[Brian - Cornwall]

I recently purchased a Bachmann class 158 DMU in Regional Railway livery "as spares" as some wheels and bogie frames were missing. As I had a supply of spares in stock this has now made up into a running model which I had intended to re-spray into another livery. However, when I removed the chassis from the bodies I found that the sides and roof were all one moulding in a "smokey" clear plastic. The ends were also clear plastic and all parts were sprayed with the windows being masked off !!!!!. I have had class 158's going bacl many years, but have never come across one like this before, the others have all had separate sides, roof and ends. The chassis, motor and gear boxes are all the same as current models, but the electrical pick up was through copper "wipers" rubbing on the underside of the chassis on one side, and pickup via the wheels on the otherside. Can any modeller's throw any light as to how old this model would be and if it would be collectable.

 

[nick lamkin]

The first batch had one piece moulded bodies as you describe - but some body moudings were found to be distorted. The model was hastily revised to have separate sides and roof. So what you have is is one of the very first batch. If you care fully mask the window areas inside and out - you should still be able to respray your model.

Nick Lamkin