LGB RHB railcar

[Melbournesparks]

Aw yiss. The other day the postman arrived with one of the most pleasing things any large scale modeller can imagine.. a big red box!

Of course we must open it at once. It contains THIS:

An LGB RhB railcar! It's not strictly a tramway piece of rollingstock, but as someone who loves all forms of electric traction (and EMU's and railcars) it was something I can hardly resist. This one was second hand from the UK, but in nearly new condition. Only missing a couple of headlight lenses, easily fixed.

The traction mode switch was flicked to overhead power, and a test run was cautiously undertaken to see if it could actually run on the tramway. Luckily there were only a handful of minor clearance issues, all easily fixed. It's far larger than anything else that has run so far, weighing nearly 4kg and over half a meter long.

It's a stunning model, and with it's many electrical pickups runs beautifully straight out of the box.

And yet... there's a few things about it that look a little off in small, subtle ways. Can we do anything about it? No modeller can resist improvements! After examining some prototype photos a number of issues were identified and a list made. To the workshop!

 

[Henri]

Oh yes, WHAT a beauty...!!! Congrats on this superb purchase!

This is another piece I find extremely hard to resist... And I think I give up the resistance soon... Oh my....

 

[dunnyrail]

These Railcars are an object of desire. Remember that having 2 Power Bogies it will pull like a demon. Not sure how much in the way of Coaches or Wagons you have, but if not many will probably manage the lot. Was also used to haul Goods on the Bernina Bahn where they ran, much like the Allegras do now. So with a Couple of Bogie Wagons behing loaded with Logs you would be creating a very prototypical Train. Though there would probably have been 4 or 5 Coaches as well.
JonD

 

[dunnyrail]

These Railcars are an object of desire. Remember that having 2 Power Bogies it will pull like a demon. Not sure how much in the way of Coaches or Wagons you have, but if not many will probably manage the lot. Was also used to haul Goods on the Bernina Bahn where they ran, much like the Allegras do now. So with a Couple of Bogie Wagons behing loaded with Logs you would be creating a very prototypical Train. Though there would probably have been 4 or 5 Coaches as well.
JonD

 

[David1226]

It certainly looks at home on your railway.

David

 

[Melbournesparks]

Oh yes, WHAT a beauty...!!! Congrats on this superb purchase!

This is another piece I find extremely hard to resist... And I think I give up the resistance soon... Oh my....

It's a big problem. I have wanted one ever since I got into G scale, but never been able to afford. Until now that is, thanks to a recent tax return and a favorable exchange rate. I think there is a rule somewhere that says you are not allowed to spend a tax return on responsible adult things!

These Railcars are an object of desire. Remember that having 2 Power Bogies it will pull like a demon. Not sure how much in the way of Coaches or Wagons you have, but if not many will probably manage the lot. Was also used to haul Goods on the Bernina Bahn where they ran, much like the Allegras do now. So with a Couple of Bogie Wagons behing loaded with Logs you would be creating a very prototypical Train. Though there would probably have been 4 or 5 Coaches as well.
JonD

It will certainly pull every bit of rollingstock the tramway owns, and then some! Heavy rail goods is certainly one of it's many anticipated uses, something that it will be well suited for.

After some amount of study and looking from all angles, the following changes were proposed to be undertaken in the tramway's workshops:

Like most LGB rollingstock, it is designed for maximum operational flexibility. That means that despite it's huge size it can still go around R1 curves, which is just as well. However to give the bogies more room to swing the floor height is higher than the prototype. After studying the design of the bogie pivots, it was determined it would be possible to file off a small amount of material to lower the floor by about 5mm.

This still allows the bogies to swing far enough for R1 curve operation, as long as the snow plows are removed. Not a problem, the shape of the snowplows was another issue that was identified as needing attention. The decision was made to fabricate entirely new snowplows out of sheet metal, soldered together. Also fitted are automatic couplings to match the other heavy rail rollingstock on the tramway.

New snowplow fitted and painted. The 'original' (actually new as well) coupling hooks were retained, to look like the automatic coupling conversion was done locally. It's not going to be plowing any snow here, but they're useful protection from all the other hazards of the garden.

Brake shoes and brake rigging was also manufactured and fitted, made from various bits of styrene and brass. Even though this seems like an insignificant detail, I thought it was actually quite important to the overall look. Without the brake shoes the large LGB wheel flanges stand out a lot more. The bogie wheelbase is actually a bit shorter than the prototype, no doubt done to allow the use of standard LGB motor blocks. Too hard to change though, and with the other modifications it's far from obvious.

