Having lashed out a whole £5 at Chris's Crafts [Plymouth PL4 0NH  T: 01752 665 007 ] I am now a Crocodile keeper. Made by Bachmann, it  looks OK but the wheel sets and bearings are pretty antediluvian. Any  suggestions as to the easiest/least expensive way of replacing  wheels/coupling etc? I should prefer to keep it 'tension lock'.
   
  I have bought it to carry my 'Tugwell-Pushleys', the manufactory for  such will be my 'industry' on my nascent trainset. It will gve an  opportunity for a OO9/OO interchange.












Douglas

Old Mainline design. Bogies are questionable (those holes and bearing covers), wheels are simply pull out, push in.

Search GWR Crocodile H to see what the prototype plate-frame looked like.

Tension locks. Cut off old ones from bogie, replace with narrow long ones (Bachmann Accessories #36-026).

Nigel

Thanks for your input, Nigel. Yup, my GWR wagons appendix doesn't show 'holes' in what should be solid plate frame bogies although the spoked wheels are right for this 45 ton wagon. Sadly Cambrian models no longer do a suitable replacement, and Bachmann can't help. It would have the B.R. oil boxes for the post-war period I'm looking to modelling, although I can't imagine the railway busting a gut to get a [by then] rarely used 1920s wagon up to the latest spec. and livery by, say, 1955…

I just couldn't resist it for a fiver, a BR grey spray won't take 5 minutes and it can sit at the projected Tugwell/mainline transfer point if it all comes to nought.

Best wishes,

Douglas

P.s., I do appreciate that the load would not be resting on the middle of the 'floor', but more realistically on beams running the full length of the well on the cross members [there is a perfectly legible notice to this effect on the inside of each end deck, not bad work for such an old model] or on cross girders supporting each buffer beam. D

The bogies on the Crocodile G (1888 rebuilt1909) had the holes. Load capacity 35 tons. Still around in the 1990's in places such as BSC for internal use. Also found on the Fs. And Macaws.

BR would be Weltrol WG I think. 

Nigel

Edit: File off the leaf spring on the bottom of each bogie to make it a G.

Hi Douglas

The Bachmann Weltrol might be a possible donor for bogies perhaps????  That would give you a NEM pocket and small couplings.  Just a thought but appreciate that there might be differences that are not acceptable

Barry

Hi Chubber. I replaced the wheels with Hornby or Bachmann 12mm spoked wheels. They clip fitted in with no problem and did improved the running.