Performance
curves. Indeed, it may be wise to omit the screw coupling to avoid it making the coupling of the multi-pin plugs more difficult.
While the motor cars share the benefits of the excellent Class 121 chassis, the trailer car warrants closer inspection because that has an altogether different underframe. The amount and spacing of fittings on a trailer vehicle was much more sparse and that is reflected on the model, where virtually every tank, battery box and brake fitting is a separately applied part. I recall as a youngster, inevitably curious about such things, being fascinated that there was a pipe below the toilet of these vehicles for discharging its contents onto the track. It was so conspicuous, and I’m happy to report that it’s right there in full prominence on the Bachmann model!
Above the solebar, the character of the Pressed Steel body has been beautifully captured. The very clear flush-fitted glazing allows an unrestricted view into the cab where the driver’s seat and the main controls are picked out in colour. I found the view through the cab side window particularly evocative. I can’t imagine how many times I peered into a cab from the platform, and that view looks spot on.
The interior detail shows up well, being in this case a one-piece moulding in blue plastic for the Second Class areas with brown plastic in the first class section of the trailer composite. Internal bulkheads and doors are painted and the result is one of the best interiors I’ve seen in a ready-to-run British-outline model.
Separately fitted details on the body include, windshield wipers, corner steps, lamp irons, exhaust pipes and the handrails adjacent to the cab and brake van doors. The cut-out beneath the inward-opening guard’s door is present, as is the security mesh on one of the ‘van’ windows.
However, the clear view into all three cars means that you will need to invest time and money putting passengers into them
– something that really would not have been practical for the manufacturer to do, but which is very much needed. Even if you are running your DMU as empty stock, you’ll need to fit a driver.
COUPLERS AND PICK-UPS
Phosphor bronze pick-ups are fitted on both power bogies of both driving cars. All trailing bogies including those of the trailer composite have wheelsets running in metal bearing strips so that there is continuous electrical pick-up through all three cars.
Small can motors, largely concealed beneath the floor, drive the inner end bogie of both power cars through short drive-shafts to a gearbox mounted on the bogie. The whole arrangement has been kept below floor level, even in the motor second. Models should always be given a period of running-in at moderate speed in both directions in order to bed in the gearing. In some instances it will help the mechanism towards smoother operation but in this instance it ran so sweetly from the outset that it was difficult to spot any improvement after a 45-minute running-in session.
These units were allowed to haul a modest tail-load although I only ever saw the more powerful cross-country units hauling anything. I did, however, test the Bachmann model with two unpowered Lima cars in tow and it handled them with ease. It was not unusual, particularly in later years, to see Class 117s running without the centre car, as two-car units. The couplings on the Bachmann model are arranged in such a way that it can be run with just the two power cars coupled together and it works just as well in that configuration. During Covid-19 working-at-home we have no access to the Model Rail test layout, so it was not possible to test the unit on gradients or proprietary set-track curves. The Class 117 was test-run on my layout with Code 83 Peco Streamline track and points and with minimum 3ft radius curves. However, I have no reason to doubt the manufacturer’s specification that it will negotiate second radius track and points.
Power is conducted between the cars by way of the same multi-pin plug-and-socket arrangement used on Bachmann’s Blue Pullman. If I may be allowed one adverse comment about this superb model, it is these couplers. I have no doubt they are a necessary evil in order to permit the sophisticated electrical arrangement but I find them as obtrusive as the old Lima tension locks. The risk of damage to the model during coupling or uncoupling, which is best accomplished with the model off the track and lying on its side, is such that my Blue Pullman has remained on my layout and coupled since the day I first test-ran it. It was with some trepidation that I uncoupled the ‘117’ after its first test run.
POWER PLAY
But sophisticated the electrics certainly are on this model as they