thinking about trying to kitbash some bachmann parts into a Garratt

[NorthwestGarrattGuy]

so my garden railroad is gonna be built on a pretty hilly yard so i need strong locos and i thought a garratt would be cool but i have never done any kitbashing before how should i go about bash some bachmann 4-6-0s into a garratt

 

[FatherMcD]

so my garden railroad is gonna be built on a pretty hilly yard so i need strong locos and i thought a garratt would be cool but i have never done any kitbashing before how should i go about bash some bachmann 4-6-0s into a garratt

This is a fairly popular kitbash. I'm halfway through one myself. The attached photo shows one from the UK. There is also a nice one detailed on a French language website. I once had a list of the kitbashes on the web, but it looks like I'm going to have to search again as I have lost the list.

 

[GAP]

These may give some inspiration

The Build Thread Of My Garrett

As I've fancied a Garrett and I can't afford the roundhouse live steam version I've decided to start building one myself. I'm going to use 2 stainz chassis as power and to provide some body parts. The first part was of obtaining 2 sensibly priced starter set locos. After this they were...

www.gscalecentral.net

Garratts-Sandstone & Termite Railway

Main page for G gauge garden railway. Description of the construction of the line.

www.trainweb.org

 

[Flying15]

so my garden railroad is gonna be built on a pretty hilly yard so i need strong locos and i thought a garratt would be cool but i have never done any kitbashing before how should i go about bash some bachmann 4-6-0s into a garratt

so my garden railroad is gonna be built on a pretty hilly yard so i need strong locos and i thought a garratt would be cool but i have never done any kitbashing before how should i go about bash some bachmann 4-6-0s into a garratt

Heres an image of a Flying 15 Rhodesian Garratt built using two Bachmann 4-6-0 chassis (and some other bits).
Technically it’s a 4-6-2+2-6-4 as the wheels that suggest it’s a 4-6-4+4-6-4 are fixed to the chassis and the bottom of the flange filed off
It’s about a metre overall in length
I think the only other bits from the Annie/Big Hauler might be the cab roof and some of the cab structure beneath quite a bit of styrene
Most of the rest is from styrene sheet and sections. The boiler beneath the styrene was a plans tube from my days in a drawing office

 

[dunnyrail]

Kitbashing almost any 2 chassis into a Garrett or Mallet is a viable option to sort out greater loads over gradients. Just needs some work, as with all modifications there is no magic bullet to doing it other than to just get started. But one of the big helpers is to have a good solid metal base to hang the 2 chassis onto, I have used Alluminium for my Mallet conversion and a couple of Railcars that use the same principle of a coupld of chassis mounted to a piece of ally. Here is my Mallet conversion thread, whilst not a Garrett the processes used may give you some tips after all much of the work is very similar.

Harz Mallet Bash from Newquid Body and 2 x 20231.2 Chassis. Battery Powered.

Having bought the two USA Locomotives to be used for the Chassis of this Loco for a silly price in York some time ago, their day has finally come. In the interveneing period I aquired a Newquid 2-6-2 Battery Loco and always looked like a part donor Loco for this project. Here are a couple of...

www.gscalecentral.net

 

[NorthwestGarrattGuy]

Kitbashing almost any 2 chassis into a Garrett or Mallet is a viable option to sort out greater loads over gradients. Just needs some work, as with all modifications there is no magic bullet to doing it other than to just get started. But one of the big helpers is to have a good solid metal base to hang the 2 chassis onto, I have used Alluminium for my Mallet conversion and a couple of Railcars that use the same principle of a coupld of chassis mounted to a piece of ally. Here is my Mallet conversion thread, whilst not a Garrett the processes used may give you some tips after all much of the work is very similar.

Harz Mallet Bash from Newquid Body and 2 x 20231.2 Chassis. Battery Powered.

