I have the HO Bachmann CB&Q 4-8-4 Northern steamer. I love the locomotive but it does run poorly. I see Bowser makes the conversion kit #356. I just ordered mine , I was afraid since Bowser will stop making steam locomotives, this would be gone to.
So what kind of project am I looking at here, any photos of others who have done this? Any tips on the building and swap? And since weights are not included, what kind of weights are needed?
Sorry no photo’s, I bought the kit for the Santa Fe 4-8-4 with the tank tender. My kit must have been an older kit because it had a few weights included (more than I could fit in the boiler). Unless you wire it up yourself forget about the working headlight, the smoke generator isn’t usable without wiring it yourself and grinding or cutting clearance into the frame or weight(s) supplied with the kit. Follow the instructions closely,pay attention to how the side rods fit and how easily they move,a little extra attention and effort here will pay dividends in operability when you are finished. Be careful when you remove the valve gear (my project loco was pretty banged up from being dropped-I suspect). Disassemble the drivers and siderods after fine tuning so you can paint the frame otherwise the metal that the frame is cast in sticks out like a sore thumb. Take your time and you should be happy with the results, you’ll swear it can pull teeth (typical Bowser).
Good luck Andrew
PS: Be careful after this kit you might develop the urge to pick up a couple of Bowser Locomotive kits after this (that’s what happened to me).
I also got the ATSF kit. I ordered mine about 3-4 years ago, and it had plenty of weights in the kit. The whole inside of the shell is occupied by motor or weight. the finished model is pretty heavy.
Anyway, I like to think I’m a little more mechanically inclined than the average bear, but it was my first ever locomotive kit. I thought the instructions were pretty clear and the assembly was pretty straightforward and not complicated at all. I did wire up a headlight for it by drilling a hole in the front weight. At the time, I just brush-painted on a single coat of the run-of-the-mill Testor’s flat black paint on the visible parts of the chassis to hide the shiny metal. The only trouble I had was getting the plastic cylinders to stay attached to the metal Bowser frame. I tried gluing them on a couple of times but eventually they fell off. I guess I just have to find some better glue. The motor is the newer design that’s DCC compatable, but it’s still the noisy open-frame design. Overall, it runs really well. I put an NCE DCC decoder in the tender.
I’ve never done this one, but I’ve put together some other loco kits, and a lot of the work will probably be similar.
The most important thing is to take your time, and to make sure the mechanism runs freely. Bowser has good instructions on this with the kit,and on their website, but one additional thing I like to do is to place the assembled, motorless chassis on a piece of track, tilt it slightly, and let it roll down. Some people use a piece of glass, which is probably better. This amplifies the effect of minor binds so you can find them. I do this after every step in assembling the drivers, rods, etc.
It’s good to have a little tap to clean out the 0-80 tapped holes in the main rods. These can be a little rough.
I don’t know if there’s any riveting to do, but I assume there is. It’s not hard. The hardest part is figuring out which rod goes where on which side. Once you do that, slip them over the rivet, then use the tool included and tap lightly with a light hammer (I actually use a bolt). Don’t get it so tight it can’t move freely.