# Regauging Bachmann Forney at two foot O Gauge?



## norman (Jan 6, 2008)

Hi there:

Has anyone decided to regauge the Bachmann 1:20.3 Forney to O Guage ( two foot gauge ) ?

Does anyone have personal contacts within Bachmann to request that Bachmann do a second run of the 1:20.3 Forney in the correct two foot gauge?

Thank you
Norman


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Are you serious? They haven't been exactly flying off the shelves given the high price tag. 32mm is closer to correct scale/gauge but the chance of it being offered in another incorrect scale is slimmer than the Redskins or Nationals winning the Super Bowl or World Series next year. I would luv to see one in 7/8n2 but it just aint gonna happen! 

-Brian


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Forgot to add - 
Personal contacts? find some friends who speak Cantonese!


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By altterrain on 22 Feb 2010 09:07 PM 
Forgot to add - 
Personal contacts? find some friends who speak Cantonese!


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## norman (Jan 6, 2008)

Hi Brian: 

Have you spoken to any dealers about the Bachmann Forney sales volume ? 
Maybe these will later go on clearance ? 
I would like to modify one with fluted domes, oil burner head lamp, cow catcher and twin flat panel roof like the 4-4-0 but one can never match the quality of a factory paint finish for the cab. 
I don't understand that as Bachmann had chosen 1:20.3 to ensure the scale / track gauge ratio were correct but then build the 1:20.3 Forney 2 foot gauge loco as a 3 foot gauge loco. 

Norman


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

I don't know that it can be done terribly easily. Here's a shot of the frame for outside-frame version: 










There looks to be sufficient space between the frame and the rear of the wheels to where you could probably get O-gauge drivers on there. My guess would be that you'd lose the eccentric motion on the rear axle and have to do something different with the track pick-ups (likely get rid of them) to do so. Then, there's the question of do you narrow the outside frame and bring in the cylinders? At that point, is it more prudent to just rebuild an entirely new front chassis built to O gauge? It's worth noting that the prototype for this loco was "widened" by something like 6" as well, so even if you were to narrow it to O gauge, it would technically be too wide relative to the track gauge. 

Later, 

K


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

Norman - Two foot gauge running on 0 gauge track is 1/19th scale, not 1/20.3 - so it would _*still*_ be wrong. As you can see from EBT's usefully-illustrated post, it would require a major re-design of what is already a very high-priced lemo, sorry, model. Looks to me like a whole lot more trouble than it's worth. 

Over here very few seem to be buying the Forney - at a tad less than the K-27 it's not exactly flying off the dealer shelves. Value for $$ it ain't. 

Even here in the UK there seem to be very few folks who are THAT interested in a wrong scale/gauge model lettered for a two-foot gauge prototype...y'see, even WE have noticed the discrepancy. 


My LGB Forney - a reasonable approximation of the real thing, cost me less than a third of the Bachmann version. My granddaughter, five next June, doesn't yet care about the scale/gauge discrepancy, but by golly she will by the time she's' six, if *I* have anything to do with her ejukashun. 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org

PS - how's the boiler coming along?


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

I will probably try it...someday.. 
when (or if) the price of the Forney comes down to around $250.. 

but if the design is anything like the On30 Forney (and it probaby is) then yes, its a major hassle.. 
not at all an easy conversion: 

http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/On2-SRRL9 

although it should be easier on the larger model, simply because the parts are so much bigger.. 
but still, bachmann made it very difficult.. 
im sure a few people will do the conversion! 
if anyone ever hears about one, please post it here!  

The correct gauge for this model (2 foot gauge) works out to 30 mm in 1/20.3 scale.. 
O scale, at 32 mm, is close enough for me!


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## StanleyAmes (Jan 3, 2008)

Scot 

Locomotive manufacturers often produced locomotives that were offered in multiple track gauges. In the US trhese were typically offered in 2 ft, 30", Meter, 3 Ft and in some cases even standard gauge. 

Yes I am aware of at least one modeler who is converting the Bachman Forney to represent a 1:20.3 SR&RL two foot forney. In the past this modeler redid a Bachmann 2-8-0 into a 2 ft 2-6-2 so he has the skiils to considerably rework a model. 

Send me a note off line and I can put you in contact with him. 

Stan Ames


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Scottychaos on 23 Feb 2010 05:24 AM 
The correct gauge for this model (2 foot gauge) works out to 30 mm in 1/20.3 scale.. 
O scale, at 32 mm, is close enough for me! 