Having bought the two USA Locomotives to be used for the Chassis of this Loco for a silly price in York some time ago, their day has finally come. In the interveneing period I aquired a Newquid 2-6-2 Battery Loco and always looked like a part donor Loco for this project. Here are a couple of...

www.gscalecentral.net

so steel reinforced PLA would just fine

 

[tac foley]

so my garden railroad is gonna be built on a pretty hilly yard so i need strong locos and i thought a garratt would be cool but i have never done any kitbashing before how should i go about bash some bachmann 4-6-0s into a garratt

Hi there! tac here again. Over here in UK there was a guy who built a fictitious North American Beyer-Garratt using TWO Bachmann Annies and TWO Phoenix sound systems. It was an amazing piece of model engineering and sounded like an off-beat Big Boy with its huge speakers.

I'm sure that there are folks here who remember him - he used to have a stand at all the G Scale exhibitions back in the noughties.

 

[philg]

I've also looked at this idea, but there are some snags which have put me off. Firstly, the Bachmann loco really has too long a wheelbase to be convincing for a Garratt. I seem to remember a build from some time ago which used all the drivetrain from the 4-6-0 and put it into a scratchbuilt frame to shorten the wheelbase, but I can't find the reference now. Secondly, for realism the cylinders need to be altered to represent piston valves, which almost all larger Garratts had, unless they had poppet valves. The 4-6-0+0-6-4 wheel arrangement was very rare and confined to two railways in South America. It was usually found that inner carrying wheels gave much better riding. However, if you're successful this should be a very powerful and impressive piece of motive power. Like others above, I strongly recommend looking at Dusty Durrant's "Garratt Locomotives of the World". The author had personal experience of these locomotives in Africa, and this is the standard work. Good Luck !
Phil

 

[Fred2179G]

NorthwestGarrattGuy has already seem this picture, but here it is for the rest of you. I bought this garratt from a UK guy on Facebook last year. It has a pair of drives from the LGB 2085D Mallet with pilot trucks off something else - same type of plastic so I assume LGB also. (Very expensive way to build one!)



I think it can be made to look like a C.F.B. locomotive with a little work:

 

[GAP]

I have a project underway, well stalled actually, that is being built from various pieces of loco from different manufacturers (type of Frankenstein loco);
1. The boiler if from a Newquida,
2. Motion works from 2 Stainz,
3. Front tank cut down slope backed tender from a "Rogers" and the rear tender from an LGB 20231.

I like the idea of the Flying 15's dummy wheels with the flanges filed off that may be a design modification that could be incorporated.

The beauty of bashing a loco is you can claim that is a custom build, commissioned by your railway to serve a purpose.
Best way to stop rivet counters.

 

[NorthwestGarrattGuy]

I've also looked at this idea, but there are some snags which have put me off. Firstly, the Bachmann loco really has too long a wheelbase to be convincing for a Garratt. I seem to remember a build from some time ago which used all the drivetrain from the 4-6-0 and put it into a scratchbuilt frame to shorten the wheelbase, but I can't find the reference now. Secondly, for realism the cylinders need to be altered to represent piston valves, which almost all larger Garratts had, unless they had poppet valves. The 4-6-0+0-6-4 wheel arrangement was very rare and confined to two railways in South America. It was usually found that inner carrying wheels gave much better riding. However, if you're successful this should be a very powerful and impressive piece of motive power. Like others above, I strongly recommend looking at Dusty Durrant's "Garratt Locomotives of the World". The author had personal experience of these locomotives in Africa, and this is the standard work. Good Luck !
Phil

well i was actully think about possibly building a 4-6-2+2-6-4 since i would have more space for batteries and a nice sound system

 

[Paul M]

The beauty of bashing a loco is you can claim that is a custom build, commissioned by your railway to serve a purpose.
Best way to stop rivet counters.

I very much doubt it. A true rivet counter will pick anything to hold forth about

 

[NorthwestGarrattGuy]

I very much doubt it. A true rivet counter will pick anything to hold forth about

i ain't a rivet counter and i like Garratts (even though none were ever used here)

 

[Fred2179G]

While many of the pics show big Garratts, there were a lot of small ones. This is the 0-4-0+0-4-0 tasmanian Garratt (currently on the Welsh Highland Railway):

Very similar to the Darjeeling Garratt (which I've had my eye on for a while, as I prefer my Garratts with cylinders at the ends) :

They come in 3', 2'6" and 2' gauge.

