Bachmann Somerset & Dorset 7F, 2-8-0, 53809

[ba14eagle]

Here is my beautiful Somerset & Dorset 7F, no 53809. Loco made by Bachmann, so just had to be bought, after years of me praying for a ready to run example

Even better, it fits into my 1987 railway scenario perfectly, as the real thing was mainline registered at this time - indeed, I was lucky enough to have it on a train from Andover to Ludgershall and back in September of that year. Model goes equally as well as the real thing and i cant wait for it to go to be sound chipped......

[Dave]

She's a lovely looking loco!

[traingeekboy]

Oh very nice yes... Drool.

How do the Bachmann British items run compared to other brands?

[fungus]

Agreed, it's a lovely model. It doesn't perform as well on a 1 in 50 gradient as the prototype did though. I think Bachmann have shinier (therefore less gripppy) treads on their wheels than they used to. My 10 year old 412xx tank pulls almost twice the load of my newer one, and almost twice the load of my 7F. An interesting subject for research, perhaps?

[ba14eagle]

I gave her a test run outside yesterday and she peformed nicely with 6 x Bachmann mk1 coaches behind the drawbar, and as mentioned in my other thread from yesterday, my railway is like the northern mendips - up and down all over the place, with some tight turns thrown in for good measure (video of these test runs will be on YT shortly) I look forward to trying a few more coaches behind her in the spring.

I do think the loco does feel a little light, for what is an eight coupled heavy freight loco.....

And why is it I only refer to this particular loco as "her"

[fungus]

You've done well then. My 53810 couldn't manage more than 4 coaches on the 1 in 50. There's plenty of power, but not enough traction from the wheels, and they start to slip. The bachmann 9Fs are ok with 10 or 11, and my oldest Ivatt 2-6-2T 8 or 9, but for most of the 6- and 8-coupled Bachmanns it's 5 or 6.

[mick]

 

fungus said:

You've done well then. My 53810 couldn't manage more than 4 coaches on the 1 in 50. There's plenty of power, but not enough traction from the wheels, and they start to slip...

That's disappointing. I have this exact same model but I've yet to try it on a layout. Even so, I was hoping that 'she' would be able to handle a minimum of 8 coaches as I think that's a realistic load. Performance of many of the newer models is generally not what I'd hoped for but the addition of just a bit of additional weight (if there's room to accommodate it) can improve things greatly. It would be better if loco's were designed with that kind of performance in mind from the outset because whilst, in my opinion gradients are best avoided at all costs, most modellers need or do indeed choose to incorporate them into their layouts.

Slightly off-topic but as I've mentioned the weight of model loco's, it seems to have gone very quiet on the Hattons/Dapol LMS twins project (they were due out during the first quarter of this year) but I was interested to learn that a review of a sample model mentioned that the loco weighed in at just under 1kg! If it ever sees the light of day and that weight figure is correct, I can't wait to compare the performance of that one with other similar locos.

It would be interesting to benchmark the haulage capabilities of all available loco's over differing gradients.

[fungus]

 

Quote

but I was interested to learn that a review of a sample model mentioned that the loco weighed in at just under 1kg!

It must be made of solid lead!

You've got me onto one of my pet subjects now. Because my garden railway of necessity includes gradients, loco traction and rolling stock weights are something I needed to consider from the very outset of design. And I have to admit that as the railway is broadly based on a line with more than its fair share of 1 in 50, it seemed like an interesting challenge to follow the example.

I've made many plastic wagon kits in the past, and inevitably they need some added weight if they are to run smoothly and stay on the track. But how much? I reckoned that a good starting point would be the "scale" weight of the wagon, so that if the real loaded wagon weighed 20 tons, the model should weigh 20 tons /(76.2 * 76.2 * 76.2) = 45 grammes. This seemed to work, so that's the system I adopted.

However, though most of my wagons are kit-built, most of the coaches are RTR, and these weigh in typically at 150 g. A real coach is normally just over 30 tons I believe; say 35 tons loaded. Using the same calculation gives a model weight of 80g. My S&D 2-8-0 would be able to pull 8 of these up 1 in 50, not too different from the real world. So it will be fine with a realistic goods train of 25-30 wagons as long as it has a banker, but if I want it to pull realistic passenger trains, the only option would be to open up all of the coaches and cut off two-thirds of the steel bar they all contain, with an unknown effect on riding and track-holding performance. More weight in the loco might help, but does increase the strain on the motor (probably not excessively in this case).

I think I'll just see how things work out as they are.

Incidentally, the Bachmann 7F weighs about 250g, or a "scale" 110 tons, significantly more than the real thing.

A 1kg loco equates to 442 tons, and would need a pretty powerful motor to make use of the improved adhesion!

[ba14eagle]

Wow. My beautiful engine now has sound

Rain, rain, go away - Ive new toys to play with

[SouthernTom]

Really sorry Ba14eagle for post a picture on your thread , but I just have to post a picture of my heavily weathered 7F here too.

[george356]

 

fungus said:

Incidentally, the Bachmann 7F weighs about 250g, or a "scale" 110 tons, significantly more than the real thing.

The thing is, we can't scale friction, adhesion or inertia up or down, but I DO like your method of working out scale weights for wagons.

[ba14eagle]

This loco has now left the fleet of the former HFR.