Bachmann / NRM GCR Class O4 to be made

[mick b]

This is from RM Web

Halfway down is a picture plus some other new forthcoming items

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... ge__st__50


Then confirmation from Bachmann that NRM have commisioned the Loco about 3/4 way down this page

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... ge__st__75

It looks very nice too

Mick

[Atlantic 3279]

Would it be too much to hope that they will get the GC structural details right too, and not just give the latter-day / preserved hybrid "O4/1/3" model a GC livery?
i.e. It needs GC tender top layout, GC boiler mountings, parallel socket buffers, etc. etc.

[wehf100]

I swore very very loudly to myself when I found this out! About 3 years ago I decided to sell all my amassed 4mm GCR stuff because I figured that rtr GCR was never going to happen. My 4mm Pom Pom, in full GCR livery had lining that was was way overscale. (That and Alan Gibson second hand kit prices were rocketing...) I figured, that if I had to build kits, I might as well build big ones where I can manage painting and weathering with better effect. I bought quite a bit of 7mm stuff with the proceeds of the sale. Ah well.

I echo 'Atlantic's' concerns about slapping a GCR livery on a moulding based on a preserved-era loco, but to be honest I will be buying one of these regardless. Let's be honest, with so many variations in the class is it almost a certainty that Bachmann/NRM will have made a mistake somewhere on this model?! (The pictures look like at least the correct boiler fittings have been used).

The GCR white-red-white goods livery is suprisingly complex, especially around footplates, valances, and buffer beams. If they've got the livery genuinely correct (i.e- used the original GCR painting guidelines); for me the cost difference between bashing the Bachmann loco and then commissioning a repaint, will be unbeatable.

Hat's off to those who are willing and able to do such work themselves though!

rtr GCR livery? this hobby has come a long way...

Will

[jwealleans]

I've just got back from Warley, where Thurston was placed next to the Friends of the National Railway Museum.

On Saturday they asked us to run this:



Funnily enough, even flat out with a light load, it wouldn't quite do a scale 100 mph....

However, I spotted this on their stand and we had to get it over for a photoshoot. Performance was disappointing until we realised there was no motor in it...

I should stress this is the preproduction sample and so may be different from the final model.











The only practical fault I could find with it was that with the tender drawbar at the extended setting the fall plate fell down between the cab and the tender, while at the close setting they were all but touching and it would never move off the straight. I'm sure those who've bought the production models would have told us if that were the case with those, however.

It was me who managed to unfasten the brake gear on the tender. Now over to you lining and tender specialists....

[rob237]

Funnily enough, even flat out with a light load, it wouldn't quite do a scale 100 mph....

Perhaps Rous-Marten wasn't aboard...
Cheers
Robt P.

[mick b]

JW


Nice pictures of the ROD

[coachmann]

As has been pointed out there were many variations in the real Class 04 locos, but I have yet to come across a photo showing the running plate over the cylinders extended in length as that on the Bachmann model.

The running plate is only wider where it passes over the cylinders...

[Atlantic 3279]

I have seen no such examples either.

In addition to comments I may have made upon the model's various flaws in my own workbench thread, the state of the bends in the handrails has been pointed out to me. Whilst I took care to get it looking right when making on renovating my own models, Bachmann have produce something almost like a dog's back leg, rather than the gentle flowing curve of a Robinson handrail at the "corners" adjoining the smokebox front.

[coachmann]

As I don't yet own a model, can anyone say if the running plate is solid plastic and is alterable?

[Atlantic 3279]

The running plate, including the splashers and frame tops plus cab-floor planking, is a cast metal item in line with current Bachmann practice. One screw beneath the smokebox and two tiny ones in the front cab corners secure the plastic boiler and separate (clipped on to boiler) cab.

Going back to Jonathon's point about drawbar length, fear not. Close inspection of the tender coupling pin will reveal that it is on a sliding mount. Partially displace the first axle of the tender and the grip screw for the sliding mount is revealed. This can then be loosened and the pin moved to the desired position for optimum loco-to-tender distance. In some cases the grip screw leaves the factory only "nearly tight" anyway, in which case you can simply push the coupling pin fore-aft as desired and it holds its setting too .

You might wish to buy, borrow or otherwise acquire a copy of the GCRS Journal "Forward" that was published in the late summer/early autumn of this year for a fuller analysis of the model. With luck BRM may publish something similar in due course.

[Bill Bedford]

Would it be too much to hope that they will get the GC structural details right too, and not just give the latter-day / preserved hybrid "O4/1/3" model a GC livery?
i.e. It needs GC tender top layout, GC boiler mountings, parallel socket buffers, etc. etc.

Not really, there were 3 locos built at Gorton for the ROD in 1919 and take straight into GC stock.

[CVR1865]

jwealleans, Thurston is a great Layout and something different to see on the scene. Are you going to Ally Paly in March?
That ROD looks good, GCR LNER or BR it looks top dollar sorry to hear it won't run without an enging guess Bachmann aren't perfect.
Simon

[Atlantic 3279]

Whilst Bill is of course correct about 3 Gorton-built ROD specification locos going straight into GC stock, their GC numbers were 1, 5 & 8, not 1185 as per the Bachmann sample. I have no idea if they were ever fitted in GC days with vacuum brake (and therefore ejector pipe) as per the Bachmann model either. They may have had only steam brake as built, or possibly even Westinghouse. So one way or another, the model is still either wrong or at least highly unrepresentative of the 120-odd 8K class locos to true GC specification.

[Bill Bedford]

Whilst Bill is of course correct about 3 Gorton-built ROD specification locos going straight into GC stock, their GC numbers were 1, 5 & 8, not 1185 as per the Bachmann sample. I have no idea if they were ever fitted in GC days with vacuum brake (and therefore ejector pipe) as per the Bachmann model either. They may have had only steam brake as built, or possibly even Westinghouse. So one way or another, the model is still either wrong or at least highly unrepresentative of the 120-odd 8K class locos to true GC specification.

You forgot the Bachmann model is also narrow gauge...........

[Atlantic 3279]