This is a 2-6-2+2-6-2 NGG16 from South Africa, currently used on the Welsh Highland Railway which is 2' gauge:

 

[NorthwestGarrattGuy]

yeah no i model american standard gauge

While many of the pics show big Garratts, there were a lot of small ones. This is the 0-4-0+0-4-0 tasmanian Garratt (currently on the Welsh Highland Railway):

Very similar to the Darjeeling Garratt (which I've had my eye on for a while, as I prefer my Garratts with cylinders at the ends) :

They come in 3', 2'6" and 2' gauge.

This is a 2-6-2+2-6-2 NGG16 from South Africa, currently used on the Welsh Highland Railway which is 2' gauge:

o

 

[NorthwestGarrattGuy]

ok this is my kitbash so i need advice on how one goes about actully turning a bunch of parts into a model

 

[FatherMcD]

ok this is my kitbash so i need advice on how one goes about actully turning a bunch of parts into a model

Since you are planning on using the Bachmann 4-6-0, the first step is probably buying two similar if not identical engines. If possible, they should be a newer generation. (See Greg's website, 4-6-0 Bachmann Big Hauler). A lot of research helps, but nothing beats actually having parts in hand that you can fiddle with. You might be able to buy parts on eBay, but separate parts can get to be more expensive. I always seem to need to buy something that I missed and end up spending more. Just finding and purchasing the parts can take a while. For my kitbash, I bought one complete engine with tender from eBay and a separate chassis and tender shell from Bachmann. But I paid about half of the current Bachmann price. I was able to modify the chassis and tender chassis to fit together quite closely. I'll see if I can dig my project out of storage and take some pictures. After all, a post without pictures is almost anathema! Oh, and take a close look at the main gear to see if it has split. I have bought a new chassis from Bachmann that came with a split gear! Fixing that is a whole other topic.

 

[NorthwestGarrattGuy]

Since you are planning on using the Bachmann 4-6-0, the first step is probably buying two similar if not identical engines. If possible, they should be a newer generation. (See Greg's website, 4-6-0 Bachmann Big Hauler). A lot of research helps, but nothing beats actually having parts in hand that you can fiddle with. You might be able to buy parts on eBay, but separate parts can get to be more expensive. I always seem to need to buy something that I missed and end up spending more. Just finding and purchasing the parts can take a while. For my kitbash, I bought one complete engine with tender from eBay and a separate chassis and tender shell from Bachmann. But I paid about half of the current Bachmann price. I was able to modify the chassis and tender chassis to fit together quite closely. I'll see if I can dig my project out of storage and take some pictures. After all, a post without pictures is almost anathema! Oh, and take a close look at the main gear to see if it has split. I have bought a new chassis from Bachmann that came with a split gear! Fixing that is a whole other topic.

i plan to buy 2 identical chassis on the bachmann parts website

 

[Greg Elmassian]

I would second Ken's remarks.

Bachmann periodically (like once a year) has a sale on the Big Hauler chassis as a unit... you have the motor, the drivers, the rod gear, all the hard stuff. As this would be your first kit bash, it would make sense to have the motive power part of it solid. You are not going to get 10-20 years of experience in working on drives and chassis in a few months.

Also metal reinforced pla? Nah, ever seen presswood/composite board in kitchen shelves after a few years, they sag. Why? Because they are sawdust in glue. No inherent strength.

Metal reinforced pla? Bits of metal in plastic resin? Sure strong in blocks, but a long chassis? not going to work, will eventually sag under weight unless you make it REALLY thick, where there would be no room for anything inside.

Greg

 

[NorthwestGarrattGuy]

I would second Ken's remarks.

Bachmann periodically (like once a year) has a sale on the Big Hauler chassis as a unit... you have the motor, the drivers, the rod gear, all the hard stuff. As this would be your first kit bash, it would make sense to have the motive power part of it solid. You are not going to get 10-20 years of experience in working on drives and chassis in a few months.

Also metal reinforced pla? Nah, ever seen presswood/composite board in kitchen shelves after a few years, they sag. Why? Because they are sawdust in glue. No inherent strength.

Metal reinforced pla? Bits of metal in plastic resin? Sure strong in blocks, but a long chassis? not going to work, will eventually sag under weight unless you make it REALLY thick, where there would be no room for anything inside.

Greg

no PLA shell with steel rods for added streanth