What does everyone thing of the new Bachmann Birney?
Is it even available yet, or just announced as a future product? The web sites I found all indicate that they are just taking advanced reservations, so it may not actually have been produced.
I have one of Bachmann's previous streetcar models and it runs smoothly, although they are very susceptible to dirty track or dirty wheels because they are so lightweight.
You mean this:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=3570
found by putting 'birney' in the search box on the product page
Looks neat - I'm not much into traction but this is definitely a big step up from the old Mantua/Tyco ones they started in the 50's. It's in the Spectrum line so it should be a decent runner, but like all small 4 wheel items it's probably going to be a bit picky about track cleanliness.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
charlieB What does everyone think of the new Bachmann Birney?
What does everyone think of the new Bachmann Birney?
I think the list price is an awful lot of money for a little HO single truck Birney.
CNJ831
Yup, 'spensive. BUT, observing that there's no motor showing and that there's an interior and some nice detail; and IF it's a REALLY GOOD RUNNER; I'd consider it. If I needed one.
I'll note that back in the olden days there were three streetcar/interurban kits from Pennsylvania Scale Models and about a jillion brass streetcar/interurban cars from Suydam. Now there's a Birney and some PCC cars. Kinda sad.
Ed
7j43k I'll note that back in the olden days there were three streetcar/interurban kits from Pennsylvania Scale Models and about a jillion brass streetcar/interurban cars from Suydam. Now there's a Birney and some PCC cars. Kinda sad.
As you may well be aware, Ed, traction modeling comprised a very significant portion of both the HO and O scale hobbies back in the 40's, 50's and 60's. For the serious traction modeler there were a wealth of RTR brass and wood craftsman kit models. I personally liked the trolley kits from Paul Moore, back in the day. Now traction has declined to the point where the mainstream magazines rarely, if ever, make any mention of it. Indeed, it's sad.
For reference, I've got a Bachmann Peter Witt trolley, which they introduced a few years back. This is an 8-wheel model. I added a sound-only decoder to it. (It comes with DCC.) The metal chassis comes with a small speaker well. I don't know if the Birney has that, but it certainly made adding sound a lot easier.
It runs very well and I don't have any pickup problems with it, as long as I keep my track clean.
Both Micro-Mark and Walthers put the Peter Witts on sale with a decent discount as soon as they came out. You'll probably find these at much better than MSRP.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The Western Depot in Yuba City CA has had some (Sacramento Northern) for several weeks. They look great, except that the poles are too long. If I weren't in HO, I would have bought one. I hope they bring it out in N Scale.
http://www.westerndepot.com/advanced_search_result.php?osCsid=f1e8641258ed51ba65b32bc6468ac7af&search_in_description=1&keywords=birney&osCsid=f1e8641258ed51ba65b32bc6468ac7af&x=4&y=8
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
CNJ831traction modeling comprised a very significant portion of both the HO and O scale hobbies back in the 40's, 50's and 60's. For the serious traction modeler there were a wealth of RTR brass and wood craftsman kits.
Indeed, Chutton01, back 30 and more years ago the Walthers Catalog was a principle source of trolley, interurban, electric mu car parts and kits, all long since vanished from the hobby scene.
Incidentally, anybody around the hobby long enough to recall Walthers' Shuttle Jack, their NH and PRR electric mu cars and a few of their other truly unique items of long ago, today all missing from the hobby except in brass form?
Thats what I am afraid of,something so light might have pickup problems
David Parks I am the terror that flaps in the night!
I have seen it advertised for alot less then that.And the good thing for me is I only need two.
If you haven't got the whole dang floor
Build your layout on a 2 x 4
To small radius lay your track
And add a Walthers Shuttle-Jack
Those that remember that from the Walthers catalog really have been around for while. Another thing about those old catalogs was that the figures they sold all had names - so the illustration of, say, a passenger car would describe the part number of the car, the trucks, and then say something like "Lena relaxes while Joe watches the scenery"
Granted the Shuttle-Jack was suppsoed to represent a gas-electric carm not a trolley, so it was more like an alternative to those wanting the small space of traction but not wanting trolley poles and wire.
Another gone from the scene traction supplier was Ken Kidder. Periodically one of them shows up at a train show. Usually at a rather high price.
It was the 1977 catalog that included Walthers new line of CNS&M interurbans including the rebuilt parlor cars. I think I built about 15 of them in later years. Trolley modeling was always expensive, even back then the units to power the trolleys were 20 bucks and up. If I remember right the North Shore kits were around 16 bucks, trolley poles were about 5 bucks a pair and the over head wires and fittings were not cheap either. I miss it....
Yes I remember those.What got me hooked on traction was the Suydam catalog.I would go over it for hours...............
rrinker If you haven't got the whole dang floor Build your layout on a 2 x 4 To small radius lay your track And add a Walthers Shuttle-Jack Those that remember that from the Walthers catalog really have been around for while. Another thing about those old catalogs was that the figures they sold all had names - so the illustration of, say, a passenger car would describe the part number of the car, the trucks, and then say something like "Lena relaxes while Joe watches the scenery"
Ahhhh yes, I recall that little ditty well...and the crudely made little HO figures with names (there were 18 different ones!) that popped up in the Walthers Catalog illustrations, too!
It gives me a chuckle these days to read poster's pronouncements that curved track with a radii of any less than 26" just won't do. As I recall, the minimum operating radius for the Shuttle Jack was 12"-14", while things like the Mantua 0-4-0's were cited at 4"-6" ! And how about Walthers' stamped steel "Pug" passenger cars from that same era? Now there's an entire thread storyline in itself!
And then there's the photo (back of MR?) of Varney's Dockside on a "loop" of track where the inside rail's a silver dollar. That's a bit over a 1" radius!
And, by the way, the minimum radius of a real Baldwin 660 HP switcher (of 1937) was 6.9" (in HO) without train. Truck swing would have been 10 degrees--not all that much, to me. And early Alco S-class switchers took the same radius. Take that, Mantua 0-4-0!
What i used to get a chuckle over were those Docksiders running around those small 2" radii curves...and, yes, if anyone wanted to get into an arguement about them not being able to use those small curves...I have a few pictures of them in prototype...that usually ends the discussion right there!
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Who didnt have a few Varney Docksides?
One one layout I built I wanted a trolley loop through my town. I had one of those old Tyco cars - complete with the palstic 'street' track. I used the street track for my town, even painted part of one piece a different gray and put up some cones. To close off the loop I put a station on the outskirts of my little town, adjacent to the station on the main track, and connected it with some flex track, in one corner I bent it down as sharp as I could get it without kinking it. The street track was 6" radius, my curve was probably closer to 3", and it worked. There definitely are some benefits to traction modeling if you have limited space