You're pretty safe with Bachmann

[Anonymous]

I have seen new Bachmann with retooled locomotives on eBay... are these any good, detail wise (pics are small to see)? I have an old Spectrum Dash 8-40W Santa Fe and it runs fine considering I bought it used off eBay about 6 years ago. The details sucked.. snowplow snapped in half, grab irons are not even bent correctly 90 degrees and not even painted and others I can't think of at the moment. So I wonder if it has got better. I couldn't find any reviews off google, just a bunch of retail sites.

[CrossTrack Trains]

I like the fact Bachman has many various types of steam loco's(unlike other manufacturers), at affordable prices.
My Bachman's have all run great, especially the Spectrum line

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Well perhaps the newer ones run well...

No, they don't run well i was just stating they pull a lot.(it may not out pull the U33C but it would be darn close) The F40PH jerks when it starts and stops so it's hard to keep anything on the track. I suspect top speed is well over 200 scale miles per hour. (but it is a passenger engine)
Roadtrp glad someone else dislikes regular Bachamnn. Well let those people buy engines for $30 just because they're DCC. Just because Bachmann is willing to fix it that doesn't make it a good prouduct. I've learned my lesson about buying cheap stuff.
DISCLAIMER- this is just my opinion. I am not here to offend anyone.

[ICRR1964]

I thought we were going to leave the word junk out of it?

The picture the other forum member had were of the older Bachmann line they made in the 70's, these are easy to spot at train shows and on ebay if you know what your looking for. These heavy loco's had 5 pole motors, 8 wheel drive, and 8 wheel pickup, and ran pretty good out of the box. The F unit chassis that was pictured was used by AHM for a few years to it had the same drive as the other 8 wheel drive chassis used for the GP40.

The 4 wheel drive chassis that were made in the late 80's buy Bachmann and LL were made poor, I have boxes full of these that I aquired over the years, some ran ok while others were less desirable, they could be converted to dummys real easy though. The tiny little motors could not take heat, if you pulled to many cars they would lock up after they smoked. I had several of these as a kid, because that was all that I could afford back then. The newer Bachmann items now are a huge plus for Bachmann, its almost like they went back to the old heavy dicast 70's years. And these new loco's are fair priced for beginners or a 30 year vet.

dingoix,
Was it not a few days ago you were using the word "junk" on other manufactures? I cannot beleive you said the LL F40PH is compairable to your Atlas U-bout. Thats like having a Pinto aginst a 4 wheel drive truck in a pulling contest! I just got done putting a Athearn powered chassis that I put together out of parts from my supplies for a young boy who got it for Xmas as a set. He loved it !!!

From what I have seen of your post you seem to know allot about nothing at times, and seem intent on sparking flames. I've noticed others seem to notice this about you too, you need to sit back and spend more time working on your layout and saving some money to buy the things you want, instead of hanging in forum and creating 834 post in a little over 2 months. Your the only person that I have seen in here who seems to have something to say about every post or thread thats put up, and 9 times out of 10 you do not have a clue as to what your taking about. Your little saying is true to. You are an expert at not knowing what your doing! Show some manners for gods sake, and quit letting your butt do the talking.

[on30francisco]

I have four of their On30 locos. They have die cast frames and boilers that make them heavy enough for good tractive force and reliable running at very slow speeds with no stalling. The wheels conform to the RP25 standards so they will run on rail sizes as small as code 55. The detailing is also top notch and the prices are very affordable.

[TrainFreak409]

I'm a big fan of Bachmann products.[:D]

I think that the standard line is pretty good. My standard line GP40 I had for ten years still ran until I sacrificed it for a kitbash. And not to mention that it was neglected for about five years in my father's workshop.

The Spectrum line is awesome. I have two N scale Dash 8-40CWs, and a 2-8-0 Consolidation. All are great. I just wi***hey had Kadees on them, but I can do that myself.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45


I'm not knocking Bachmann, but in looking at them realistically, as far as diesels, they're comparable to Athearn's RTR locomotives.

I would have to disagree with that. Athearn's newer RTR offerings are a whole lot better than Spectrum's new diesels, although the new Spectrum 8-40CWs are comparible to Atlas and Kato.

[Paul3]

Bachmann... Oh, boy. They are incredibly inconsistant. I think they must take pride in doing so, for that's the only reason I can think of.

These are my experiences with Bachmann:
1) When I was a kid, we had several train set types of Bachmann locos. Junk. They wouldn't last, they wouldn't run smooth, and they were Lionel-like in looks. Ecch!

