Arnold coaches are great but!

[Coachman]

I thought that I should start by saying that I love the Arnold modern passenger coaches. The express coaches (Bm235, Bpmz291 & Avmz etc).

Over the years I have used most of the European manufacturer's N scale trains.

Great at the time but now that standards of reproduction and cad drawings etc have improved many models from the major German manufacturers have lagged behind.

The above mentioned coaches are 4050mm from rail to roof (excluding vents) 4050/160=25mm but the corresponding Arnold models are Bm 24.2mm, Bpmz 25.8mm & Avmz 25.2mm.

It doesn't sound like a lot but it makes the mixed rakes necessary to make a German express train look odd.

To conclude it all seems to be in the roofs. The Bm too shallow and the Bpmz too deep. The Avmz Eurofima "just right".

My point is not to knock Arnold but all the manufacturers have done this over the years. Does nobody check these things? As you may have gathered I like my coaches and I look forward to Arnold's new production in 2022+

[Coachman]

Well plenty people Looked at this but didn't comment? Makes me feel a bit of a rivet counter. Well I saw some Piko Ho German coaches of the same type as above and their roof heights are spot on which is a joy to see. They were developed recently at the same time so there is probably where Arnold production differs.

These two types of coaches have the same "heft" so an under height one looks undernourished. I like to view my models on a high level board so it is important to me nobody else?)

By using a 5mm twist drill I countersunk the top of the Bpmz's bogies to drop the height by 0.5mm or so. Then I added shim washers to the thickness of 0.8mm plus longer fixing screws. A couple of plastic nibs were also trimmed (don't do this at home etc etc)

I will track test these on tight curves and reverse curve points to see that I have not upset their running qualities by removing the "nib" bits and reducing clearance on the Bpmz.