Questions on Graham Farish chassis

[ohlavache]

There are several versions of a chassis for the same locomotive class.
For instance, for classes 25 and 33, how to recognize fly wheel chassis produced in 2004-2008 by Bahcmann ?
Is it also possible to exchange bogies between chassis ? e.g. take class 20 bogies to a class 25/33 chassis ?
Thanks by advance for your help.

[Safety Engineer]

Hi,

I have swoped bogies between early Farish (Poole) diesels i.e. class 20 to a 25 chassis and the other way round in order to put under the chassis under a LMS Bo-Bo 18100 and Baby Deltic kits. No problems.

Martin

[ohlavache]

Hello.
It seems I did a big mistake.
I finally got a class 20 and a class 25.
Class 20: ref. 371-027
Class 25: ref. 371-075

The  bogies are not compatible!
So I'll try to send back the class 25 and then find an even older one.

But do I have also to send back the class 20 ?
Or can I exchange the bogies of this class 20 with those of a class 25 listed here: http://thefarishshed.com/class-25/ ?

Furthermore, how do I open this class 20 ? I didn't find any way.
Thanks by advance for your help !

[Newportnobby]

Furthermore, how do I open this class 20 ? I didn't find any way.
Thanks by advance for your help !

There were no instructions with my green version 371-026 but I believe you can pop the front off and there is a screw behind that nose which releases the body when undone.

[EtchedPixels]

The class 20 nose slides off (or sometimes breaks) revealing a screw behind. Second hand ones you frequently find the nose glued back on 

The Farish (Poole) era chassis use fairly compatible bogies and you can swap some of them around but not all. Bachmann redesigned the chassis to produce a really good new chassis for the class 25/33 and a rather lousier one for the 37/47.

As far as I am aware the class 20 kept the original chassis design all the way up tol the new series models I presume because the split frame chassis design was just too wide for it.

The Poole era models have a 4 digit number, the Bachmann ones 3xx-xxx numbering. If you turn one over and look you can also see quite easily as the Bachmann old style 25 (25/3) has metal loops on the top of the bogie that press up either side of the split frame, while the Poole one has brass contacts on the chassis either end of the bogie that press down onto a brass pad  on the bogie itself.

It's possible to mix some useful combinations - eg a class 20 chassis with class 31 bogies or mixing one of the small BO-BO chassis with class 40 bogies to do things like 10201/2/3. A class 31 chassis with a class 20 bogie one end was also how the old CO-BO kit worked.

[ohlavache]

Thanks for your answers.
I checked again the class 20.
I don't see any way to slide off its nose.
I don't even understand how anything can be removed. Strange. 

[EtchedPixels]

It's got a pair of tiny bits at the bottom that sit in the casting and a clip that's basically completely invisible in the middle of the nose part way up. You have to slide something very fine between the nose and body and then gently ease the clip. It usually breaks off even if you do that 8(

[CarriageShed]

The first part of this article will help you with removing the Class 20 bodywork:
http://www.ngauge.historyfiles.co.uk/FeaturesNGauge/howto_Class20_SplitGears.htm

[Railwaygun]

It's got a pair of tiny bits at the bottom that sit in the casting and a clip that's basically completely invisible in the middle of the nose part way up. You have to slide something very fine between the nose and body and then gently ease the clip. It usually breaks off even if you do that 8(

join the Blutak brigade!