Cleveland, Delphos, & St. Louis RY

The CD&StL RY took delivery of Bachmann’s new Log Skidder with Crates mounted on 1:20.3 scale 20 foot flat car.

Engineer/Operator’s side of the skidder.

View of side opposite the engineer side.

Closer view of drums, gears, and capstan.

DATA:

The skidder comes mounted on Bachmann’s 1:20.3 twenty foot flat car. The flat car is the painted unlettered version item #95670. The flat car is 11 3/4″ over the end beams. Width is 3 9/16″ measured at the end beams.

This is a very small flat car. In fact, it is shorter and narrower than a HLW 1:24 scale flat car.

Skidder measurements:
Lenght of frame 7 1/2″
Width of frame 2 3/4″
Steam engine and drums 4 7/16″
Width of engine and drums 2 3/32″
Boiler Height 5 13/16″
Boiler Diameter 1.49″
Height, base of skidder to top of stack 6 7/8″

A better choice would have been the skidder not mounted on this extra small flat car. This car is just too small, at least for me, to run with 1:20.3 equipment.

I’ll try to remove the skidder so it can be mounted on a scratch built 1:20.3 twenty-two foot flat car.

Who knows the scale of the skidder? There is no builder plate or name on the skidder. Since skidders came in many sizes this skidder will work with 1:24, 1:22.5, and 1:20.3 scale equipment.

It should be pointed out that none of the skidder’s parts move. There will be no way to make this a working, powered model.

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The CD&StL received its new Forney. The locomotive arrived at the dealer’s on December 21. Just so happens that was the day we departed for Canada to spend time with the family. So the Forney was picked up on the 29th when we returned.

These are two pictures taken late in the day after the Forney had arrived at Delphos tank.

The Forney arrived in good condition with no damage. Disappointed that the usual DVD that comes with Bachmann locomotives is not included with the Forney. The Owner’s Manual is very complete but it sure would have been nice to receive a DVD.

1-4-10 BIG MISTAKE:
This has already been pointed out on the Bachmann site. The cylinders are mounted too high. Center line of the cylinders is at least 1/4″ higher than the center line of the driver axles. What were the designers thinking? The center line of the cylinders should be on the same plain as that of the axles. This major design error should not impact on engine performance but a little attention to detail would have caught this major mistake. Now to bring cylinders in line with axle center line will take some major modification. Most folks won’t bother to make this correction but it sure is a shame to have such a nice locomotive with this major design mistake.

TABULATED DATA:
Length: Coupler to coupler is 20 inches
Footboard to footboard is 18 inches
Width: Measured at cylinders is 4 3/8 inches
Height: Top of spark arrester is 6 5/8 inches
Weight: 7 lbs. 2 oz.
Wheels Back to Back:
Pony Truck 1.571 inches
Drivers 1.579 & 1.569 inches
Trailing Truck 1.565 & 1.569

The locomotive was given a short test run using track power. This initial run, while short, gives every indication that this will be a smooth runner.

Wheels and counter weights were tight.

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UPDATE Nov. 25, 2009

Thomas with his consist at the CD&StL’s AJ Yard. Just in time for the Holidays.

The weather was foul so we just took a few quick pictures.

We did run Thomas on a short test track. The locomotive seems to be a smooth runner. Center drivers are blind. We’ll know more once Thomas gets out on the mainline for some serious running.

TABULATED DATA:
Length: 12 3/4″ (over buffers) 16 3/4″ (over couplers)
Width: 4 17/32″ (at cab steps) 4 5/32″ (at end beams)
Height: 6 7/8″
Weight: 2 lbs. 15 oz.
Driver Diameter: #1 & 3 axle 2.195″ Blind driver 2.158″
Back to Back: Front 1.567″ Middle & Rear Drivers 1.560″ (G1MRA standard is 1.575 back to back)

Thomas has been taken to our club’s Annual Holiday Train Show. The show is scheduled for eight days starting Dec 5th. That should be enough time to get a good understanding of how it will perform.

This short video of Thomas’ first test run at club holiday layout setup. Video done to show that the coaches will negotiate LGB 1100 curves without derailing.

Thomas left his Sodar home track to make a test run over the 3% trestle section of TBTO’s Holiday Train Show layout. Thomas was paced by a Shay pulling the camera car. He handled the 3% grade, both up and down with no problem.