Interestingly, Regner make a range of 30mm track for their little feldbahn series, so having gotten that hard bit out of the way, you would have something to run it on.

tac
www.ovgrs.org


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By StanleyAmes on 23 Feb 2010 05:38 AM 
Scot 

Locomotive manufacturers often produced locomotives that were offered in multiple track gauges. In the US trhese were typically offered in 2 ft, 30", Meter, 3 Ft and in some cases even standard gauge. 


Stan Ames 



I know! 
thats the reason Bachmann chose this particular engine..Bachmann calls it a "Baldwin Catalog Model" to defuse the gauge question, but its well known the Bachmann model is actually based on SR&RL Number 8 and 9..which happened to be 2-foot gauge..

Send me a note off line and I can put you in contact with him. 

thanks! I will do that..

Scot


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Stan, does this particular modeler have a web site or photos on-line? I'd love to see them as well. I regauged a B-mann 2-4-2 Columbia to O gauge when I was in college; that was "fun." I had similar thoughts with the Forney, but given how far along I got on my efforts to turn the Shay into a 7/8" scale Gilpin Shay, I figure prudence dictates I let this project slide along undone, too. 

Later, 

K


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## tonywjones44 (Aug 14, 2010)

Apologies for going slightly OT, but I've just bought a 2hnd LGB Forney lettered for the SR&RK railroad - which was 2ft gauge. Does anyone know if these locos operated on 3ft gauge tracks? If so I will re-letter it. 

Best wishes
Tony Jones.


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By tonywjones44 on 14 Aug 2010 01:45 PM 
Apologies for going slightly OT, but I've just bought a 2hnd LGB Forney lettered for the SR&RK railroad - which was 2ft gauge. Does anyone know if these locos operated on 3ft gauge tracks? If so I will re-letter it. 

Best wishes
Tony Jones. 






Tony,
it depends on what you mean by "these locomotives"! 
yes, there were "forney type" locomotives that did operate on 3-foot gauge railroads..

so its certaintly prototypical to have a 3-foot gauge forney..

but..

like the Bachmann forney, the LGB forney is also modeled after a 2-foot gauge forney.
a different Sandy River & Rangely Lakes locomotive..(three identical sisters actually)
the LGB engine is modeled (roughly) after the "Eustis engines"..three 2-foot gauge logging forneys that origianally belonged to the Eustis railroad of Maine.
Originally Eustis numbers 7, 8 and 9. 

The Eustis RR was later folded into the SR&RL system and the engines then became SR&RL numbers 20, 21 and 22. 











So if you are asking "did the specific prototype of the LGB (or Bachamann) forney ever run on 3-foot gauge, the answer is no..
they were all 2-foot gauge their entire lives.

but if you want to use the LGB engine for a more "generic" forney, not of a specific prototype loco, in 3-foot gauge,
then it is perfectly plausable, because 3-foot gauge forneys did exist...although I dont know of any specifically

that looked a lot like the Bachmann of LGB engine.. 


Scot


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

and just FYI, 
that paintscheme on the LGB forney, painted as SR&RL #22, isnt REMOTELY prototypical!  
not even close.. 

when new, the Eustis engines *might* have been Baldwin green (a very dark green) 
with a russian iron boiler..or they might have been black with a russia iron boiler. 
by the time they were repainted and lettered for the SR&RL however, they were "basic black".. 
all black, all over...so the LGB SR&RL paintscheme is absolute fiction in every respect.. 

Scot


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## tonywjones44 (Aug 14, 2010)

Scot

Many thanks for your comprehensive reply that answers my question exactly. Nice change from some muddled replies that I've had at other times on other forums.









So... I will simply airbrush out the SR & RL lettering on the tender of my loco and either leave it blank or repaint it with my own KB & EGR lettering. (That's the totally fictious 

Kates Bridge and East Glen River Railrod by the way...).









Best wishes
Tony


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## tonywjones44 (Aug 14, 2010)

Hello again Scot

My LGB SR & RL Forney IS plain satin black - which is what attracted me too it.









Unfortunately the handrails and piping appear to be 'gold plated', but I know how to deal with that.


Cheers
Tony


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Going to get flamed for saying this, and cringe even more as a past prototype modeller, but I always liked the colorful LGB forney.


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