A Quick Bachmann Bash

It was only a matter of time before the loco building urge would get the better of me. Having spent a fair amount of time operating Wheal Ponder since completion (a very therapeutic pastime in itself), I’ve come to find which of my locos suit the layouts idiosyncratic ways the best. . The result being the 0-4-0 Fletcher Jennings locos and in particular, the Dapol B4 chassis underneath two of them glide elegantly through even my most hideous of trackwork. The one draw back is that two of them have fine wire coupling bars, look great, but tends to ride up on the wagon couplings when shunting the dry. But they work great on the passenger and granite trains. 

With two show bookings, the first being later in October, what was needed was another 0-4-0 fitted with the Bachmann couplings to add some variety (and resilience to the clay trains. In my stash are half a dozen or so candidates, but what I needed was something at the quick and simple end of the spectrum rather than a lengthy and complex build.

One option were my Bachmann Quarry Hunslets, but I didn’t want to use them until I’d weathered them and that is waiting on the new nameplates arriving, the current lead time for Narrow Planet is about three months so that was a non-starter currently. 

Thoughts turned to a Bachmann Bash of a different order. Twenty five years ago, fresh from university and back in the Trent Valley Group, Bachmann had just released their Porter locos and our late friend Tim Allsopp was bashing his first one. I followed suit and the result was a model that still pleases me with the detail I put in, but still looks very American to the eye and I’ve always wanted a second go. 

One of my trips to Beamish coincided with the Lewin loco, Seaham No 18 running. I was quite taken by it and with the low slung boiler and inclined rods, could see the resemblance to the Porter locos. 

Stephen Lewin at his Poole Foundry certainly considered function over form, but there’s something about them that I quite like. Found this photo of Peter working in North Devon recently online, and there’s something about their quirkiness, plus the varied forms these locos took when rebuilt over often lengthy lifetimes that appeals. 

A fortnight ago, I sprained my ankle. Whilst sat with my feet up for the first few days, there was plenty of time for some reading. Thankfully, my library includes a few relevant items to help me here. 

With the ankle starting to heal, I wasn’t able to do much, but I was able to sit at my modelling desk. So this last week has been some unusually brisk progress with this project. 

First I assembled the component parts, those of a finescale or pure metal origami persuasion please look away now. This is rustic bodgery at its best!

A Bachmann Porter 0-4-2.

Backwoods Miniatures Replacement Saddle Tank

Lewin style dome from Smallbrook Studios. 

Branchlines Loco Detailing Parts.

Set of Salter Safety Valves - Dapol O gauge Terrier spares. 

First take your Porter….

And take off all the unnecessary parts….

At this stage, I chopped the rear end off and shortened it to an 0-4-0. You could use the Bachmann Porter 0-4-0 for this but be warned, that loco has plunger pick ups which are notoriously unreliable compared to the wiper pick ups on the 0-4-2 version. A sharp scalpel curing the excessive length quite speedily. The rear was then reattached with a shortened rear bunker which slots into the buffer beam and gives the back end some rigidity. 

This example came from the late Tom Allsopp. When acting as his Executor, we found a box file full of Bachmann 0-4-2 Porter locos in his effects and I felt that he would want me to carry out one more Porter bash. Thankfully, I chose an example with a Lewin-esque stove pipe chimney.

The cylinders were attacked, the steam chests prized off and the remaining flats worked down to better resemble Lewin cylinders. The valve rods were removed, but one was then put on the opposite side it was taken off to resemble a reverser reach rod. 

Here we see the basic form taking shape. The bunkers are formed out of styrene. To curve the bunkers, I cut two pieces of 40 thou styrene to the correct length, softened over the gas hob and bent them ninety degrees before they cooled. One side ripped slightly, but thought it could work nicely as an ancient rusting bunker so left it. 

The dome is a Smallbrook spare part from their Peter kit, which was shortened and the base squared off using my small model lathe, a rare usage. It looks the part with the Salter safety valve from a Dapol Terrier and helps give the Lewin feel to the loco. 

Some Lewin locos had a second safety valve added at the firebox end of the boiler. A second Dapol spare part was used alongside a shortened steam turret from the Bachmann model. 

And seen here with my previous Porter bash for comparison. 

After this the detail was added. 

A Branchlines regulator handle, gauge glass and reverser were fitted and a suitable driver figure sourced from my stash. 

A steam manifold was made from styrene and pinned into place. Off this three steam valves (also from Branchlines) were fitted, a blower and two injector pipes fitted. A wire connecting the pressure gauge and one of the turned Ron Chaplin whistles

I still have a stock of. 

Then it was on to painting. This has been my first attempt at painting a loco using acrylics. Acrylic paints act very differently to enamels when dry brushing (my usual means of weathering) as they dry quicker. The results I feel aren’t as subtle as I’ve achieved before (even with trying to model a very run down knackered loco that covers itself with its own steam oil) and more practice is required to cope with the faster drying time of the acrylics and also investigate potions that will slow this drying process down. However, I’m not keen to return to the smell of enamels so more experimenting will be done to achieve the results I desire. I have though, managed to tone some of the weathering down since my first attempt. 

The loco is not finished, I feel it’s got to the stage where I need to put it down and come back in a few days and see whether I like the finish or whether it needs more work. 

The loco needs nameplates, part of a batch I ordered in June so hopefully here soon, some coal in the bunker and I fancy an oil can or two and a spanner or stilson on the loco in suitably handy positions for the driver. 

But for now, it’s had a successful test run on the clay dry train on the layout.

Not bad progress in five days as I only started the project on Sunday and today is Thursday!