Has anyone seen the inside of one of the ER Sharks? Does the mech look good? Are the couplers pilot or body mounted, or truck mounted? As someone suggested: The mech must be decent as it will take DCC.
For some reason this mechanism has had a lot of bad press, I think undeserved. The mechanism is quite good although a little noisier than some. This seems to be because of the additional gearing to get it to run nice and slow. The prototype was famous for pulling heavy, slow freight drags and this model duplicates that very nicely. It has excellent speed control and pulls well. The one weak point is the contact strips between the truck and frame. They are fragile and could have been designed better. They work fine as long as they are installed correctly and not disturbed. Body detail is nice, too, with separately applied wire handrails and grabs. Conversion to DCC is simple. Remove two screws holding the light board and swap in a decoder. The only negative for me is the truck-mounted Rapido couplers. I used the MTL conversion, but body-mounts could probably be installed with a little work. Note: I have not actually tried body-mounting. [ December 17, 2005, 05:40 PM: Message edited by: Mike Kmetz ]
I agree with Mike. The noise doesn't bother me. They seem to be a tad weaker as pullers than some other B-B units, but I haven't really tested that fairly. They earn a decent B+ from me.
The mechanism is "bachmanesque". mainly because Bachmann made these for ER. with that said, they are good Bachmanesque - pretty much on par with the better spectrum releases. I have a couple sets and agree with the above - a little noisier than one would like, but decent runners none the less - as with any bachmann, it is highly recommended to inspect and test thoroughly before buying, and if unable to do so make sure you get them from a reputable dealer who will stand behind the sale.
I put Kato's current truck mounted coupler in the A unit nose, works and looks great. I put Unimate couplers on other end and on B units for close coupling. Run great but a lot more noise that Kato or Atlas, but to me they sound about right.
I'd say they are a little better than the spectrum releases--at least of the F-7s. I haven't looked at the axle gears. I hope they don't crack like the Spectrum F-7s did. I have an ABBA consist, all with decoders. I used MTs at either end, and Unimates between models. They are one of my favorite consists--certainly unfussy on the track (unlike, say, the Kato PAs).
Pete, interesting you should mention the gears. When the Sharks first came out I noticed the first run had black (typical Delrin) gears. Later runs had white gears - looked like cheap Bachmann nylon stuff to me. I spoke with Al Muniz at ER about this and expressed concern about the possibility of cracked gears. He said he checked with the factory and was assured the white gears were "virgin" acetal plastic and would not be a problem. Methinks this was a "snow job". I never heard of white acetal plastic. Only time will tell. Maybe we can once again depend on NWSL to supply us with replacement gears. NWSL uses "aged" acetal plastic to eliminate shrinkage that causes gears to crack. They also machine the gears, not cast them so they run more true (thus more expensive).
As mentioned, Bachmann made them for ER and has released them under their own name now. They are supoosed to be the exact same unit and shell that ER sold, just with the Bachmann Spectrum name on them now.
Excellent runners, excellent slow speed control good pullers. noisy (does not particullarly bother me), truck to frame contact similar to B-personn F-units, not a good design. Much better slow speed control that the SPECTRUM or Plus Fs. The Sharks will hold a steady ten SMPH. Neither the SPECTRUM nor Plus Fs will do that. Either of the Fs will hold a steady thirty-five SMPH, but no lower. I use UniMates between the units and on the tail of the B. I use the C-C knuckle coupler for the pilot of the A. I have a couple with the 1133/1134, but I found that in most cases, the MT coupler box did not want to go into place on the E-R truck. I did have one A-A pair that was stalling on plain level track for no reason. I tried cleaning out the dirt and excess grease (this worked for IM FTs that had the same problem), but did so in vain. Finally, I hardwired the pair together, this worked. hardwiring is easy on these as you can use the screws on the lightboards to hold the wires; the screws will also make electrical contact. This lets those of you who are not the best at soldering avoid it. It also saved me the trouble of getting out my soldering gun. Why bother with that when a screwdriver will work?
I did like wise with the couplers. I run an ABBA set. As far as the noise problem I experienced that when I first got them. I was running them off an MRC powerpack. However, at the club I ran them on Aristo Craft radio throttles and the noise was non existant. The difference is that the Aristo throttles use filtered DC with no pulse or spike. Eliminate the electrical spike and you eliminate the noise. They will still make noise if you run them in the top end of the controller but that is noise associated with the gearing and not the motor. The one problem I did experience was excess lubrication. My one A unit must have been dropped in a bucket of gear grease.
brokemoto, Before I went to DCC, I hardwired my ABBA Bachmann F-7s together, and they ran much better. While they are white metal frames, and somewhat solderable, I drilled small, deep holes in the frames, and "stuffed" the wires in before trying to solder. Of course, when the gears cracked on a B unit, I had to undo them.
A friend of mine replaced the Rapidos with MTs. It is noisier than anything else I have (except my Bachmann Fs). But my A-B units pull up hill and dale with no problem. Now you've got me worried about the white gears...
I put MTs on the noses of the A units, and used Unimates in between. I've found they quiet down a bit with a lot of running--I ran the consist for eight hours a few weeks ago, and it smoothed out. Not much, but a little.
