Bachman?


R

rwbartel

New Member
I can remember back when i was young having Bachman loco's and roling stock. Looking back they were nothing close to good. Now a days i use either Atlas or Athern equipment. Just woundering how there quality is today? I see they have all the DCC products ( loco's, switches ) and so on.
How do there products stand up today as far as detail and quality?
 
Well, they still make the cheap stuff. But they also make the Spectrum line which is pretty quality stuff. I have a Spectrum On30 Shay and a set of log cars and they're spectacular.
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Coach purses
 
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The Bachmann "Spectrum" steam locos are pretty darn good for running and detail. My 2-8-0 also has a fairly realistic engineer in the cab.
 
Spectrum line is your best bet, but Bachmann has also had the leading warranty in the industry for quite some time. The product is warranted for the life of the owner. If you have an engine manufactured, say, in 2003, and it goes belly up, just get an RA from the Company and ship it back to them. Chances are you'll get a brand new replacement....or a reasonable substitute if that model is no longer available.
 
This is one of the most highly debated topics on any forum. Is Bachmann any good or not? Their Spectrum line of steam locomotives is top notch. Their Spectrum line of diesels is in my opinion is excellent as well. The detail is not as high, they are equal to a Proto 1000 an Atlas Trainman or an Athearn RTR in that respect. I have close to fifteen of them and mine all run excellent and they come with DCC as well for a lot less money than their competitors. Their decoders do not have as many functions as some other ones but most people only use forward/reverse and speed anyways. I am planning on buying two RS-3's and a GP-9 in Springfield later this month. I definitely recommend them and I hope they expand their line.
 
I too remember the el-cheapo Bachmann stuff from the 80's and 90's. In the last 10 years the quality has improved a great deal. I have Bachmann I bought 8 years ago that are still running and I'm still buying more. My most recent acquisitions are 2 GP30's, 2 GP7's and 1 G38-2. These are all standard line DCC OnBoard models and I haven't had one problem out of them with the exception of the GP30's which sound like somewhat like Athearn blue box models but other than that they run fine. The DCC OnBoard models are a bit light on detail but I don't like a lot of fine detail anyway. It just ends up getting broken off. That brings to mind another thing. The hand rails don't break off when you breath on them and can take a fair amount of handling.
 
I have 5 of the Spectrum Diesels. Two 44 tonners, a 70 Tonner, a GP30, and an H16-44. I run only DC and they all run very good after a short break in period. All have a DCC ready board and the 70 tonner is DCC dual mode equipped. Slow speed is very good on all. They all have a very slight motor or gear noise but nothing like the Athearn Blue Box engines and I don't find it annoying or objectionable. Earlier this week I had a chance to visit my neighbor OCMRRC Jeff and brought the 70 Tonner as his layout is all DCC. Jeff assigned the engine its default throttle ID of #3 and I switched for over an hour under DCC. It ran as good as it does back home here on DC.

To echo the others, for the money you'll do ok. All I ever do other than a break in is swap out the couplers for Kadee #148 since Kadees are my standard.
 
jeffrey-wimberly said:
These are all standard line DCC OnBoard models and I haven't had one problem out of them with the exception of the GP30's which sound like somewhat like Athearn blue box models but other than that they run fine.
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Interesting you mention that Jeffrey. Both my GP30 and H16-44 have that slight whine. I had the undec shell off the GP30 to prepare it for painting and just for the heck of it ran the bare chassis to see if I could nail down where the noise was coming from. Almost dead quiet so I guess the body shell is magnifying any "normal" mechanical noise. I'll take a closer look for anything contacting the hood sides or whatever but I won't loose too much time over it. As I said in my post, it isn't at all a big deal compared to some old BB Athearns and I live with those.
 
I'll echo some of the posters above with my recent experiences.

This past year I bought Bachmann HO diesels for the first time ever. I run all DC. I purchased some GP30s, GP35s, GP38-2s (I think), and 3 FTs (one FT I exchanged with the seller because of a loud humm).

In my experience you must take ALL the shells off the engines and do whatever is necessary to access the motor and gear tower bearings. About 1/2 of all these locos needed oil in at least one motor and/or gear bearing (you can tell when you apply a small drop and it disappears in a nano-second.) After doing this and running them, they quiet down a lot (but not as quiet as Atlas Trainman) and have no gear chatter like Athearn bluebox. They all are running fine and I take turns with them when I feel like it.

