'Rugby Town' presents a guide to detailing the Bufferbeam on the Bachmann Class 37 locomotive using Heljan class 47  snowploughs and pipework from Heljan and A1 Models:

Remove the Heljan 3 piece miniature snowplough from its spruce (see below).

Cut away the top outer corner of the bracket that is meant to be mounted
around the Heljan Class 47 buffers as shown. File away the inner half
of these support slightly as Bachmann Class 37 buffer shanks are a fraction
close together than Heljan shanks (see below).

On the back of the plough, cut / file away the stem of the bracket on both
outer ploughs until it is flush with the plough itself. This will prevent
the ploughs from fouling your class 37's bogies (see below).

Drill a small hole as shown on each stem. Make the hole as low down
on the stem as possible without damaging the plough itself. These are for the
Control Air Multiple Working pipes (ends painted white on the prototype)
which are slightly thinner than standard air pipes. These pipes are located
just below the bufferbeam on a 37 and the plough stem is an ideal place to
attach them (see below)

On the 37 bogies, remove the NEM couple socket as shown.You
will notice I removed the buffers from my 37. It make detailing the
bufferbeam much less tricky and they just pop in and out of their sockets (see below).

On the back of the plough, cut/file back the part of the support that holds
all three ploughs together but be careful - cut back too far and the
stem will be weakened and your ploughs will fall apart! (see below)

Add the control air pipes to the stem. I used modified A1 air pipes
for this. They are thinner than the Heljan pipes I used on the bufferbeam. I
removed the support brackets from the A1 pipes and bent them out to give the
loose hanging effect (see below).

Attach the ploughs to the bufferbeam. The modified stem should be glued
behind the bufferbeam, making sure not to foul the buffer shank sockets and
the two untouched stems above the center plough fit snuggly into the
brackets below the coupling, front and center on the beam (see below).

Paint and weather as required.

And finally a picture of the prototype 37410 at Crewe works open day 31/05/03  clearly showing the snowploughs and bufferbeam pipework.

Article copyright 'Rugby Town'

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