This review is on Bachmann's HO scale Spectrum K4 4-6-2 Pacific.
The model reviewed is the original version. I can't find much reference on when it was made, but I believe it was introduced in the early 90's as the first steam engine in the Spectrum line. At the time, the only choices for an HO scale K4 were either expensive brass or a Bowser kit. Both choices have advantages over the Bachmann offering, with the brass having top of the line detail, and the Bowser being a heavy hauler able to last a lifetime. The Bachmann model was less expensive than either option and came ready to go from the box, and in its day, was still pretty decent.
The K4 comes packed tightly in a box large enough for an entire train set, with a brief history of the prototypes under the front flap. Unfortunately, the holder for the engine was poorly designed and crushed the bell just from being packed at the factory. I had to glue the bell in place and unbend a few other details. Aside from the wire railings, most of the detail is plastic. The piping is all molded onto the plastic shell, and while some looks decent, some has an obvious molded appearance. The bell, whistle, marker lights, headlight, generator, and a few other large details are separate parts, and they look pretty decent. The headlight lense looks like a plastic lump from a toy up close, but it's not so noticable from a few feet away. The handrails, grab irons, and coupler lift bars are blackened wire, and help the appearance of the whole thing quite a bit. The interior is well detailed with a full backhead and painted crew.
The paint scheme is the highly decorated "multistripe" version, with a straight from the shop gloss finish. With the sharply printed gold pinstriping with dark red stripes on the tender, and the gold pinstripes on the wheels, this is really an attactive model. The coal load is high gloss black, and it has a sort of "wet" look to it. The graphite smokebox and firebox have a kind of sparkle to them, so they may have overdone that a little. The only problem I have with the paint is that it's a bit heavy, and pools just slightly around some details, which was a problem present on nearly all Bachmann models until the late 90's or so. No sagging though, so at least it's not too heavy.
As this was the first Spectrum steam engine, and shares the chassis design used in "Plus" models, it's not the best runner around. It has some very good and innovative ideas, though. The classic Bachmann design split metal frame made it heavier than most plastic models at the time, it's powered by a quality 5-pole skewed armature motor with a gigantic worm that doubles as a flywheel, the center drivers are sprung, and best of all, it features all wheel electrical pickup! It can run through a switch or over dirty track without flinching, giving it a definite advantage over many other models. However, there is a major flaw. The drive wheels have cast on half-axles, which press into plastic tube axles Athearn style. These often crack with age, making it easy for the drivers to slip out of quarter. My K4 didn't even run when I got it, and it took hours of slight adjustments until I finally found a sweet spot where everything is pretty well quartered. I should also note, this is NOT a fun model to disassemble.
After adjustment, the K4 is a decent runner. Not excellent, but decent. It runs quietly with its helically meshed gears, remaining pretty smooth after about half speed is passed. It's typically a passenger engine though, so the higher speed running is what really counts anyway, right? Due to my imperfect quartering, there's a slight click with each revolution, but that's about the only noise to be heard. At 12 volts, it ran at 80 scale MPH, and drew about 0.2 amps on average. The lowest speed I could sustain was 8MPH, and I'm assuming the stall current is about 1.2A like most Bachmann models with this motor. It's not a heavy hauler, but it's strong enough to pull maybe 10 free rolling passenger cars on level track. I'd stick with 6 or less, though. The headlight is directional, but it's not visible until you get past 10V. DCC installation isn't simple with the grounded split frame. It can be done though, and the tender's got more than enough room for a good sound system.
This isn't a perfect model, but it's a good first effort for quality steam by Bachmann. I wouldn't steer a newcomer towards one without the chance to test it first, but there are a lot of these still on the market, and they're a pretty good value for what you get. The revised Spectrum model as well as the BLI and MTH models are much better choices of course, but this is still one to consider if you want a K4 on a budget.
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You sure that is a Bachmann Spectrum K-4? I have one and it looks nothing like yours. Mine is very well detailed and is an excellent running loco. The headlight is a little dim but I plan to replace it with a warm white LED.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Bob:
Perhaps you have one of the revised Spectrum engines that Darth mentions in his post. I think that questioning him on whether or not he knows what engine he is talking about is a little bit derogatory.
Seems to be a lot of that in the forum recently. Not good!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
This engine was the first HO scale steam engine I got for my son before he switched to N scale. He loved it. I installed a DCC sound decoder ans swapped tenders with this engine, so it had every axle picking up electricity. Very cool. Yes, it was a pain in the butt to install a DCC decoder in, especially isolating the frame. But I got it working, and it ran very well.
The first run of Bachmann´s K4´s looked exactly like the ones reviewed.
The revamped version was much nicer, though:
I have a DCC/Sound on board pre war K4 that sounds great, but I need to either add more weight, or use that bullfrog snot on a driver...it cannot pull a lick. It struggles up a 2% helix with 6 NMRA corectly weighted boxcars(Yes I know the prototype was a passenger loco). It barely pulls 3 cars, So I have ended up assigning it to the "local", of just two older Rivarossi old style heavyweight coaches.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
I bought one of the first run Spectrum K4s from 1988 or '89 as I recall. I switched to HO in the winter of 1987-88 and it was I think the second or third HO engine I bought. It didn't look like the one in Ulrich's post, it didn't have the striping on the wheels. It was no. 1361 - I think?? Whichever number was the restored K4 that was then running on fantrips.
BTW several of the early Spectrum products later became regular Bachmann or "Bachmann Plus" as the Spectrum line improved. For example their standard line GP-30 was an early Spectrum engine from the late 1980's.
farrellaa, my K4 came in a big Spectrum box, and has Spectrum molded into the plastic under the frame. This is an early production model, and Bachmann revised them in the late 90's with better detail and a more refined (but very similar) chassis. You can still find a lot of these on eBay and around train shows, so I thought it'd be good to put up a review.
Jimmy_Braum, that's always been a problem with the Spectrum K4. Neither the old or new ones are very good pullers, so putting lead in hollow spots or putting "Bullfrog Snot" on one of the drive wheels is necessary to pull longer loads.
wjstix, one thing I forgot to mention is that Bachmann has always offered multiple versions of the K4 to match different prototypes. Mine is a prewar version with gold pinstriping, and there are also prewar versions with more standard paint. They also offered a couple postwar models with the correct pilot, headlight, turbo generator, and other details. I've always liked the prewar look better, though.
snjroy, I've posted a lot of reviews if you want to go back and look through any. And I'm sure I'll be doing more as time goes on.