Any early reports / opinions on how the Peter Witt Streetcars compare to other recent releases by Bachmann? Problems, praise etc. etc.???
I too have been waiting for a report on these find out what they are like beyond what Bachmann tells us. The 4-6-0, GP7 and 70 tonner have had multiple threads but nothing for the Peter Witt, I would have thought a good running and detailed, DCC equipped street car would have gotten more attention by now. Is no one buying them because they've been stung by previous Bachmann street cars?
You mean the PCC coffee grinders? Well, that's what mine sounded like, until it died. It was fascinating to watch it lurch down the track - I could see what a trolley car would look like if it had egg-shaped wheels! :tb-biggrin:
I hadn't visited Spookshow's site since he reviewed the Peter Witt, he gives it a pretty good review. Which makes it more surprising nothing much has been posted here, do we really only post about things we want to complain about? I may look into getting one. I wonder how it would go for repowering a PCC.
Being that the only things with that the Peter Witts have in common with Brills and PCCs are that all three have eight wheels and a plastic trolley pole. There is almost no point in comparing them. From reports on the N Scale Traction Yahoo Group. And from my observations at the Atlanta WGH show. They look great the are almost silent and weight almost nothing compared the the new PCCs. The DCC works perfectly. Most of our questions are on how or if a working trolley pole can be mounted and wired. The Bachmann Rep was almost no help. He was amazed when I showed him Brills modified for use with live overhead. I know they will travel on 140mm (5.5 inch) radius Mini Fine Track. I'm not sure about 103mm. The two problems we have found is the slow distribution and the fact that this is a single city design. This is a Baltimore only car. The Brill and PCC designs were used in many cities with variations to suit each transit company. The term Peter Witt Car refers to the single side doors and one set was used as entrance and the other exit. There were many designs. Butt if you want streetcar that runs with DCC and looks and sounds good doing it. Buy the Bachmann Peter Witt Streetcar. Part of the slow spread of knowledge on these cars is the lack of traction modelers. The price jump is quiet hard to deal with as well. Going from $20-39 to $75 street price is tough to swallow for something you have to modify extensively. By the way, Bachmann has fixed the Coffee Grinder Syndrome by changing the plastic in the axle gears. The new streetcars sold in the larger plastic case. It is easy to check iof it is new stock. Look for black gears when you look at the bottom of the trucks.
That and the lack of traction modelling in N Scale are probably the reasons you are not hearing more about the Peter Witt.
Mine runs well on DC. I left the decoder in it. I would recommend it to anyone. It is a major improvement over the Brill/PCC mechanism. In fact, I am somewhat less than impressed with the 'new, improved' mechanism of the Brill/PCC. I am impressed with the Peter Witt car. Might an interurban be in the works on a similar mechanism?
Soon is a relative thing. It took 20+ years to get the Peter Witt from Bachmann. Resin Bodies from companies like Miniatures By Eric, Island Modelworks and IHP won't take that long. CNC and 3D printers will make city specific bbodies more common. Traction is less than 5% of the N scale market. So it will be underground for quite a while. The DCC adds about half the extra cost. Time and quantity will reduce it more. The drive will eventually become the standard traction chassis.
Perhaps traction is only 5% of the N scale market because until now with the Peter Witt, or Kato's Portram if modern light rail is your thing, you haven't been able to go into a hobby shop and buy a decent street car. I think it's a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Nn3 might not be such a niche market if a major manufacturer decided to put a bit of effort into it either but we're getting a bit OT here, the original question was merely about how good or bad Bachmann's new offering was. I think we've established that it's not bad and the mechanism could be good fodder for kitbashing projects.
I think it is the overhead wires that scare people off. In fact, in Japan, they just pretend, its there. In Europe where there is heavy electrical usage, they build model trains that run off overhead. The traction community has always been just a subgroup no matter the scale. Although streetcars may be returning to our streets very slowly many modelers have no connection to streetcars. Even during the heyday of electric railroading there were few modelers that ran under wire. Most people built their own from available parts. The part of traction modeling that scares manufacturers is that few systems had the same equipment. Look how long it took ConCor to make the Electroliner in HO. Two different calls for orders over twenty years. Now that they've made it, they're about to do a second run. And if they get enough requests they will make it in N scale. Most of the companies ordered equipment tailored to their specific needs. Chicago could not sell their decade old PCCs because of their 9 foot width and 50 foot length. The PCCs that run in Chicago colors in San Francisco and Kenosha today, are only painted in the CSL/CTA design. Even the models sold do not represent the equipment that ran on the streets of Chicago. The Peter Wittt and PCC cars from Bachmann have only the number of wheels and paint colors in common the cars the CSL and CTA ran. A weird point I wish to add. A manufacturer will add a $30 DCC decoder, but won't add $15 worth of operating poles. Although completely wrong, I will still buy a CSL Peter Witt when I can afford one.