Thomas’ performance at the TBTO week long Holiday Show. Thomas was run for a total of around 38 hours. Thirty-two of those hours were during the time the show was open to the public. Three of those days were seven hours each. Thomas would be turned on just before the show opened and turned off when the show closed. At no time during the show did Thomas show any signs of hesitation from faulty pickup. The cars tracked well. The remaining hours of operation were the result of running Thomas from time-to-time during the set up week. At the end of the show the motor case was opened. There was no sign of any wear. Locomotive drivers looked like new, as well as the coach wheels. So far, so good. Next Thomas outing will be the Greenberg Show in February at Virginia Beach.

DEC. 8, 2009 POLARITY

Missed this one in the review of Thomas. Thomas is wired to NMRA polarity standard. I should have noticed that the red power feed to the motor was connected to the right side of the motor in compliance with NMRA Standard S-9.

Ray Turner picked up on this last week as he put two Thomas locomotives into operation on a club Holiday display.

The NMRA polarity compliance will, in most cases, not be an issue with most folks that purchase the set. Polarity can be an issue for club displays when a common power source is used to power more than just the Thomas.

Changing polarity to the Large Scale standard will be just a simple matter of switching the power supply wires soldered to the motor power tabs. Should take less than 15 minutes to make the change. But, why on earth did Bachmann decide to wire Thomas (and Percy) to be NMRA compliant?

This is one of two coaches that come with the Thomas set. The other coach is Annie. Windows are glazed. Roof lifts off. There is no interior seating.

TABULATED DATA:
Length: 14 3/8″ over the buffers. Add 4″ for couplers.
Width: 4 5/32″
Height: 5 3/4″ railhead to top of roof
Weight: 2 lbs.
Wheel Diameter: 1.755″
Wheels Back to Back: Varied from 1.568″ to 1.570″ (G1MRA standard is 1.575)

Couplers come mounted in the high position. Bachmann provides coupler extension pieces to lower the couplers to what they call “Garden Railroad” height. Lowering couplers will make them match with other rolling stock that usually has truck mounted couplers. Not a big deal to lower the couplers; takes just a few minutes per car.

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I like to decorate rolling stock to mark/memorialize special occasions and events.

For our daughter’s wedding I decorated a wedding car. The car was presented to my daughter and her new husband on their wedding day. The car was displayed at the wedding reception.

For display the wedding coach was placed on a short trestle built for me by Bob Gentile.

Silver lettering decals were made by Stan Cedarleaf. Stan does great work, will work with you to develop the decals, and has great service. Stan can deliver a set of decals in a week or less. USPS takes longer to deliver than it takes Stan to produce the decals.

The silver lettering shows up just fine when the coach is viewed first hand. I just had a problem getting the lettering to show up in photographs.

My wife touched up the bride and groom to look more like our daughter and son-in-law. The drum head with their picture is lighted. Rather a surprise when the drum head light was first turned on. Their picture is illuminated and shows up well.

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For those that have the new Bachmann 1:20.3 long caboose there could be a problem if you are using the offset shank couplers.

There is no problem when using the straight shank coupler as the caboose is delivered.

As shown above, there is a space between the coupler and the offset coupler shank. That space is highlighted by the pencil point placed in the space in question.

A problem occurs when the cut lever drops into this space. When the cut lever drops into the space the coupler will jam and can not swing side to side. The cut lever is just thin enough to drop into the space.

The problem of the cut lever dropping into the space is solved by placing a filler in the space. The picture above shows a filler added in the space. The filler is highlighted as being white in the picture. The filler is held in place with CA.

This filler will keep the cut lever from dropping into the space and then jaming the coupler so it will not swing side to side.

In this picture a filler has been added. Note that the cut lever now rides on the filler and will not drop into the space between the coupler and the coupler shank. The cut lever now rides at a height somewhat closer to that of a straight shank coupler. It will never match the angle of a cut lever attached to a straight shank coupler since the height of the off set is lower.

This is a quick, easy fix. Since adding this filler I’ve had no problem with the cut lever getting caught in the
space since there is no longer a space.

This is one of those small problems that no one at Bachmann could have anticipated. Who would have thought that the cut lever would drop into the space and stop the coupler from swinging side to side.