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Regular poster 211 posts Leo Starrenburg Regular poster 211 posts
Leo Starrenburg

Having recently received yet 2 more rail bus sets that refused to run 'out-of-the-box', I decided to scrap the mechanical bits of all my busses and use the bodies as a basis for a coach.

Bashing the trolleys was great fun and produced some really nice coaches imho, so I'm taking the same route with the busses.

I use two bodies, either the motor car or the trailer and will cut (*) them to form an eight window coach. Luck has it that this new body has the perfect length for a flat car !

21_17_29.jpg 

20_27(1).jpg 

21_21_04.jpg 

 

(*) As for cutting the bodies; I could use a razor saw, but will try out laser cutting, a guy just down the street bought a laser cutter / engraver to run a small business from his house. Just a 5 minute walk away so ideal to try things out   He makes things I hadn't seen before, such as personalized bread rolls:

ll_laser.JPG 

 

 

cheers, Leo

 

Farmers & Bluestone Railroad, a small On30 layout located in The Netherlands

 
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Verne Niner Frequent poster 890 posts
Verne Niner

Interesting, Leo!

My railbus suffered the same fate...cracked gears kept it on the shelf until I decided to pull the driveshaft, isolate the motor and add a modified Galloping Goose rear carbody as a trailer to push it along. Worked out great. I have my orphaned trailer sitting on the shelf, will watch with interest!

ne-alt-1.JPG 

See my website here: The  Maverick Canyon Branch of the Rio Grande Southern 
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Leo Starrenburg Regular poster 211 posts
Leo Starrenburg

Perhaps a diner Verne ?

_train_2.jpg 

 

cheers, Leo

Farmers & Bluestone Railroad, a small On30 layout located in The Netherlands

 
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IrishRover Prolific poster 1,660 posts
IrishRover

What railbus?

What railbus is this?
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Leo Starrenburg Regular poster 211 posts
Leo Starrenburg

The railbus

is made by Bachmann, it's On30 scale:  O scale (1:48) stock running on HO sized rail.

ae_sized.jpg 

 

cheers, Leo

 

Farmers & Bluestone Railroad, a small On30 layout located in The Netherlands

 
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gnryrob Active Member 59 posts
gnryrob

Rail Bus Gears

Leo,

I wonder if there is gear replacement in the NWSL line that would fix these buggers. Recently a fellow from the Netherlands found a gear from NWSL that was exactly the same as the gears that fail in Bachmann's Davenport loco.  I ordered two of them.  Maybe a closer look at the Rail Bus' gears is in order, since I have one that still runs OK.  (For who knows how long.)

 

Rob Morrison
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Leo Starrenburg Regular poster 211 posts
Leo Starrenburg

Thank you Rob !

If I'll ever get another rail bus set I'd probably re-power it with a complete new unit. It would be a nice technical challenge, but for the moment I'll stick to converting them to coaches.

The motor / 1st gearbox unit looks a bit like a smaller version of the Davenport, this is followed by the two drive shafts leading to two gearboxes for the axles.

In theory a beautiful model, but it has a lot of things that can go wrong ... (!)

I wonder if the busses were made in batches and you got lucky and got one from a 'good' batch

 

cheers, Leo

Farmers & Bluestone Railroad, a small On30 layout located in The Netherlands

 
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gnryrob Active Member 59 posts
gnryrob

rail bus power

Leo,

I wonder if the NWSL Stanton power truck would work under the front end of the rail bus.  They sell them in several wheel base lengths. The shortest one might be a good bet.  That would get rid of all the funky drive train components.

Rob
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Benny MRH Author 7,168 posts
Benny

...

Leo, as an owner of a Laser cutter, I'm not sure he'll be able to help you much.  The laser does not behave well with styrene.  The gasses produced by the effort are corrosive to the laser environment, and they are further poisonous to the operator. 

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Benny's Index or Somewhere Chasing Rabbits
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