Bachmann TGV: Chrome plating a turd

[LarryN]

My wife had pointed out a TGV set at the Springfield show back in January. Excitement turned to sadness when it turned out to be a Bachmann set, for $35, non operational. None the less, I bought it. 6 cars, one of which was a power car. How bad could it be? Well: cracked frame (Zamac leprosy, I think), missing driveshafts, cracked gears. I thought about putting a more modern chassis under it, but then I decided to try and fix this as cheaply as possible with parts on hand. You all might remember the closeouts of LL GP20's a few years back? I used the power train from that to repower the power car, with K&S brass sides. I tried some new things that everyone here might want to take a stab at: joining Delrin parts with a soldering iron (low heat, and like a TIG welder), and using Elmers clear school glue to make headlight lenses easily. I salvaged the sideframes from the Bachmann unit, filing them smoother as well as the Blomberg trucks, so Goo and they fit pretty good. The motor holders were made by cutting the Delrin originals, and rehabbing them by melting and fusing the Delrin to my specs. Bottom line: The thing runs quiet and smooth like a Kato!

[tehachapifan]

Wow, that's some major surgery! Very cool! Do you rebuild spines in your real life?

[nkalanaga]

Probably one of those surgeons who specialize in splicing nerves....

[Mark W]

Amazing Larry!

I have a crippled TGV as well that I'll need to do, basically exactly what you've done.  Heck, I was ready to throw it in the bin since it's one of those projects I'll realistically never get to.  But you've given me fresh inspiration and a new hope!

Actually, I also have a crippled Acela that I want to re-motor first.  Your concept could definitely apply there as well! 

I'd love to see a video of it running once it's back on rails!

[LarryN]

Folks,

I will try and post some video..must..clean...railroad...tracks.
I teach physics, not quite spinal surgery (many students might prefer to get spinal surgery to physics)
I might have to trim the sideframes on the trucks a bit more. I also had added some micro LED's for headlights, along with a 470 microfarad cap to smooth/prolong the light.

[mmagliaro]

Really clever and excellent work!
Are the new brass plate sides from the car sides?  Since it looks like you massively reshaped them anyway, couldn't you have just made those from plain K&S brass?   I only ask because cutting up passenger car sides seems more expensive than using plain brass (unless, of course, you had the passenger car sides lying around forever and had no use for them!)

I like the re-mount of that motor and stretch of the driveline.  Really cool.

[nscalbitz]

All the mightier when you've ridden the real thing.
Yep, multiple journeys around France, ahh ... 

[wm3798]

I keep eyeballing an old Bachmann Metroliner set for the Retro layout... I had one when I was a kid, and what a dog.
This gives me hope that I might be able to pull off a similar miracle...

Genius using the Lifelike GP20 drive.  I'm not sure, but I believe those things actually did grow on trees...

Lee

[peteski]

Very impressive reanimation Larry!   Not sure if you know but Kato made few TGV sets which run like . . . Kato. But they cost a bit more than $35, and you wouldn't have had the fun or rebuilding them to make them run.   

[peteski]

Really clever and excellent work!
Are the new brass plate sides from the car sides?  Since it looks like you massively reshaped them anyway, couldn't you have just made those from plain K&S brass?   I only ask because cutting up passenger car sides seems more expensive than using plain brass (unless, of course, you had the passenger car sides lying around forever and had no use for them!)

I like the re-mount of that motor and stretch of the driveline.  Really cool.

The sides look to be made from a fairly thick brass plate (not delicate etched brass car sides).

[nkalanaga]

"I teach physics, not quite spinal surgery (many students might prefer to get spinal surgery to physics)"

Depends on the physics.  For the more advanced stuff, you're probably right.  I have a fairly good amateur understanding of physics, but am certainly not a physicist, much less teaching it!

[LarryN]

Really clever and excellent work!
Are the new brass plate sides from the car sides?  Since it looks like you massively reshaped them anyway, couldn't you have just made those from plain K&S brass?   I only ask because cutting up passenger car sides seems more expensive than using plain brass (unless, of course, you had the passenger car sides lying around forever and had no use for them!)

I like the re-mount of that motor and stretch of the driveline.  Really cool.

As peteski observed, these are K&S brass plates on the sides of the drive unit-I did not sacrifice any car side bodies. I was able to solder pick up strips underneath to the brass sides as well. The motor contacts also touch the sides too. I also added tiny LED lights and connected the wires with a piece of rectangular plastic tubing to make the contact with the sides-easy to unplug.
 

[Lemosteam]

I also added tiny LED lights and connected the wires with a piece of rectangular plastic tubing to make the contact with the sides-easy to unplug.

This is very clever.  Male plug without the female counterpart.  I could see doing this on split frame chassis too.  A thin blade of styrene, with thin PB wire or strip on each side for + and - contacts.

[randgust]

You could probably have done that with one of the Tomytec chassis as there are so many in different configurations, but the LL GP20 will still run better in the end.

As the guy that has made 'the year of the turd' mechanism rebuilding projects (Bachmann doodlebug and Jamco 4-6-2) a personal campaign, I salute you heartily on an excellent project.   

I'm still looking at your universals and shafting and trying to figure out what you did.  It's hex nuts that could be Atlas or LL, NWSL shafting to get the lengths right?

Hey, at least you're not a THEORETICAL physicist (teacher), this is rather practical, and shows some actual results!

[LarryN]

You could probably have done that with one of the Tomytec chassis as there are so many in different configurations, but the LL GP20 will still run better in the end.

As the guy that has made 'the year of the turd' mechanism rebuilding projects (Bachmann doodlebug and Jamco 4-6-2) a personal campaign, I salute you heartily on an excellent project.   

I'm still looking at your universals and shafting and trying to figure out what you did.  It's hex nuts that could be Atlas or LL, NWSL shafting to get the lengths right?

Hey, at least you're not a THEORETICAL physicist (teacher), this is rather practical, and shows some actual results!

I had learned that 1.5 mm shafting is no longer available from NWSL (I have since got some elsewhere). I ended up getting shaft material from some old 3 pole motors (Mehano C240's). I then cut them to fit. The hex parts were LL original, I just needed to lengthen the driveline, I filed down the ends a bit to make sure I did not split any parts.