Bachmann Class 40 Conversion

Hi Alan

Welcome to the EMGS.

Alan Gibson does a conversion pack (4800/5 on page 27 of the catalogue). UltraScale also do a conversion pack, but more expensive. Not sure of turn round time for either sources

This particular pack is not currently part of the EMGS inventory so you will need to go direct to the suppliers

In terms of the conversion itself I haven’t had any experience of diesel conversions. Some of them are just straight replacement but others require some surgery to make room.

Hopefully someone on the forum will be able to help

John

Take care here Alan because Bachmann has produced two versions of the Class 40. The earlier one has single piece axles while the later (and current) one has split axles. AFAIK the Alan Gibson and the Ultrascale conversion packs are suitable only for the earlier version, they will not be suitable if your Class 40 has split axles. When I was modelling in EM (I switched to O Gauge last year) I had three Bachmann diesels with split axles (the current production models of Classes 20, 40 and 47) and I asked David Rogers, the proprietor of Ultrascale, whether he had any plans to offer conversion kits for split axle models. He does offer these for the Dapol Class 52 (a long in production model with split axles) and I have converted two Class 52s with his kits, which I still have as I kept all of my EM conversions when I sold the rest of my 4mm collection. David replied saying that he would produce a conversion kit for one of the locos if I sent it to him on loan but at the time (about 12 months ago) he was about to close down his business for a couple of months as he had to go into hospital for an operation. As it transpired, during that two month period I made the decision to move to O gauge and, therefore, I did not take up David’s offer.

Hi Alan

I think it is worth you approaching David Rogers, he may well still be willing to take a look. His email address (which is on the Ultrascale website) is enquiries@ultrascale.co.uk.

Hi Alan

Sorry to hear of this difficulty. I use DCC although I do not claim to be an expert and someone with greater expertise may wish to chip in, but perhaps a solution would be for you to remove your DCC decoder and replace it with a DC blanking plate, which may be a  simple unplug/replace exercise reversible in the same manner, which would convert your loco to DC on a temporary basis.

I’ve not done this conversion, but there is an EMGS Manual sheet (3.2.6(17)) on converting the Bachmann 10000 which refers to the later version of the Class 40 as well. It would be worth a look.