.
Before I trade-in some bits and shell-out for one, will the railbus handle R1 curves and points? Tight, but were annoyingly unavoidable when I built the line...

Thanks,

Ben
Click to expand...
Yes it will but they can be a bit of an issue as the wheels have a sort of bogie that follows the curve. They are also very long for a 4 whelk vehicle hence the odd bogie setup. A much better bet would be the LGB Railcar, obtainable 2nd hand and generally runs like a dream.

This is a thread showing how I made one of mine work on battery, but they do run very well on track power somehow defying gravity with a sort of sideways but not turning compensation on each set of wheels.
www.gscalecentral.net

LGB 4 Wheel Railbus Batteryfication T25 (2065?) Battery Conversion

So the latest project in my quest for a complete Battey World of Power. In truth the little LGB Railbuses are one of the best runners on Track Power due to their ability to keep all 4 Wheels on tha Track. But as I am going all Battery and had this in stock plus having a few others already up and...
www.gscalecentral.net www.gscalecentral.net
 
BenjaminB said:
Morning all

I'm having a clear-out and consolidation of my garden railway stock, and fancied getting a railbus to trundle round as an alternative. I thought the Piko 4-wheel railbus might make a good start for a conversion into a British W&U-style machine.
Before I trade-in some bits and shell-out for one, will the railbus handle R1 curves and points? Tight, but were annoyingly unavoidable when I built the line...

Thanks,

Ben
Click to expand...
I presume you mean the rather substantial VT98? I can't find the link right now, but there is a useful thread on here from several years ago, about using 4 elastic bands to help it centre. I experimented with mine a while back and that seemed to help a lot with R1, even reverse curves. On Youtube is a vid by a chap who used bits of washing up sponge to achieve the same dampening, but I found that was OK only when the bus had momentum, and for slow operation, the rubber bands are better. They have special pickup skates which are designed to help it negotiate tight curves (you do need them), and occasionally, they drop off the rail on R1s.
 
Last edited:
It'll go round R1s, but I find my one derails if pushing the trailer car.

So I use it as a single car or pulling the trailer....
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Food for thought. I've got an LGB Wismar waiting for conversion to battery R/C, which might do instead. I've an idea to try and either scratchbuild or kitbash a W&M railbus though, onto a Playmobil yellow diesel chassis (I have three, and I know they cope).

Next, but related, question, do Piko offer a spares service, if I'm only after the body and glazing? Or would I have to shell-out for a trailer car? Just looking at a shortcut for the distinctive cab ends...
 
Last edited:
Erm just thinking the Wisbech and Upwell never had anything but steam trams and a couple of sentinels made to look like steam trams with skirts. So are you thinking of Col Stephens Railcars?
 
I have a Piko VT98 Railbus single power car (current version). It runs very well on its own on Radius 1, but I understand that the older Piko 2-car set power & trailer (dummy) can throw each other off the track, when traversing a R1 reverse curve ("S curve").

Regards,

Paul
 
Last edited:
dunnyrail said:
Erm just thinking the Wisbech and Upwell never had anything but steam trams and a couple of sentinels made to look like steam trams with skirts. So are you thinking of Col Stephens Railcars?
Click to expand...
Sorry, typo. I meant W&M (Waggon und Maschinenbau). I take a rather flexible approach to scale and gauge, and fancy a railbus inspired by the veteran unit on my local line, the KWVR :)
 
Have you thought of using the old Faller, as a base for your model?

These can be got (already tatty) for not much money on EvilBay..

Perhaps worth a thought?

PhilP
 
PhilP said:
Have you thought of using the old Faller, as a base for your model?

These can be got (already tatty) for not much money on EvilBay..

Perhaps worth a thought?

PhilP
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion... I think I've got a scrappy old one in a box somewhere from when the kids were little... might do as a starting point if I widen it a bit, I'll dig it out and have a look :)
 
PhilP said:
Have you thought of using the old Faller, as a base for your model?

These can be got (already tatty) for not much money on EvilBay..

Perhaps worth a thought?

PhilP
Click to expand...
Good suggestion, I have seen a few of these and when converted make a pretty good option. Not sure what chassis would work but a simple scratch built one perhaps using a Fosworks or other manufacturers single axle motor unit would be ok.
 
I'll add to the suggestions by saying I had a Piko rails many years ago. I don't have any R1s in my garden,but I wasn't thrilled with the bus's performance on less than perfectly level track.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top