2) Later, I was given a 4-8-2 Mountain. Out of the box, it "hunted", or wiggled from side to side going down the track. I could have nicknamed it the "sidewinder". Other than that, it worked well and pulled a decent amount. However, after several years of ownership (but not that many hours of run time) I suddenly heard a sound not unlike the sound of a baseball card in the spokes. One of the pick up wipers on a driver had slipped off and got caught in the spokes of the driver. When I attempted to fix it, it broke off in my hands. Now the wiggle problem is even worse.

3) I purchased a new (still sealed) H16-44. When I opened it up at home, I noticed that the nickle-silver plating was falling off the wheels leaving a naked brass wheel tread.

4) Ten years ago, I picked up a pair of new Bachmann Plus F7A's. After custom painting them, I was able to run them for about 30 minutes before each one developed a high pitched squeel. Seems that Bachmann couldn't be bothered to use oil-impregnated bearings on their motors, and no matter how frequently I oiled the motor bearings, the darn engines wouldn't run more than a train length before squeeling once again.

5) I bought a New Haven EF-4 (E-33) from Spectrum (new), and while the loco runs alright, it's a coffee grinder and a lightweight for such a big engine. They also messed up the paint job a hair by incorrect placement of the "NH" logos. Oh, and they modeled all the roof latches up...why, I don't know.

6) I have several of their Spectrum heavyweight cars (I got them cheap). Now, they aren't that bad looking...well, at least the Pullman's are OK (the other cars are almost all PRR types), but their coupler mounts are atrocious. All need to be replaced with the Jay-Bee coupler pad and Kadee's.

7) A fellow club member had to return a Spectrum K-4 because the center driver was crooked on the axle causing derailments.

8) A different club member has returned his Spectrum "George Washington" Mountain and got a replacement as it did not run at all. His replacement, when a DCC decoder is installed, still operates as if there is no decoder at all (runs under address "00" and "sings"). How is that possible? I don't know, but that's Bachmann for you.

9) Yet another club member got two 2-6-6-2's: one runs like a Swiss watch, the other was so bad (herky jerky, etc.) that it was returned to the retailer.

Now, all that being said, I've heard nothing but good things about the Acela set (well, except that it's too slow), the HHP-8, and the Shay.

However, with regards to everything else Bachmann...buyer beware!

Paul A. Cutler III
*****************
Weather Or No Go New Haven
*****************

[waltersrails]

i like my spectrum but not my new b30-7 it derails when i hook anything to it.

[jeffers_mz]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Virginian

Springing or weighing steam engine pony or trailing trucks is trying to cure the symptom, not fix the problem. Check your trackwork. Put a straight edge along the top of the rails and check level from rail to rail as well. Dips and bumps are a no-no.

The only way I have to judge the track quality is by running the trains I have over them. When everything stays on the track, I tend to call it good.

Then I attended a show and got new locomotives, Model Power tender driven 2-8-0's, and these opened my eyes to a whole new level of precision laid track. With the boiler's weight and the driven valve gear's resistance to forward travel, an errant puff of wind from a gnat's wing would cause the front half of the loco to leap off the track sideways to get out of the way of the tender.

I ripped out two sections of track, rails, ties, bed and risers, down to bare benchwork to smooth out some minor flaws and did some work on the MP 2-8-0's, wheel cleaning, pick-up tweaking, lubrication, driver quartering, etc, and now they run ok, but my Spectrum 4-6-0's leading truck and tender still derailed frequently. with the track as good as it's ever going to get.

I added less than one ounce to the tender, and bent the "spring" Bachman had installed between the leading truck and boiler enough to actually engage both the mount and the truck at the same time (from the factory it was a dead flat piece of leaf brass), and it has stayed glued to the rails ever since.

In my opinion, the tender was so light on that engine that tension from the drawbar wiring was lifting it off the track, and as mentioned before, the spring on the lead truck had yet to be sprung. In many cases, problems do originate in the trackwork, but with Bachman's well known quality control issues, I'd hesitate to suggest that trackwork is the sole source of derailment problems.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: I thought we were going to leave the word junk out of it?

We are.

QUOTE: I cannot beleive you said the LL F40PH is compairable to your Atlas U-bout. Thats like having a Pinto aginst a 4 wheel drive truck in a pulling contest!

I find it hard to believe as well but it pulls as many cars as the U-boat. There is about 16oz. of steel weight and w/ rubber traction tires on the 4 wheels that actually drive it has a high tractive effort. But the L-L's are terrible runners (at least mine are)

[Anonymous]

I will say that the DCC decoders Bachmann fit are dire - the locos are good but the decoders are cheap and very nasty. Better to buy the standard version and drop a decoder in yourself - the Bachmann ones lack silent drive and BEMF and are therefore not the most pleasant of driving experiences!