Grovenor Sidings, Railway Modelling Pages by Keith Norgrove
Home Page, Class 37, Warship, Layout, DMUs, Turntable,  Garratts

Bachmann Warship, Raising Body.

 

War-7as.jpg (5872 bytes)

raise-7s.jpg (9728 bytes)

This photo shows the unusually low height of the loco as bought. The effect can also be seen in this view of the re-wheeled loco on the layout.

Measurements indicated that the body needed to be raised by 1.5mm to bring the buffers to the correct height. I decided to achieve this by fitting plasticard spacers under the clips which hold the bogies to the chassis. This cannot be done immediately as the design has cast in retaining ledges to stop the bogies falling out and these fit with close tolerances allowing no space for the spacers.

To fit the spacers, the retaining ledges were removed by a combination of grinding with the Dremel and filing. If care is taken to leave the strengthening ribs in place they will act as retainers at the new height without additional work. Re-assembly with the spacers in place completes this stage of the job. My Warship is now running happily around with the correct buffer height.

The following picture sequence should make this process clearer:

raise-6s.jpg (7636 bytes) 1.

Bogie mounting as bought, clips in place.

raise-5s.jpg (8011 bytes) 2.

Bogie mounting with clips removed.

raise-4s.jpg (6683 bytes) 3.

Chassis showing retaining ledges to be removed.

raise-8s.jpg (5033 bytes) 4.

Chassis showing effect of removing retaining ledges, rib remains as retainer.

raise-9s.jpg (7023 bytes) 5.

Bogie now sits lower leaving room for spacers, compare with photo-2.

raise-10s.jpg (7556 bytes) 6.

Spacers dropped in place.

raise-11s.jpg (11477 bytes) 7.

Clips replaced to hold bogie, compare with photo-1.

raise-2s.jpg (2949 bytes) 8.

Spacers in preparation.

raise-3s.jpg (4093 bytes) 9.

Checking spacer size, note:- spacers are most easily marked out below mounting lug as shown, but need another 0.5mm removing to fit above the lug as needed, the gearbox casting is a bit thicker above the lugs.

raise-1s.jpg (4116 bytes) 10.

Complete spacers.

raise-12s.jpg (6903 bytes) 11.

The end result when re-assembled, compare with War-7as.jpg (5872 bytes)

All in all, not so bad as first thought.

Back to Warship page.

Copyright Keith Norgrove.
Last revised: August 27, 2003