Being a PRR guy means I buy a lot of Bachmann Man...has their stuff gotten better since 1986 (last time I was into this) I even bought a couple of those B&O compounds....I'll justify it later. Nice detail....nicer everything than back when
Try one of the new S4 engines. It might not pull all that many cars, but it creeps along at a snail's pace. Pretty impressive!
A lot has changed since 1986. Others have also improved. And much more is available, with new things coming all of the time.
+1. I was mighty impressed with the S4 when I got it. The EM-1 is also pretty darn impressive. Quality and performance from Bachmann! I've read about long term reliability issues, though. Hoping this won't be a problem for mine.
Right now, I'm sorta coveting those M1s from BLI. Their office is about 12mi from here in Ormond Beach, so I've seen the model....just been buying so much track and turnouts and stuff, I can't stretch the extra at the moment.....soon though. Very soon..2 would do me
We can't mention specific retailers for fear of getting others upset but a large dealer in the eastern U.S. has several roadnames in stock for about half MSRP, just Google 'Bachmann N scale S4' and you'll find some.
There are sure enough of them around....I (of course) ended up at XXXX:teeth: for a bit, and dropped a lowball bid on F7a and F7b and a single B unit....got all three powered Spectrum units for under 40 bucks! NIB too. good day for me. I'll get a S4 next in week or so...I do like those NW switchers too...I can use 'em. One at least, at that price
I have heard a lot of people say the new switchers are great. Back not too long ago when Bachmann decided it was going to buy out the industry and left companies like Atlas scrambling to get their production back up I decided I would test some of their new stuff (as the last time I had owned Bachmann was when I was like 12) as me and a few others felt that with this monopoly if they really cleaned up their act they might become more than just a junk builder. I tested 5 locos at the train shop that day. If I recall it was 3 HO GP35's, a GP38, and 1 SD40. I was looking at doing CSX at the time because Im quite fond of the dark future paint scheme. The 35's were horrible. Couldn't crawl. Throttle was at 50% before they would start moving (and yes, they were on the DCC track. They just sat there with the lights on humming). 1 was actually bad straight out of the box and the guy took it to send it back. Gears all sounded rough. Reminded me of my old train set GP40. The SD40 on the other hand sounded smooth. Ran nicely. We even put it on the stores massive layout and put a mixed freight on the back of it and it pulled smoothly and quietly. The only thing about that model that bugged me was the molded details. I am by no means a rivet counter, but a brake wheel should never be molded on. I ended up buying my Athearn GP60M in BNSF Heritage II that day. For 40 dollars more it had better details and as for performance it was almost par with the SD40 I almost bought. If they put a little more effort into quality control so that all their locos drives came out like that SD40s, and maybe had a couple separately applied details, then I would be willing to give them a shot.
Things are sounding pretty good. I haven't bought one the S4s, because for the moment I'm still happy with my little old Arnold S2 just because it has that magical orange and black colour scheme, but if Bachman ever does a run of the S4 in Milwaukee colours, I might be interested. I do have one of the 44 tonners, which really impressed the guys at the local Ntrak club, except that it was undecorated in plain red, so when I ran it with a little red bobber caboose, they said it looked like the train only had a caboose on either end. Maybe, since they sometimes seem to duplicate things other manufacturers have made, like the RS2/3, we might be able to cound on Bachmann to someday give us new locos that we no longer see such as Erie-Builts or FAs similar to the Life-like ones which are getting hard to find.
I'll have to keep that in mind, but I'm still quite happy with my old Arnold S-unit. It is extremely sure footed and very forgiving of bad trackage. I might consider getting another 44 tonner, though, if I can. I'd also love to see Bachmann come out with a nice, new, redesigned PCC since they have proven they can make a good mechanism with the Peter Witt streetcar, you would think that a new, realistic looking PCC with a nice smooth motor in it would be a snap.
Yes, Bachmann has made major improvement in performance. Although I am a Pennsy fan too, I have 12 Spectrum steam and an EM1. This is strictly my opinion. I have found that they have very delicate especially with the steam chest linkage. Then again, I have a tendency to get a little heavy handed. Have fun railroading, Ron
