Bachman diesel offerings

[Bill H]

Group:
The Connies are solid. The EM-1s are simply the best steamers I have, even better than the revered KATO Mikes. The EM-1s are very quiet, superb slow speed control and will pull your hat off. But have to agree with the crowd on the diesels. They ain't much. Bottom of the proverbial barrel for diesels.

Kind regards,
Bill

[SkipGear]

I'm not a diesel guy so mine don't see the mileage to have many complaints. My best frame of reference is a buddy with a large B&O themed basement sized operations layout. He was getting fed up with the Atlas GP7 and GP9's he had loosing contact to the decoders. He had 12 on the layout and every op session one or 2 would need to be taken down because the decoder needed wiggling to make contact again. He decided to do a test of the Bachmann GP7's when they originally came out in B&O. His thinking was that he wouldn't be as upset if one hit the floor during an op session and if they were at least as reliable as the Atlas, they would replace them. He bought 2 to test, ran them for 2 sessions but didn't tell his crew what brand they were, to get an objective review of them. His op crew is mainly made up of HO scale modelers so they are critical of the N stuff no matter what the brand. After those 2 sessions, the Atlas loco's now stay in the yard and he bought 14 more Bachmann GP7's to replace them. They have been running strong for 4 years+ now with no hiccups. Since then he has had success with the F Units, 44 ton, and of course all of their B&O steam offerings.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Oh god I forgot about the SD45. I had pre-ordered 3 of them when they first came out. What a train wreck.

Shell highlights include:
Shell floating over the mechanism. Like a full 18" of space between the tank and the sill.
Rear radiator wings are wonky.
Blower duct? What's that? (fixed in later runs)
Tall cab windows.

And that chassis... poor pickup, using multiple friction fit contacts to get from the wheels to the frame halves.

I ended up putting the lot of them in my parts box years ago. Long since cut up and stripped of anything usable. What a waste of $300.

Oh Pete, I was grouping the Acela and HHP-8 together. Yes I was referring to the hippo.

[SkipGear]

Hey, when you fixed the SD45 it made a nice looking loco. Just took too much work to fix. Mine is still running as part of my son's Ntrak consist so it gets probably 10 hours a year run time, 2-3 hours at a time.

[LIRR]

I can’t speak for their N scale offerings, however I have 11 of their HO products - 4 F units, 4 RS3s and 3 Geeps - all with DCC & sound. No complaints whatsoever.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

@SkipGear has the ONE SD45 that me think that MAYBE they weren't simply made as a joke.

I love the SD45.

But I never even considered the bachmann ones as serious models.

That said, I love my 44 Tonner. It may have a too wide hood but you know what? Nobody else has had the stones to do one, so I'll start what I can get.

That reminds me, maybe I should go paint that GP9 I've got hanging around.

The biggest thing I don't like about Bachmann diesels are the hood door panel lines. I feel like they just don't handle those as well as other manufacturers.

[SkipGear]

@Ed Kapuscinski - Thank you, funny you mention hood width, that is why I went with the Bachmann over the Kato. The Kato SD45 always looked too wide and heavy to me. I would love to slide that shell over a kato mech but it won't fit.

The early Bachmann Spectrum shells are nice if you take off the 4 lbs of paint they dipped them in. Newer stuff no longer seems to be painted with a 4" brush and latex exterior paint.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ugh. I know.

I just got one of the new Atlas GP35s. It's really nice until you look at it from the front. Or top.

[ChristianJDavis1]

@Ed Kapuscinski - Thank you, funny you mention hood width, that is why I went with the Bachmann over the Kato. The Kato SD45 always looked too wide and heavy to me. I would love to slide that shell over a kato mech but it won't fit.

The early Bachmann Spectrum shells are nice if you take off the 4 lbs of paint they dipped them in. Newer stuff no longer seems to be painted with a 4" brush and latex exterior paint.

Actually, I have a Bachmann Spectrum SD45, which I tried to lower and was unimpressed with my results, so I fit it to a new run (DCC-ready) Kato SD40 mechanism. The trucks need slight modification, but it fits well enough and I don't think it looks too out of place. I can provide a picture if that would help?

[SkipGear]

I never tried it on the newer mechanism. I was looking at the original Kato SD45 at the time.

[ChristianJDavis1]

I never tried it on the newer mechanism. I was looking at the original Kato SD45 at the time.

Ah, okay; my mistake. I wanted DCC in mine (something my lowered mechanism wouldn't easily allow for), so I tried it even if I knew the Kato was thicker. It's a little awkward to get situated, but the end result is it sits pretty close in height to other engines from Atlas or Kato.

[SkipGear]

Mine was originally planned for DC with a ditch light simulator that was triggered by pushing down on the air horns to turn them on and off. It eventually was converted to DCC. The frame has a little over 2mm removed from the side rails to lower the shell and then I added phosphorbronze pickup wipers for something like atlas/kato truck equalization pickups. It was a fun project but not one I ever want to duplicate again.

[Mark5]

Hey, when you fixed the SD45 it made a nice looking loco.

Out of the box, the bachmann SD45 needs a lot of fixing. A lot. The radiator flares are  ... just wrong.

What Skipgear did with it is amazing.

Hopefully some day we'll get something better than the fat hood Kato SD45 - but for now its the best game in town.

Mark