Steam railcar bogie

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

What small 0-4-0 chassis could I use for the powered bogie of a freelance steam railcar?  And what trailing bogie would look compatible?

[B.Meldon]

It depends on if you want a new 0-4-0 steam chassis.
If so there is very little choice of new steam chassis these days.
The minitrains chassis are very good.
One of the N drive chassis may well be useful as well, but you may have to wait some time to get one.
I would not recommend using the 'TU-KOPPEL A' chassis as the gearing is too high.
There is nothing else new available at the moment that has cylinders etc.

In the past I have built steam railcars with the Arnold, Ibertren and Bachmann 0-4-0 chassis. With these chassis you can modify them so that the cylinders are mounted at the same end as the motor making a very compact chassis. I suppose that the Fleischmann 0-4-0 could be used as well but it is somewhat larger than the other three, so may not be suitable, or as compact.
However, these are all long out of production so you will be looking at second hand with all the risks that come with that.

I have seen the Kato four wheel chassis used in steam railcars, without any cylinders etc. but they do not look that good to me, unless you are making a Sentinal railcar.

Another option is the unpowered kato 0-4-0 with the motor in the rear bogie. I have seen this done to good effect.

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

Thanks Brian, I was hoping you would answer.

I've just put a bid in on this, and hope nobody else really wants it:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/N-Gauge-Arnold-0-4-0-Powered-Chassis/392678438525?hash=item5b6d75767d:g:77sAAOSwWI1eQIi~

I also spotted this horrible-looking unmotorized thing:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GOLDIE-0-4-0-tank-loco-in-24-Carat-gold-plate-BOXED-by-ARNOLD-N-Gauge/202900103364?hash=item2f3dc9e0c4:g:s1cAAOSwoqFePa0z

They say a motor could be fitted - do you know if that means 'plug and play' or just theoretically, with difficulty?

[JulienW]

The gold plated Arnold models were a special edition for some anniversary or other.

The problem with not having the motor with these older chassis is that it will be difficult to find a replacement Arnold motor. Whilst you could use any other motor that would fit in the void left the problem is that without the Arnold motor you will not have the worm that it would come with it. Whilst it isn't impossible to buy replacement worms to mate with the gears in the chassis it's a bit of a pain to work out what module or DP the worm is, and sourcing a replacement will not be easy (though I've purchased replacement worms, to fit an Ibertren 0-4-0 that was missing it's motor, from the Czech Republic).

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

Thanks, Julien.

What if I bought this golden thing and ran used its chassis without a motor, and found or improvised some sort of motorized bogie that looked like a trailing bogie for the other end of my railcar?  I feel pretty strongly that the trailing wheels should be the same size and so on....

[MickT]

Tom,

Ref the Arnold 0-4-0 chassis. These were in production for many years and there's two ways to generally identify the older ones - they had inverted hooks for couplings instead of the standard N gauge ones and pre-1990 ish the base stated "West Germany". This one is later, I don't know by how much but of a number of these chassis that I have collected over the years, I only have one with the N couplings as this one does. Mine also has a distinctly different body to the earlier versions.

From the photo this one appears to be in very good condition, in fact it appears to be new as there are no marks or grot that were noticeable to me anyway.

I'd suggest it might well be worth a bid, but in my opinion I would put a cap at about £40 as that is generally what these chassis (of any vintage) tend to go for in 009 Sales when they are in stock.

One point worth mentioning - the flanges are quite deep and apparently this can cause a problem with the flanges touching bottom on Peco point frogs which lifts the wheels and causes a stall. Having said that, I have not experienced this problem myself. It is easy to rectify by deepening the groove in the point frogs slightly with a fine knife edge needle file.

Also worth mentioning, the Fleischmann piccolo 0-4-0 has been mentioned as being rather large for a steam railcar - however Ted Polet has at least two powered this way (it might be 3, not sure!) - which you can check out for yourself if you visit the Dutch Group website, go to "projects", scroll down to Ted Polet and then select his link to the C&DR, where there is another link in the C&DR website to take you to the loco and stock lists of his railway.

Good hunting and I hope you find what you want for your own railcar/railmotor!

Mick

[garrywhiting]

I have built a Pichi-Richi style Hunslet steam railmotor using the Kato unpowered 0-4-0t chassis from the 10-500-1 or 10-500-2 set ( now upgraded to 10-503-1 ), for the steam loco, and the Tomytec TM-04 powered bogie chassis for the trailer coach section with the chassis modified to remove the undriven bogie, it runs very well despite only picking up current from the single Tomytec bogie.

The Kato unpowered steam loco chassis is very free running ---- and is much better option than using a standard N gauge chassis with the motor removed.

Garry

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

Thanks Mick, that's very useful information (including the bidding advice).

Thanks Garry, also very interesting!

[B.Meldon]

............................
Another option is the unpowered kato 0-4-0 with the motor in the rear bogie. I have seen this done to good effect.

I have built a Pichi-Richi style Hunslet steam railmotor using the Kato unpowered 0-4-0t chassis from the 10-500-1 or 10-500-2 set ( now upgraded to 10-503-1 ), for the steam loco, and the Tomytec TM-04 powered bogie chassis for the trailer coach section with the chassis modified to remove the undriven bogie, it runs very well despite only picking up current from the single Tomytec bogie.

The Kato unpowered steam loco chassis is very free running ---- and is much better option than using a standard N gauge chassis with the motor removed.

Garry

I am glad you responded with these details Gary. It is your railcar that I was thinking of when I mentioned the use of the unpowered Kato chassis.

I would also recommend this approach rather than using an old Arnold chassis for a railcar project.

[Julian Evison]

For the sake of completeness there is also the Tomix Percy N gauge chassis, which is also a nice 0-4-0 chassis and available new. However, I would also go with Garry's method in these circumstances.

Julian

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

Yippee!!

I now have a Kato 10-503-1 set and a Tommy Tech TM-04 on order.  Unfortunately to my Dad's in Ottawa and I won't see them until May because there's no point trying to send them here in Ukraine, but come summer, you may expect my next pleas for conversion advice...

[clayliner]

Does that mean you won't get to wear your smart new Society shirt until May as well?!

Good things are worth waiting for, I guess.

David.

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

David,

Does that mean you won't get to wear your smart new Society shirt until May as well?!

Yes, sadly, that's what that means.  But meanwhile I have written to you to ask if I can order another shirt for him.  Any hope?