I was happy with my HHP-8 and Amfleet cars. Bachmann has now released the full Acela Express train in N scale, after a three year delay. I am glad to report this is a great train! The packaging is the same as current Bachmann releases. The oversized jewel cases feature a clear plastic cradle that securely holds the models in place. The Café car features a new type of nest that is very rugged. The paint is sharp on all cars and I could find no errors. The silver was the right tint and did not have the “speckled” look a lot of models do. The blue was well masked and tinted correctly. The Acela Logo and access panel highlights re well done and feature a high grain transition to colors unlike other complex schemes (Kato’s UP flag and Microscale’s Geneses Amtrak stripping) that have a “dot-matrix” effect. The cars measure up to every spec I could find. The cars have the right cross section that widens out towards the middle of the car from the roof and truck areas. Wire roof details and pantographs were great. The fluting was right on the money, and the vents, trucks and windows are sharp and incredibly intricate. I wish they had tinted the windows a bit darker though. The Acela mechanism is very strange. The “power cars” are dummies and the Café car powers the train. This is similar to Kato and Tomix bullet train construction. The Café features a very heavy cast metal floor and a traction tire on each truck. I wish they put the traction tires on the same axle on one truck as this reduces truck twisting when under load. Traction tire twist can contribute to derailing. This is an easy swap. Electricity is picked up via knife edge pickups. These are mounted behind the wheel and double as inside bearings (there are no needlepoint axles on the cars). Electrical contact is assured because these thin plates are sprung by leaf springs that also collect electricity, much like standard Kato electrical pickups on their cab units. DCC is on board and wired to the five-pole motor. Long driveshafts deliver the torque to the gear towers. Speed range is good with low starting speed and a high top end, perfect or the Acela. Like other passenger-car based power, there are no flywheels so movement over dirty track can be a bit jerky. No stalls were detected. The end units are probably the most interesting part of the train. Some of you may know that Bachmann announced these in 2002 or 2003 and then pulled the project. At that initial announcement, the train was to be end powered. That is, the end power units would power the train and the passenger cars (including the café) would be along for the ride. The end units feature a split PLASTIC frame! That’s right. It looks like the initial powered end design was almost complete when they retooled the train. The end result is a split plastic frame, a hollow spot in the middle large enough for a motor (a lead weight takes its place for ballast), and trucks that feature a gear tower without gears! The electrical box at the top features a hidden slot for a switch (presumably to switch between track and CAT power as on the HHP-8). Even stranger is the fact that these trucks feature low friction (needlepoint) electrical pickups! I wonder if Bachmann originally intended to build these with needlepoint pickups, or if this was the result of the retooling effort. It would be nice to see this be the transition over to current design standards. Maybe we will see this needlepoint system in the B23 or H16. In any event, the pantograph is a dumbly and isolated electrically. A DCC decoder is installed in each end unit to control headlights. Keep in mind the interior lights of the passenger cars are NOT DCC controlled. The other cars include Busneiss, End Buesness and First Class. These are all unpowered and include full interiors and lighting. The truck roll freely. All cars feature working diaphragms with a swing coupler. The coupler is a bar/hook type and once coupled if difficult to uncouple. The cars stay at a constant distance between each other even on curves. This keeps the operating diaphragms close together and is a very nice touch. I was unable to notice any pendulum movement of the cars on a curve. The prototype tilts very faintly anyway (due to the cars being 4” too wide), so this isn’t as disappointing as it may seem. Here is a diagram for the full train: Like the HHP-8, this train sets a new standard for Bachmann. The set is very well done and could easily been mistaken for a premium brand. At a street cost of less then $300 for a set, and a full train going about $400, this actually costs considerably less then a full set by Kato (the Super Chief runs about $550 for the full train including motive power). It is about the same cost as a Bullet train, or TGV. Grade: A [ December 25, 2005, 07:32 PM: Message edited by: daniel_leavitt2000 ]
Is there a standard or typical arrangement of cars in an Acela train? If there is, is it just as shown in the illustration in Daniel's post? Do these consists vary as to number of cars, and their order in the train? Thanks, Al
the image above is the the standard acela setup. they are configured in the shop and cannot be easily uncoupled in the field, as it's a bolt connectioned drawbar instead of a standard coulper.
This is the second review that I've read on the Bachmann Acela and I think I'm definately sold on the HHP-8 . daniel_leavitt2000, great review, I can now buy the set with confidence.
Daniel, thx for the report. I think you need to fix the 'IMG' tags in your original post - an extra space or something is there causing the pictures not to appear. Happy Holidays!
Daniel, Thanks for the review. I'd love to pick one up. I wish they would release an un-decorated. Is that photo at South Station? If so, who do i talk with to find out the rules on taking photos? Thanks!
Now George, you know we all want it in Warbonnet! I think a special run by Wig Wag is in order. [ December 25, 2005, 10:45 AM: Message edited by: Big Snooze ]
Moi? do that? what a Great! ....Northern idea! By the way, what am i getting for Christmas? I gave my sister a link to your Atlas pages. Edit: I think she is sending me pictures. Nice. [ December 25, 2005, 03:03 PM: Message edited by: Grey One ]
If I were Bachmann and wanted to sell some more Acela cars, I'd release more than one road number of the business car, since there are three in the typical train.
The HO version has 4 different numbers for the car, so I'd guess they'd do the same for the N scale version too.
If they do with the Acela as they did with the Amfleet cars the individual cars will not have road numbers so you can add as many as you like. If you model the NE corridor and operate a fastclock system you might need to have several sets if you setup a 20-hr operating session and run a 10:1 fast clock. Here's hoping they understand such things. They were suposed to arrive here Friday but we never saw 'Brown'. I guess they took the day off. Now it will be Tuesday before we see them. GRRrrrrr.
Imagers have been fixed. As you can see the blue and green colors are about perfect. I irdered three of the busneiss class cars. The Cafe I have is numbered, so I would assume the others are as well. I hope every busneiss car is painted the same. That would drive me nutts to have a $400+ train set with large blue and green patches in the wrong place. Speaking of the patches, I never really noticed how revolutionary this paint scheme really is. I have not been able to find any other passenger train with anything quite as unique as the "patches". I really like it. I have never had a problem photographing at South Station. Of corse having a police department ID definatly helps when asked.
Thanks for your review, Dan. I noticed the couplers in one of your pictures. They are not your standard knuckle. How do these work, and are they hard to uncouple when you put them back into their boxes?
