I bought this off eBay in 2011, but it had a lot of issues. I can’t remember all the stuff wrong with it, but I would like to get it running even if I have to replace the complete chassis from another 0-6-0. So what would I look for?
Thanks, but is it something sold like this or was it custom painted like this. I've looked around and I'm not sure if it was part of a set or what.
Probably not very easily. But then you might get lucky. Steam locomotives are less likely to be an easy swap than diesels. However, if you are patient and a consummate kit basher with the skills to slice and dice, anything is possible.
Thanks, I'm going through all my dead projects from years ago and trying to decide on what to get rid off. I don't want anything thats not DCC and I don't really want to work too hard to get it running. I may just toss it and be done with it,
Confirming that it is Bachmann and sharing the same chassis as their 2-6-2. Bmann releases some Christmas sets and I believe that was one of them. If Bmann upgraded their 2-6-2 mechanism to newer gears it probably would fit since both locos share the same shell so you may want to check Mark's (Spookshow) site to see if there was an internal upgrade done. By all means stay away from any of the older stuff that all suffered the famous split gears syndrome. I doubt that either the newer 2-6-0 or the 4-6-0 will fit the shell without a lot of work on the shell.
Thanks John, I will do that before I toss it. It would be great if I could get a whole new mechanism. I woke up this morning thinking maybe I could just display it someplace on the layout as a display only during Christmas, but I just don't have any room. I originally bought it to do a small loop around town at Christmas, but it never worked. I have had such bad luck buying Steamers from ebay and unless they are advertized brand new, I just don't buy them any more.
That is the problem with buying from there since a lot of the stuff is older and especially a number of the Bmann steamers. It may have lain on the shelf for ten years and never have been run but it still has cracked gears unless it was upgraded to the newer plastic. Running has nothing to do with the gear problem. They split with age as the plastic looses its more volatile components and they shrink and split.
Without checking it looks to me like this holiday paint scheme is a riff on Bachmann's locos in Southern Railway paint. You might have less work starting with a new Southern Railway loco from them and then repainting to more closely match the holiday offering.
Really, wow! You know now that you mention that, the only place that has anything about the holidays is the Tender and that could have been added with a decal.
Out of curiousness I went searching a bit. and this one I note that the Christmas set has a red loco where the Southern Belle set has the green loco. However that doesn't match yours unless they did a set with a green loco and red tender.
Well that's pretty close except mine is green with a gold front. I thought I was missing the trailing truck but now I see it didn't have one I guess. Ok I found this in my photos
Well that is a Bmann loco for sure and I can't say that it isn't factory paint. It could have been done for another set by somebody else other than Bmann just using the loco. MT had a logging set that used a Bmann loco. Or it could be yet another version of their Christmas set. But for certain it is a professionally done paint job.
This was the original eBay photo that sold me on it, but unfortunately it didn’t look so good when I opened the box plus it didn’t run.
2 thoughts 1) selfishly, think I have an 0-6-0 or 3 that I dont use and I am about to start a serious culling. I will throw one on a loop and if it runs well, we could find the right price (this is off the cuff, so Im not gonna throw ut a number and mine have been sitting in the box, so Its a guess if a lube and run will work) 2) I pull my Christmas cars with a bmann 4-6-0 in Southern green. It has red piping around the windows, so it is Christmas enough. On kato 9 3/4 "easements and 8 the rest of the curve, it pulls 10 boxcars and a caboose all season. I'm getting ready to send a few locos to a forumitefor DCC (0-4-0 and an original Kato GS4). Anyway he painted a beautiful gg1 in red and blue 4800 colors for me, before Kato released it. I am thinking of asking him to further "Christmas" the Southern. My point? I own enough locos, I will pay for a good paint job, on a known good runner, before I will chase trying to make a bad runner, with a soso paint job run . If you want, I will send you the name and pic of the 4800, so you can contact him.
The older B-mann shell will fit onto the newer power chassis. If you want to buy a newer locomotive and do a swap, you can. Be sure to buy the 0-6-0 or 2-6-2 in the plastic box. As this has a USRA switcher tender, you would need to buy the 2-6-2. The Bachpersonn 0-6-0 comes with a slope-back tender. In reality, the USRA switcher tender would be correct for the USRA 0-6-0. The Bachmann "2-6-2" is really a USRA 0-6-0 with idler trucks added. Removal of the idlers is simple. If you plan to do a shell swap, you might consider purchasing a SPECTRUM USRA "short" or switcher tender. It is necessary to modify the tender chassis, but it is not difficult. If you will take a peek at Spookshow's website, he tells you how to do it. In your case, you will need to swap tender shells, as well. The older USRA switcher tender is put together in a manner somewhat different from either of the newer versions, but a shell swap should not require to much cutting, sanding or filing. Over the years, the B-mann Christmas steam locomotive has had at least two, but maybe more, different paint schemes. Doing the tender swap results in a marked improvement in the performance of this locomotive.
Oh Wow that's great news! Thank you brokemoto, I didn't know the difference between the 0-6-0 and 2-6-2 until now so this has been very informative. Thanks again
Thanks Marty and yes I’m interested in seeing what you got, but I’m hesitant to have work done. I have plenty of time until next Christmas and right now I’m just trying clean out the stuff that I’m never going to finish. Going through some of this stuff is very upsetting especially as I come across items that I got burned on. I’m sitting here right now looking at a Bachmann Northern 4-8-4a that I bought brand new and sent it out to a guy for a decoder install. When I got it back months later, I found a badly worn 4-8-4a with a hatchet job of a decoder install. Then to top it off I discovered at the time I could have sent it back to Bachmann for a replacement before the hatchet job. So now I’m very cautious and don’t send anything out anymore because of it.
