This small article is for a total taking apart of the Bachmann 4 6 0; I did it for changing the loco into a Denver & South Park RR mogul, which has been finished. It can be used as a guide if you wish to re-assemble your loco, but be careful, look at the loco, and work out what you need to do. Nothing has been broken in the article, and in theory it could have been put back together with some glue and care. That was not what I was doing; I used the driving wheels and chassis, and built the rest of my mogul from scratch.

Separate the loco and tender, and put the tender on one side. I will return to the tender later.

Turn the loco upside down and on a sheet of foam to protect it.

There are some 9 screws 4 vertical, 2 horizontal, and two in the firebox area and a final one under the pilot deck remove them and keep them safe somewhere. Here is a photo, taken by John Lythgoe and used with his permission of a partially separated Annie, this is not the same as mine was it has Walschaerts vale gear mine used (and still does), Stephensons valve gear.



The circle shape on the fireman’s side of the boiler, and in the pipe run can be flicked off with a knife blade. Now check which of the handrails and pipe runs can be slid out of their fixings they are generally loose, or can be assisted to release any glue with a small application, by brush of the water thin plastic cement whilst keeping up a tension pull. Also remove the pipes (made from wire under the cab, and there are various bits of rubber pipe see if you can keep them attached to their various bits of pipe for later re-assembly

Moving to under the rear of the cab; there is on the centre plug a red cover this can be teased off with a screwdriver, as can the smaller one underneath it, you will be left with a black switch..

Free off, from the smokebox, the two front braces to the pilot deck

Remove the pilot deck by undoing two screws the pilot deck and braces will slide off.

The boiler should be now free to move. The side footboards and air tanks can be pulled out of the boiler shell. Note there are still parts of the boiler left in position. The steam dome is a separate part, and can be pulled off the boiler leaving the base on the boiler &--it is a part of the boiler moulding; as is the sand dome, the 4 sand pipes pull out from the sides of this dome.

Remove the smokebox door and switches assembly, (it flicks out) and unscrew the switches, they are fitted from the inside of the assembly label each one so you can trace the wires in due course, and you will know which switch does what!

Ease off upwards the headlamp casing, the wires can be cut if required, again mark them with a label.

The boiler assembly should now be free you can turn it upside down and remove the smoke assembly, by undoing the screws holding it.

The cab can now be looked at and freed from the boiler look for the short stepboards by the firebox, and at the front of the cab, and pull them off. This will free off the cab fixings at the front, there are still a couple of plastic clips fixings at the rear of the cab, release them with a screwdriver, used gently, they will bend OK. The cab should now come off from the (part) boiler, if you have not totally freed off the handrails they need to be released from the cab front, and pulled out forwards.

The vertical handrail stanchions are a very, very tight fit into holes in the boiler: the ones on the boiler have horizontal pegs, those on the smokebox have vertical (with the stanchion) pegs. I used a heavy cutting knife (Stanley or such make) blade as a lever to lift them from the boiler it will require a lot of work and attempts, but they are removable! When you have sufficient freed off a pair of heavy tapered tweezers can be used to free them out of their holes. Note that the lower one on the fireman’s (nearside looking forward) side also has a horizontal pin to it.

By carefully using some heavy tweezers as levers the air pump can be released from the boiler. The associated pipes can also be disassembled with great care; also remove from under the cab the two tanks and piping there. The valve and handles can be removed, again with care.

The remaining bits can also be taken off the boiler with care store them in little pots.  I use old 35mm film containers, see your local 1 hour photo processing shop they will supply you with plenty for nothing!

The bell (on my SPC version) has a small metal vertical air piston ringing system, this can be separated by removing the small horizontal pin; you need to make another to replace it so the bell can then be an older pull string system. The entire bell assembly can be removed from the boiler using a drift; from inside the boiler: give it a sharp tap to free it off.

The plugs under the cab are all on a small board that is buried at the rear of the chassis, it is possible to remove it but difficult.

There is a mass of wiring that is fixed to a couple of pillars that lurk under the plate on the bottom of the chassis, this is removable by undoing the screws you can see, one is hidden under the front bogie. This bogie also collects current by the way and there is a spring around its pivot. Under the plate there are a couple of posts attached to it that collect the power from a pair of brass buss-bars; these collect current from the three driving wheel axles, and wires from the pillars route it to the motor. Most of them are connected to the headlight(s) and the switches in the smokebox, be careful with them, the wire is remarkably thin. I did not use them; a friend and I worked out what was what, removed it all and eventually added additional pickups from the tender bogies. My new headlight is powered by a 9 volt battery in the tender.


Here are a couple of photos that I took when I had reduced it down to the chassis






The tender is in two parts turn it upside down, and there are 4 screws visible, remove these, and the upper part will come free from the base. I used the water valves (use a small drift from the inside, and gently tap them out) and the base, which was reversed, and the bogies had some major modifications for my tender.

Finally, through the web group myLargescale.com, of which I am a member here are a set of assembly diagrams of the Annie. They are left as full size GIFs as they lose detail if reduced. These are the same sort of thing as is now included with the Large Scale Bachmann Spectrum locos. These came from a MLS member  thanks Torby!

This gave me the chassis for making my Cooke Loco Works mogul. That is the subject of quite a long article which is also on my site.

Annie Assembly Diagrams

boiler and cab
details
frame and wheel
tender
valve gear
wiring

This article was published on Wednesday 15 June, 2005.