Bachmann changes?

[Anonymous]

I sent my bachmann spectrum K-4 4-6-2 in for repairs and they ended up replacing my loco. They sent it back and it was DCC ready with a slat pilot. What is a slat pilot? I also noticed some small improvements. Is this normal?

[dknelson]

Sometime in the mid to late 1940s the Pennsylvania RR replaced the slat pilots on the K4s with solid cast steel pilots and most if not all of the k4s that made it to the end of steam in 1956-57 were of this sort.
The slat pilot looks like what it is: strips of flat steel bolted or riveted in a cross hatch pattern, as opposed to boiler tube pilots such as the Santa Fe used where the pilot tubes were all vertical.

This is the "classic" PRR pilot used on their passenger locomotives going back to the D class 4-4-0s and H class 2-8-0s freight locos of the 1880s. Eventually it became their "passenger" pilot only. They switched to cast steel for the K4s in the 1940s and in most cases they also switched position of the headlight and the generator. Most people do not regard that change as a visual improvement. There were some k4s which escaped the changed pilot, and there were some which had the new pilot but kept the headlight and generator in the old position.

In short whether this substitution is satisfactory to you might depend on what era you model. If you are pre 1945, be happy. If not, spend some time with the Don Wood and Staufer books hoping to find a prototype that had the old pilot to the end
Dave Nelson