Bachmann 00 Gauge - Underground Ernie Set

Ok, so here's some more pics of the Halsall branded Underground Ernie trains, these ones are fully compatible with BPT (and probably Trackmaster 2).

Firstly here's a comparison of one of the trains alongside the Tomy Dragon car to give you a clue to the size of these locomotives;



Next is a shot underneath comparing the wheel base and gauge of these trains, as you'll see they are almost identical to the Tomy Dragon car.



The next picture shows you the rear of the locomotive, the interesting thing is that this back panel swivels left to right a bit, almost hinting that it was designed in such a way that a connected car would have almost a close coupling effect. Similarly the bar/knob you see hanging down moves right to left the width of the rear of the train, again why I don't know unless it was intended to be some form of coupling as otherwise I don't see why it is there and moveable.



The battery compartment, to the left you can see a silver button this is a push on/off power switch for the motor;



This is the underside of the train, if you look between the wheels you will see a button, this depresses, but doesn't appear to do anything, so why its there is anyone's guess unless originally they may have designed it with the intention of having some trains with additional features. Toward the rear of the train behind the driving wheels (to the right) you can see a slightly raised section with a bar that goes through the middle. This presses in from either side and is spring loaded so it returns to the centre. I had originally wondered if this reversed the direction of travel, but it does not, depressing it from either side just cuts the power to the motor, so again why this is there I'm not sure unless it works in conjunction with a scenery piece or something.



Finally here's some pictures of the three trains I've currently got, now out of their packaging!!

[Super]

Might that button underneath release something like the shell?

Hi Super,

No not at all, the motor is held in place by a phillips screw toward the nose of the train.

One thing I have figured out though, the swivelling back and dangling bit are for coupling a second coach, I suspect (maybe wrongly) that you can couple the coaches from the 'pull back and go' models who come with a second coach

I confirmed this by bringing two of the rears of the locomotives together and the dangling bit moves as they are magnetic!