Next the floor was separated from the car body (by removal of 73452 screws underneath) to give access to the electronics. The railcar is fitted with a DCC decoder as standard, but as yet the tramway is fully DC. The decoder was retained though, since the constant brightness lighting is a nice feature, and saves having to reinstall it in future. A jumper wire was soldered in place shorting all the rail pickups together, and the standard traction capacitors were wired up and fitted neatly into the toilet.

That covered all the main issues on the list, except for one: the roof shape. It just didn't look quite right, but only in a small, subtle way. Could it be changed? Another few hundred screws and the roof was lifted off the car body, to study the internal structure. It looked like only a small change of shape was required. A wooden form was made for the new shape, and the roof clamped in place over it and carefully heated with a heat gun. Unfortunately I neglected to take any pictures of this process, I was too busy worrying about it going wrong! Haha. Luckily the roof retained it's new shape when the clamps were removed, so it was re fitted to the car body and the gap filled with automotive filler. This was then sanded smooth, and painted to match the existing structure. Very fortunately some paint was found that matched the colour almost exactly. Then it was time to reassemble!

All back together again!

The brake rigging and lower floor certainly make a difference. Also a bit of weathering. While well loved and cared for by the museum voulenteers, the harsh environment it operates in often shows.

There is still a few small things to do (like paint the steps) but it is pretty much ready for service now! Will post some more pictures of the first run in the pictures thread.

 

[Frank Gallagher]

Lovely

 

[itsmcgee]

Very nice job! What manufacture and color paint did you use?

 

[dunnyrail]

Like to say that is a good job, changes so subtle yet do make a nice change. You did well to get the beast together again. When we put sound in Andy Rush's one two of us had to work to get the thing back together and there were still loose bits rattling about inside. Spect some poor soul that got it from Glendale is still living with that!
JonD

 

[Zerogee]

Very nice..... I've always loved the look of these, despite my self-imposed decision to avoid anything "overhead electric" and anything Swiss (OK, except my Heidi and her 2-coach set, which are just too nice to get rid of).... but my only reason for those choices is to stop myself from collecting even more than I already do.....

Jon.

 

[Melbournesparks]

Very nice job! What manufacture and color paint did you use?

This is the stuff.

Was very lucky it was such a good match, if it wasn't I would have had to repaint the whole thing and I wasn't keen on that!

Like to say that is a good job, changes so subtle yet do make a nice change. You did well to get the beast together again. When we put sound in Andy Rush's one two of us had to work to get the thing back together and there were still loose bits rattling about inside. Spect some poor soul that got it from Glendale is still living with that!
JonD

Haha yeah, it's a bit of a puzzle! I was feeling a bit apprehensive as pile of bits removed got bigger and bigger! During reassembly I carefully checked every step because I didn't want to forget anything and have to take it apart again. As it turns out it's possible to plug the motor power cables in the wrong way around, so it runs in reverse. You can guess what I did. >_< Had to take it apart again and swap them over.

Very nice..... I've always loved the look of these, despite my self-imposed decision to avoid anything "overhead electric" and anything Swiss (OK, except my Heidi and her 2-coach set, which are just too nice to get rid of).... but my only reason for those choices is to stop myself from collecting even more than I already do.....
Jon.

Ah I know that problem... Since the line is fully electrified I conceded that anything overhead electric is fair game. As it turns out there is rather a lot of nice overhead electric rollingstock in G scale!

 

[Frank Gallagher]

All you need now is a green and cream one....?

 

[Henri]

Yellow!!!!

 

[Frank Gallagher]

Yellow nice-green n cream AWESOME

 

[dunnyrail]

Indeed that is a rather nice livery, but I think it should probably in the Wood Sided condition for this livery. A backdate that it would be good if LGB could do.
JonD

 

[Melbournesparks]

Yellow nice-green n cream AWESOME

View attachment 214305

The green and cream certainly does look stunning! Maybe one day, the rollingstock budget is empty for the foreseeable future...

Indeed that is a rather nice livery, but I think it should probably in the Wood Sided condition for this livery. A backdate that it would be good if LGB could do.
JonD

It certainly would be good to see an improved version. For now maybe it's a job for a brave modeller to attempt!