A few months ago, when I was testing some of the locos that I plan to use on Bethesda Sidings, I found that my Bachmann 08, which had previously been a lovely, slow runner, had developed a pronounced tight spot and 'limp'.
The loco had essentially been sitting in it's box for a few years since my last exhibition. Initial investigations failed to reveal the source of the problem and I reluctantly put it away again.
I have been having a more thorough look in the last couple of weeks and finally spotted that one of the plastic outside cranks, on the rear (driven) axle had split, where the crankpin is attached.
The plastic crank was quite oily and I didn't fancy trying a repair on it, so I ended up ordering a complete replacement wheelset, with rods attached, from the Bachmann spares department. When on the phone, I asked if the design of the 08 chassis had changed over the years (mine is a relatively early model) and was assured that it hadn't.
The new wheelset arrived pretty quickly and I went to install it this afternoon.
I was rather irritated, to say the least, to find that it would only fit, with the rods upside down:
I couldn't put them in the other way up (even though the axle centres are the same between all three axles), because the drive gear is off-set and the gear in the new wheelset was off-set on the opposite side from my original one.
I concluded that either the wheelset I had been sent had been assembled incorrectly or the chassis design had changed after all.
After a bit more faffing about, I realised that I could remove the new driven axle, with it's new outside cranks and substitute it for the original driven axle.
I was able to remove the Bachmann crankpins OK and when assembled, the whole thing then ran sweetly again:
You may notice that I hadn't finished painting the dark rust colour on the check and wing rails, this is now done.
Also, a bit of footage: