Williams by Bachmann O Trains?

[trainmasterz]

Does anyone have info on the Williams by Bachmann engines?  SD90's, U33C's your choice of road names for a pre order price under $130.00?  Unpowered for just over half that.

Was it Atlas that bought out Industrial Rail last year?  Atlas/I R rolling stock goes for under $20 on certain items.

Hopefully you guys can get to the bottom of this by Monday morning.

Thanks in advance and have a good weekend all.

[trainmasterz]

Does the Atlas/I R rolling stock still have "bad" couplers?

Thanks again in advance for any info.

[brianel027]

From what I can see from photos, I would YES the Atlas made Industrial Rail cars will still be problematic, at least on 027 track where there are reverse curves.

I liked the Industrial Rail cars: nice paint, decoration, good looking, variety in roads, changing road numbers on cars over subsequent runs, etc. BUT the coupler shank or arm is a full quarter inch longer than on other freight trucks from Lionel, MTH or K-Line.

On Lionel cars like the 027 passenger cars or the bay window caboose or the K-Line streamliners, the coupler arm is also longer, but swivels some on the truck itself. The IR coupler arm is solid and attached to the truck. This is the real problem for derailments on 027 track. It might not be a problem on 031 or FasTrack nearly as much so. But the IR cars are advertised as being 027 compatible - which isn't completely true.

Some derailments can be eliminated by using a Dremel and grinding a little more open space within the closed knuckle coupler. But the trucks are also mounted further back than on Lionel cars. If Atlas was to have corrected the truck derailment problem, then also all of the bodies or mounting frames would have also needed a tooling modification.

I've been replacing my Industrial Rail trucks with ordinary plastic ones - even MPC Symington style - and amazing... the derailments stop completely on the IR cars. I have had to drill out some new holes on the IR cars, because the Lionel coupler doesn't stick out as far from the end of the car because the original hole is further back. By using the IR mounting hole, two IR cars with Lionel trucks can hit on curves and derail.

As a final note, I've tried using the IR trucks on some of my short cars, like the MPC starter plug door box cars, and they seem to do better on shortner length cars.... probably because of the longer coupler arm.

At this point, there's a couple Atlas IR cars that interest me, but I'm looking for a dealer who will sell the cars for less, removing the trucks completely.

[3railguy]

Does anyone have info on the Williams by Bachmann engines?  SD90's, U33C's your choice of road names for a pre order price under $130.00?  Unpowered for just over half that.

Was it Atlas that bought out Industrial Rail last year?  Atlas/I R rolling stock goes for under $20 on certain items.

Hopefully you guys can get to the bottom of this by Monday morning.

Thanks in advance and have a good weekend all.

$130 is a good price. If they are identical to past production runs, they are good engines. They run silky smooth, pull stumps, the graphics are decent, and the digital horn sounds sweet. They aren't high on scale fidelity like Atlas, Lionel, and MTH but they aren't supposed to be. They are close to scale sized however and would dwarf Atlas Industrial Rail cars. Atlas Trainman cars would be a better choice to run with these engines. Or Williams cars for that matter. Trainman is probably one of the best values out there when it comes to getting what you paid for.