No.61 8Fs – Heavy goods engines starting with the Bachmann WD 2-8-0
One of the first engines that I purchased on returning to the hobby was a Bachman Austerity 2-8-0.
Whilst the detail on my Bachmann WD was superb, its
performance I thought was lacking.
Out
of the box the engine could barely manage a dozen wagons up and round the layout and
was accompanied by what could only be described as a monotonous grinding noise. It was soon banished to the sheds. For the record my Austerity is model number
32-256 (running number 90556), I mention this because I have seen similar
models advertised also as being noisy runners.
The solution
First a picture showing which screws hold the body on the
chassis.
Second a reminder that the cab handrails need to be
released prior to lifting the body off the chassis.
How does the chassis run without the body? - In my case very smoothly
and relatively quietly. There’s the
answer! On my model the soldered connections
to the brush holders were pressing against the inside of the firebox causing
the noise of the motor to be transmitted to and amplified by the whole body
shell. The solution is straight forward,
remake the connections using less solder whilst at the same time bending the
terminals such that they no longer contact the body. If still in doubt carefully file away a
little of the plastic inside the firebox.
Performance
I have recently had the chance to observe first hand some of
the new Hornby 2-8-0 freight engines. I
am impressed by their smooth and powerful performance.
So, how to improve the performance of the Bachman WD 2-8-0?
Pony Truck 
A major cause of poor haulage capacity
affecting a range of Bachmann models is too much stiffness in the pony truck
springing. Sometimes I have completely
removed the springing. In this instance
I decided to retain the spring but to gently massage it so that the spring
effect was reduced.
Then I added some lead shot!
Somewhere on RMweb I remember reading a
thread, and I must apologise because I did not keep a note of the contributor’s
details, but he had taken the WD boiler barrel apart to install a smoke
unit. He confirmed that the Bachmann
ballast weight only occupies the first part of the boiler and beyond and into
the smoke box is a void. Lead shot can be
introduced into this void using the slot visible in the picture above. The chimney on the Bachmann model is blanked
off and by turning the body shell upside down and by tipping backwards or
forwards the lead shot can be added or removed as required. For security the gap at the top of the boiler
should be taped over, I used a tiny piece of masking tape, just in case the
engine is upended and to prevent any lead shot inadvertently falling back out.
I am aware that some modellers are very keen not to upset
the ‘balance’ of their models. As bought
my WD weighed 290gm. This value
is already quite respectable when compared to say the Bachmann O4 at 250gm or
the Hornby 28xx at 275gm. In the event I
added sufficient lead shot to bring the total weight up to 305gm.
The model stills sits nice and firmly with all
driving wheels in solid contact with the
track. More importantly the engine will
now crawl up and round my layout with a representative number of trucks in tow.
Some of you might wish to be more adventurous
and add more weight. I would say that
there is every chance that you could trickle more lead shot into the smoke box
space. However too much and you will lose traction on the rear driving wheels. At least with this solution it should be easy enough to remove the lead if you have added too much.
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