[Bristol Castle]

I have an old Mainline 22XX which I know I should send to the scrap yard but I have an affection for the old girl built up over many years of good use. Sadly the motor which is a strange affair encased in a heavy chassis has given up and despite my best attention is all but dead. What I would like to know is can anyone recommend a replacement chassis that I could use, I am not sure that Bachmann do a 22xx chassis, but I wondered if I could 'bash' another chassis into service and which would any of the readership recommend. Bearing in mind I will be using DCC in future but other than that a half decent chassis replacement will do

 

[Brian - Cornwall]

QUOTE (Bristol Castle @ 16 Jun 2008, 18:08) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I have an old Mainline 22XX which I know I should send to the scrap yard but I have an affection for the old girl built up over many years of good use. Sadly the motor which is a strange affair encased in a heavy chassis has given up and despite my best attention is all but dead. What I would like to know is can anyone recommend a replacement chassis that I could use, I am not sure that Bachmann do a 22xx chassis, but I wondered if I could 'bash' another chassis into service and which would any of the readership recommend. Bearing in mind I will be using DCC in future but other than that a half decent chassis replacement will do

I think the best option is to look on eBay for a cheap BACHMANN version of the 22XX class (chassis sometime come up by themselves) with the later plastic chassis. It will be easy to convert to DCC, I put the Bachmann function 3 decoder in the tender and just ran the four wires across the the loco.

 

[nevardmedia]

Another option is a Comet chassis replacement (brass kit), some soldering and engineering skills will be needed here. Whilst this will look and perform the best if well constructed, as already mentioned a new Bachmann replacement wil be a cheaper and simpler option.

http://www.cometmodels.co.uk/
LCP23 2251 Collett Goods

 

[34C]

And a yet further alternative, is to give up on it, and buy the current DCC friendly Bachmann model. The Mainline unit can be demotored and used as a loco 'dead' on shed, and be shunted around as the shed working requires; or stored out of use during a period of low traffic,( remember to cover the chimney if so,) or with the side rods removed in a train (next to the train engine) being moved back to Swindon for works attention. All these scenarios were regular parts of the steam railway.

 

[ENTERPRISE]

QUOTE (34C @ 17 Jun 2008, 12:29) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>And a yet further alternative, is to give up on it, and buy the current DCC friendly Bachmann model. The Mainline unit can be demotored and used as a loco 'dead' on shed, and be shunted around as the shed working requires; or stored out of use during a period of low traffic,( remember to cover the chimney if so,) or with the side rods removed in a train (next to the train engine) being moved back to Swindon for works attention. All these scenarios were regular parts of the steam railway.

 

[ENTERPRISE]

GOING BACK TO EBAY,
I HAVE PURCHASED A NUMBER OF MAINLINE LOCOS,OF WHICH SOME WERE NEAR MINT.
THE GOOD THING IS MOST OF THEM WERE CHEAPER THAN BACHMANN