Bachmann Hirail maintainence truck (HO)
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:17 pm
A few companies have made working hi-rail vehicles in the past, but none have struck me as particularly plausible looking - either they had 'bulked up' a smaller vehicle, or messed with proportions to fit the demands of the chassis.
I've grown up somewhat sceptical of the majority of Bachmann's US diesel offerings, but they have recently started showing signs of applying the same cleverness and attention to that range as they have with their UK models, and their US steam, for many years. Good on em!
So when I saw this I had to give it a go, the Bachmann part number for this one is 16901, this is the plain white, they do some in other railroad schemes...
The prototype is a heavy hi-rail fitted truck (not a 'pick up') - so its proportions are not thrown out by trying to fit it to a working chassis. The cab looks to be maybe a GMC or Chevy, but appears to have been 'genericised'? It's the kind of thing that might get used for heavy welding work maybe, or by a car repair dept. It has a 'utility' rear end with a light crane (positionable)...This shot shows up it's 2 biggest compromises though, the 'road' wheels have become rail wheels and so are positioned much further in than they should be, and the 'deck' in the middle of the utility body has been raised to cover the mech.
Of those compromises, the deck is reasonably hidden from most angles. My current musing on the wheels is whether I can apply 'dummy' road wheels outboard of the rail ones, the Boley ones may be about right but the 'faux' wheels would need to be slightly smaller than the rail ones...
Turning it over, all 8 wheels pick up which is very useful on something so small, the hirail wheels are left very loose to follow the rails, but are restrained from going high and climbing over the rails by blocks, a nice bit of design!
As the DCC symbol suggests, it comes pre-fitted with a custom dual-mode decoder, that appears to give reasonable control straight from the box on both DC and DCC. Head and tail lights work on both, and are continuous (and switch-offable) under DCC. The beacon on the cab roof sadly doesn't though...
Undo 4 screws under the rear half and the utility body comes off, no part of the mech sits higher than the lower cab windowsills so there is a lot of scope for putting an alternative body on here. One that jumped to my mind would be a Sperry truck...both parts of the body are in easy-to-kitbash plastic...
Once you've removed the rear body, the cab just clips off - this is the complete mech with decoder...easily visible is the weight which isn't awful for a small vehicle that won't actually have to pull anything. You might be able to add some more up inside the body which could help with keeping pickup reliable however...
Three more general shots, plus a comparison for size with a Boley truck...
I've grown up somewhat sceptical of the majority of Bachmann's US diesel offerings, but they have recently started showing signs of applying the same cleverness and attention to that range as they have with their UK models, and their US steam, for many years. Good on em!
So when I saw this I had to give it a go, the Bachmann part number for this one is 16901, this is the plain white, they do some in other railroad schemes...
The prototype is a heavy hi-rail fitted truck (not a 'pick up') - so its proportions are not thrown out by trying to fit it to a working chassis. The cab looks to be maybe a GMC or Chevy, but appears to have been 'genericised'? It's the kind of thing that might get used for heavy welding work maybe, or by a car repair dept. It has a 'utility' rear end with a light crane (positionable)...This shot shows up it's 2 biggest compromises though, the 'road' wheels have become rail wheels and so are positioned much further in than they should be, and the 'deck' in the middle of the utility body has been raised to cover the mech.
Of those compromises, the deck is reasonably hidden from most angles. My current musing on the wheels is whether I can apply 'dummy' road wheels outboard of the rail ones, the Boley ones may be about right but the 'faux' wheels would need to be slightly smaller than the rail ones...
Turning it over, all 8 wheels pick up which is very useful on something so small, the hirail wheels are left very loose to follow the rails, but are restrained from going high and climbing over the rails by blocks, a nice bit of design!
As the DCC symbol suggests, it comes pre-fitted with a custom dual-mode decoder, that appears to give reasonable control straight from the box on both DC and DCC. Head and tail lights work on both, and are continuous (and switch-offable) under DCC. The beacon on the cab roof sadly doesn't though...
Undo 4 screws under the rear half and the utility body comes off, no part of the mech sits higher than the lower cab windowsills so there is a lot of scope for putting an alternative body on here. One that jumped to my mind would be a Sperry truck...both parts of the body are in easy-to-kitbash plastic...
Once you've removed the rear body, the cab just clips off - this is the complete mech with decoder...easily visible is the weight which isn't awful for a small vehicle that won't actually have to pull anything. You might be able to add some more up inside the body which could help with keeping pickup reliable however...
Three more general shots, plus a comparison for size with a Boley truck...