US locos

Eaglecliff

Eaglecliff

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Hi,
Can anyone suggest a source of replacement gears (specifically the worm gear, which is stripped) for an ancient Bachmann 2-4-2 Columbia? I've tried Bachmann themselves... and where can I find info as to the cab interior colour scheme/treatment?
Thanks in anticipation.
 
According to the site below, a mine of useful information, there were two versions, the earlier one with a horizontal motor and the later with a vertical one.
http://www.trainweb.org/girr/tips/tips4/columbia_tips.html < Link To http://www.trainweb.org/g...ps4/columbia_tips.html
If yours is the later one you may be lucky as I think the drive train has many common parts with the "Industrial Mogul" that Bachmann are reintroducing. Hopefully when this hits the shops you should be able to obtain spares for your Columbia.
 
Hi,
Thanks for that. Yes, I saw the article, and others in the series, a while back, but as Bachmann had already told me they have no spares, it was less than helpful in that respect since the article offered no other suggestions as to new gears. My version of the loco has the (glued-in) horizontal motor, and I did find a plastic gearwheel of the correct size in a little printer but it wasn't up to the job. I e-mailed a gear manufacturer with a query but received no reply. Having come from "0" gauge where most bits are readily available, I am finding G a bit of a desert in that respect. E.g., give me a Slater's wagon chassis kit and I can make almost any early 20th century Midland wagon, but it's not so easy with a Bachmann bogie wagon kit, even if they take - five minutes? to build! Or should that be assemble?
I shall probably be driven to sourcing/building a powered tender. On the other point to my query, my local library has virtually nothing on US railroads, whereas the most obscure and ephemeral British railways have acres of print all to themselves. However, there is a railway bookshop in Derby, I'll have to look in there.
Cheers.
 
On one of the US forums, My Large Scale or Large Scale Central someone wrote about those gears and he found a good replacement at NWSL(Northwest Short Line) . You might check at a hobby show that sells R/C cars, could find a gear there that would work.
 
I have a dead columbia with a similar problem - I was planning to buy some of the plastic worm/gear sets from Cambrian (listed under on their 16mm page) and try them out as a fix, but I haven't done it yet, so don't know if it works or not.
J.
 
If all else fails, try a LGB 0-4-0 Stainz chassis (cut to fit with a Dremmel). The pony trucks attach to the new chassis. I have cut and modded a Bachmann mining loco a few years back and it was found to be a good workable solution. Alyn PS you can then fit the LGB smoke unit and sound if it comes with the donor LGB loco. :clap:
 
Hi,
Thanks for that. Stainz chassis do seem to quite popular for that sort of thing. I've got a complete loco but I'm not ready to saw it up just yet. Although I hate the "open" coal box - why do LGB do that - it's maddening - like their coaches with all the same windows open!!!
Eaglecliff
 
Eaglecliff said:
Hi,
Can anyone suggest a source of replacement gears (specifically the worm gear, which is stripped) for an ancient Bachmann 2-4-2 Columbia? I've tried Bachmann themselves... and where can I find info as to the cab interior colour scheme/treatment?
Thanks in anticipation.
Click to expand...

Had the worm gear go on my Bachmann 2-4-2 only after a few runs never could get a replacement gear so the loco sat in a siding for several years until it got used as a donner loco for my Rotary Snow Plow bash .
abbf67625d8a4af688a13fc23fe7c107.jpg
 
Thanks everyone. Not made any progress yet on the gear front but I am working on it. In the meantime I'm surprised that no-one has come up with my plea for info on the interior of US loco cabs. I have found colour pictures of caboose interiors (I'm fitting out a Bachmann kit) but cabs seem to have eluded photographers. Any ideas, folks?
PS Anybody going to Walesby on Sunday?
 
Cab interior colour is usually green,actual shade depended on what was on the shelf at the time!
Regards
David
 
Eaglecliff said:
Thanks everyone. Not made any progress yet on the gear front but I am working on it. In the meantime I'm surprised that no-one has come up with my plea for info on the interior of US loco cabs. I have found colour pictures of caboose interiors (I'm fitting out a Bachmann kit) but cabs seem to have eluded photographers. Any ideas, folks?
PS Anybody going to Walesby on Sunday?
Click to expand...

Try the "In Cab Photos" section of http://www.railpictures.net/ < Link To Railpictures.net
 
ROSS said:
Gears....try here. They do a free catalogue. Not cheap but good gears.
They also now do motors..with neodym magnets. again not cheap.
http://www.hpcgears.com/ < Link To www.hpcgears.com

Prepare to be amazed at the choice!
Click to expand...
Miindboggling range as you say.

Have you noticed their slogan

" Never knowingly outpriced"!!!:laugh:
 
Reminds me of Dorothy Parker's famous putdown when a friend described another woman as "outspoken." Parker - "Outspoken by whom?"
 
I seem to remember reading somewhere that most US loco cabs were a shade of what weould describe as victorian lavatorial green inside - it was supposed to de-stress loco crews.

Probably an apple green , just a shade deeper than LNER green is about the mark :-
 
Hi,
Looking at some of the images on the site mentioned by Spike, I think you are right. Just surprised that cab "ceilings" weren't white or thereabouts to brighten the somewhat enclosed footplates. Which leads me to another mystery - my Bachmann 4-6-0 has rear cab doors so close to the back of the firebox I don't see how the crew could get from one side to the other, or the fireman even get the coal in??? Other Baldwin locos (the little Bachmann 2-6-0 and the Aristo 2-8-0) seem to have more room in that area? And didn't US locos have fall plates? Or have they been sacrificed on G-scale locos to allow sufficient gap between loco and tender to negotiate R1 curves?
 
Mmmmm, good question, well presented.

The only loco of mine that has a fall plate is the Bachmann Connie.

As to the Bachmann 10-wheeler, I'm not really sure. It's a generic model that is based, I believe on the ET&WNC so you might be able to get a better idea of prototypical details from some images of that railroad.

Certainly the firebox protrudes further into the cabs of many US locos than on any UK loco.
:nerd:
 
Eaglecliff said:
Hi,
Looking at some of the images on the site mentioned by Spike, I think you are right. Just surprised that cab "ceilings" weren't white or thereabouts to brighten the somewhat enclosed footplates. Which leads me to another mystery - my Bachmann 4-6-0 has rear cab doors so close to the back of the firebox I don't see how the crew could get from one side to the other, or the fireman even get the coal in??? Other Baldwin locos (the little Bachmann 2-6-0 and the Aristo 2-8-0) seem to have more room in that area? And didn't US locos have fall plates? Or have they been sacrificed on G-scale locos to allow sufficient gap between loco and tender to negotiate R1 curves?
Click to expand...

Prehaps this video will throw some light on the subject.
This is a cab ride on Tweetsie #12.
As you will see the Engineer is inside squeezed along side the firebox.
The fireman sort of out in the open and you will see the fall plate quite nicely.

Video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCtAKm9s0jE&feature=related
 
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