Bachmann 2-8-4 Berkshire/Kanawha Parts Diagrams

[reinhardtjh]

For those that may be interested, Bachmann has posted parts diagrams for the new 2-8-4 Berkshire/Kanawha:

2-8-4 Berkshire w/sound Chassis
2-8-4 Berkshire w/sound Body
2-8-4 Berkshire w/sound Tender

If these diagrams are accurate it reveals some interesting things about the new releases.

• Standard Bachmann chassis design - no springs, no equalization
• It appears drivers 2 & 3 are gear driven with #3 having a traction tire. 1 & 4 look to be rod driven
• All versions have the same boiler
• The Kanawha's get different smokebox fronts and appliances, cabs and sand/steam dome placement
• The NKP 759 Railfan version with Mars light gets a different smokebox front and appliances also
• The Kanawha's also get a different tender shell and base
• The sound decoder plugs into a base circuit board on the tender.
• The NKP, C&O and PM all get different part #'s for the sound board implying different sounds for each

I hope these pull like the Heavy Mountain and not like the early Lights.  I also hope the plug design for the sound board follows some sort of "standard" like the PluX12/16/22 or Next18 so that decoders can be removed or switched more easily.

Now the question is, when will they show up?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Thanks John,
Looks like I will need the "A" tender for my B&M R1. I finally have all the other parts for the build. Looks like a lot of good parts to be had when they become available.

[Chris333]

Looks like a coreless motor.

[BeastofTheEast]

Do we have the answer? Are the wheels going to be really spoked as on their 2-6-0? Not a solid mass with ribs on the outside which Bachmann calls "die-cast, finescale driver spokes"?

[reinhardtjh]

Do we have the answer? Are the wheels going to be really spoked as on their 2-6-0? Not a solid mass with ribs on the outside which Bachmann calls "die-cast, finescale driver spokes"?

The trade show pictures Chris333 got show see-through spoked drivers.  https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=33389.msg383199#msg383199

So hopefully they make it through to the production model.

[jdcolombo]

As an NKP modeler, I can't wait for these to show up, and I'll just hope they are as good as the 2-8-0, the EM-1, the 2-10-2, and other recent-production Bachmann steam locos.  I have a dozen of the old Walthers/LL models, which run like a Swiss watch but out of the box will barely pull 6 cars and a caboose.   With a metal boiler and traction tires, maybe these will pull realistic-length consists.  I hope they are successful and that Bachmann does additional runs, like they did in HO scale.

And I FINALLY get a version of the NKP Berk with the Mars light!

John C.

[BeastofTheEast]

Potentially superior to the Proto version? Man I just wish those of us on DC who dont the DCC/Sound didnt have to pay extra for it.

[asarge]

C&O Sand/Steam dome placement correct. Smoke box front correct with correct placement of light and oval number plate. My God, SOLD!

And to think the LL people said N scalers didn't care about DCC or correct details. Somebody listened.

Now if the Bachymann can just do a C&O Heavy Mike and C&O Heavy Pacific, I might almost forget about the lack of an AS616.

[jdcolombo]

Potentially superior to the Proto version? Man I just wish those of us on DC who dont the DCC/Sound didnt have to pay extra for it.

You might not be paying extra (or more likely, just a little extra).  At some point, a manufacturer gets the costs of the "new tech" down to the point where doing double inventory actually costs them more than single inventory.  At that point, it is actually cheaper for them to just install a "dual mode" decoder and be done with it than to try to do two different versions.  I suspect this is where Bachmann is.  Remember that Bachmann is a huge manufacturer; they've probably got a VERY nice price point from Soundtraxx on the stripped-down Tsunami they use in the "sound value" line.  Given that we're at the point in the hobby where there is significant demand for factory DCC (if not factory sound), they probably made a sound business decision that the cost of two different runs was more than the cost of a single run with a "jack of all trades" decoder.   The only way to make it cheaper would be to NOT OFFER a DCC version AT ALL, but that would potentially hurt the overall sales volume.   

So I suspect at the end of the day, you're not paying much, if any, more than you would for a separate non-DCC/sound version.   It's sort of like a radio in a car.  At one time, radios were expensive options.   Then they got so cheap that it was easier for the manufacturer to just include the radio, whether the buyer wanted it or not.  At that point, it would cost the manufacturer MORE to do a "non-radio" version. 

So just buy 'em and be happy! 

John C.

[victor miranda]

once upon a time I wondered
How many ways are there to say "let them eat cake?"

victor

[CodyO]

plus you can stop making the choo choo sounds in your head!

[Chris333]

At Bachmann parts their 44 tonner chassis alone is $55. The chassis with circuit board (with DCC) is $100. The same circuit board I yanked out of mine. I have a hard time believing I didn't pay extra for that part.

If I buy this Berkshire I'll be selling the whole tender complete.

[jdcolombo]

At Bachmann parts their 44 tonner chassis alone is $55. The chassis with circuit board (with DCC) is $100. The same circuit board I yanked out of mine. I have a hard time believing I didn't pay extra for that part.

If I buy this Berkshire I'll be selling the whole tender complete.

If your radio in your car breaks and you have to buy it as a part, it's expensive. $500 for a radio.  A $20,000 car has $100,000 of parts if you buy them separately as parts. The price of replacement parts as parts has very little relationship to the cost of manufacture for the integrated whole.  Now, I'll admit that you probably paid something extra for the DCC board as part of the original puchase, but not $45.  Just as a radio probably makes a car a few dollars more expensive at manufacture.  But not the $500 it would cost to buy the radio as a part.

John C.

[Chris333]

Guess what I should have said was. Out of all the parts listed for the 44t the circuit board is the most expensive single part listed.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Its the most easily justifiable to extort a high premium. It is also the most likely to blow... so there is that.