This review is on Bachmann's original F9A with the 8 wheel drive chassis.
Bachmann's original F9s have a better drive than the ones driven by a pancake motor, as well as a better shell. This shell has dual headlights, see-through fan vents, and more molded on details, like grab irons and a coupler lift bar on the front pilot. Although there is a pretty good amount of different details, they're not done real well. Many things, like the doors and windshields, are noticably oversized, while the portholes and ladders are undersized. If you're good at super-detailing, or scratchbuilding, or something similar, you might be able to fix these problems. This version of the F9 is actually painted unlike the later ones, which were molded in color and didn't look good at all. All the coats of paint are very smooth and even, with decent color separation. The printed lettering is fine, but it's thin enough that it isn't a good, solid white. The horns are more detailed than the later ones, but they had large seams that didn't make them look very good. The number boards are a little high, and actually slightly cover the molded on marker lights. The trucks don't have much detail, but what detail they do have is very flat. The newer, more detailed Bachmann sideframes are a perfect fit, so they're easy to replace. The couplers are mounted to the frame (I've since replaced mine with Kadees; not an easy task), and they had to make them stick out very far to compensate for the large truck gearboxes, so multiple F units won't couple very closely without severe modification.
The F9 ran smoothly at all speeds, and only made an average amount of noise at realistic speeds. It reached a top speed of about 118 scale MPH at 12 volts, and drew 0.33 amps running free. The lowest speed I could maintain was about 7 scale MPH. When stalled at 12 volts, it drew a maximum of 1.1 amps. When I got mine, Bachmann hadn't put any oil anywhere, so I greased the gears and oiled the bearings pretty quickly. You may want to check that if you get one. Although the metal frame is very large, there's a lot of empty space, so it weighs less than a pound. It should still be able to pull about 30 free rolling cars, which is probably still more than any real F-unit could pull on its own. Interestingly, on Bachmann's oldest 8 wheel drive units, the entire metal frame was painted a light green, and the metal plate that retains the motor and worms was painted blue. Bachmann fixed that pretty quickly, so mine came with a black frame. All the wheels are driven and pick up electricity, and also have fairly small flanges for their time, so it should run pretty reliably. The worm and idler gears are all black plastic, and the axle gears are a silvery metal (steel?), so you won't have to worry about any wear in the gears. The motor is pretty good quality and has a 5-pole armature, but it's not skewed, so it cogs easily and doesn't run well at low speeds. I'd still say it's better than Athearn's Jet 400 motors from the same time. The motor gets its power through the frame, so DCC may not be very easy, but there is plenty of room for a decoder and sound system in the roof area.
Bachmann's "Super 8-Wheel Drive" F9s are pretty good quality engines. They're not extremely well detailed, but their smooth running and reliabilty easily make-up for that.
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Thanks Darth,
I always read your reviews of older models with great interest, as these are the models that I am typically in a posistion to aquire. Since I do not have a massive stash of older model train magazine issiues to go back and do comparative reviews. Its also nice to know your opinions on how they compare to todays modern items, and what would be needed to update them and how easy or hard that might be.
James