[Some on-line sellers sell these locos at rock-bottom prices, often when they are down to just a few left. These are generally good deals BUT note that these engines are the ones that have sat on the shelves the longest. Over time the oil and/or grease in the bearings can and does dry out.]

As info the FTs are great pullers; they have a lot of weight in them (I didn't add any). As a matter of fact any one of these engines, by itself, will pull a 61 car train that I have.

I also purchased about 10 Bmann SD40-2s this past year. I had to return 6 to Bmann and traded for some other locos. These all had gear chatter; I tried and tried to find and fix them - didn't succeed; frustrating. I do have two that are very quiet (don't hardly chatter at all) out of the box, pull very well and are quiet and smooth runners. The other two I had to keep because I did some internal mods.

Hope this is helpful.

DougC
 
I appreciate the inexpensive GP7s from Bachmann...no excess cast on details (like grab irons) that need to be chiseled off, and the removeable interference-fit dyn drake section is a nice touch!
 
I have no complaints from my Bachmann DCC onboard engines, they are all pretty darn quiet, run, and pull well. I too have a Spectrum GP30 that sounds like it's working on coming out the sides of the shell, but when the shell is removed is quiet as a mouse (I haven't had the time to tinker around with this anymore to solve the issue).

Bachmann also has the silver line of rolling stock which I find to be quite the bargain. What you get is athearn blue box quality (and sometimes much better) with metal wheel sets and KD style couplers for the $5-$15 price range on such websites as MBKleins. The detail, and correctness of the cars isn't 100% correct, but then again, if you're like me where the old Bowser and Athearn kits are just fine with a bit of fine tuning or as-is, then the Silver line is perfect. Plus, when you can buy 10 or 11 cars for the same price as 3 or 4 Genesis or Kadee cars, then your buck stretches much further and you can fill out your rolling stock roster much quicker.
 
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I have several HO and On30 Steam engines and On30 rolling stock from Bachmann's Spectrum Series. I love them all!! You can get them with DCC and sound on some. Just got a brand new On30 4-6-0 Baldwin for Xmas as a matter of fact.
 
Selector said:
Spectrum line is your best bet, but Bachmann has also had the leading warranty in the industry for quite some time. The product is warranted for the life of the owner. If you have an engine manufactured, say, in 2003, and it goes belly up, just get an RA from the Company and ship it back to them. Chances are you'll get a brand new replacement....or a reasonable substitute if that model is no longer available.
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If the item is older than one year (production date if you don't have a warranty card, or from the date of the warranty card), you now have to pay a modest repair fee. $15 for older HO/N, $25 for Spectrum and DCC on board/ready. $30 for O Scale, $50 for O scale Spectrum.

I have stuff from pretty much every "era" of bachmann production. The old Yellow box and White box was toy-quality junk. Spectrum was a step up at the time, but still not awesome.

These days, Spectrum is slightly better although most of the diesels are not up to today's standards. The Bachmann Spectrum electric locomotives are really nice, with the exception of the E60CP which is equally as nice but is not in the Spectrum line.

Bachmann's Silver Series is OK. The trucks are not interchangable with other brands due to the extra-large bolsters. The wheels are also not interchangable due to them being the shorter European (NEM) axle length. If you buy replacement wheels from Bachmann (the ones that come 12 to a blister pack) they will not fit because the replacement wheels are Intermountain clones.

The current Bachmann locomotives, which I call "Bachmann Blue Box" because they come in blue boxes, is OK. The detail is Athearn Blue Box quality but they have the Spectrum motors in them, are inexpensive, and run decently. Most of the blue box locomotives have DCC on-board. Bachmann also demoted their GE 44-tonner to "blue box" instead of Spectrum.
 
If it's new/expensive Bachmann, it's probably okay. If it's old/cheap Bachmann, don't bother. My scrap box has a few Bachmanns in it, and they were all the cheap stuff.
 
I've been happy with my G scale K-27s....I do however wished they had a better smoke system and SOUND pre-installed like my 3 truck shay.:confused:
 
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