David Franks
Hi, as someone who only looks in occasionaly I would like to see a more user friendly forum like webpage, yes I agree that to open it up to the general public would be a disaster but a members only site would only work if members would actually post on it, some don’t even know it exists. Okay I’m as much to blame having only one or two posts but if we could make it grow then fine . Someone has said photos or diagrams can’t yet be posted so that may be something to look into, I would be willing to post about my own railway or projects if anyone was interested.
Anyway, back to the original thread. My layout ‘Wharfeside’ has a varied collection of stock mostly kitbuilt with scratch chassis or much modified kit chassis but more recently Bachmann or Hornby locos have been converted for use by fitting Ultrascale or Gibson wheelsets which have turned reasonable runners into good EM runners, some have had Mashima motors fitted to improve the slow running and they perform beautifully with the original RTR mechanism. Okay I do have the luxury of a wee lathe to make collars and mountings for motors and bushes for the chassis if needed but it’s not that difficult to rewheel say a Bachmann 4F with the Gibson wheelsets and have nice model to detail further.
Performance wise the replacement wheels work better than just pulling out the RTR wheel to EM and in any case the shiney chrome plated RTR wheels are just too slippy and sloppy to haul much. A Bachmann Jubilee I’ve done with Gibsons and a Mashima motor has hauled 26 Bachmann and Hornby coaches round and round Wharfeside just to prove the point, the Jubilee model has been criticized in the past for poor haulage.
So I suppose it’s horses for courses, if it’s a nice modern RTR model to use as a basis for a layout loco then yes use the RTR chassis but if the mech is at all suspect then build a new chassis.
Cheers,
Dave Franks.