So, how much begging would be required to make a Bmann China a Bmann US?

Started by Flashwave, May 13, 2010, 09:27:18 PM

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Flashwave

It has come to awreness in the MRR forums, of the existance of a Bachmann Spectrum China Schnabel Car. (As in, made for and sold by the Chian division of Bachmann) Currently, there is one nice, flexible, but somewhat lengthy kit available in the US, and proabably room for an RTR. I know of three in the MRRs that would get one.

The mold's been done by a factory, so that part of thelegwork is clear. What say you guys?

Pacific Northern

Seeing that Bachmann imported the SY 2-8-2 as a Spectrum model to the US I would assume that if there is a strong demand for this item it would be imported.

There is the option of buying it from the Chinese vendor who advertised in on e-bay.
Pacific Northern

richg

I saw the posting about this on  05-11-2010 8:28 PM in the Trains.com Model Railroader forum. Looks interesting. Not something I would be interested in though.

Rich

ABC

Modern Schnabel Cars with loads would be about 340 feet long, the car without a load is about 230 feet, and not to mention they have 36 axles (18 on each side). So no one could practically run a modern Schnabel car even at their local club, you would need to have huge curves to not have clearance issues with passing trains and scenery.

jbsmith

There is a recent posting of the schnabel car over in the Atlas forums.
It appears to have four articulated trucks with 8 axles.
The whole thing apears to be highly articulated, and not just at the trucks either, it is not one long rigid frame at all.
the post has a number of good photos as well.

the following is a direct quote from the original post in the Atlas forum.

"The overhang of the load is significant on tight curves (less than 48"R)....so make sure things are away from the track....even other trains. But then...this sort of "dimension extra" is routed to avoid such issues in the real world. On the other hand, the trucks track beautifully. They have trucks/wheelsets designed to be able to negotiate tight curves. I ran it around a 24" curve on my office layout and it was fine...smooth...no binding. I have not run it without the load, and it would have less overhang in that case."

Flashwave

Quote from: Pacific Northern on May 13, 2010, 10:17:40 PM
Seeing that Bachmann imported the SY 2-8-2 as a Spectrum model to the US I would assume that if there is a strong demand for this item it would be imported.

There is the option of buying it from the Chinese vendor who advertised in on e-bay.

right, excpet for the cheinese marking on the car. I could strip them myself, but...

Pacific Northern

Quote from: ABC on May 14, 2010, 12:12:03 AM
Modern Schnabel Cars with loads would be about 340 feet long, the car without a load is about 230 feet, and not to mention they have 36 axles (18 on each side). So no one could practically run a modern Schnabel car even at their local club, you would need to have huge curves to not have clearance issues with passing trains and scenery.

If you had read the posting on the Atlas web site you would have been aware that this car will traverse 24" curves with no problems. Also the overhang is approx 2" on those curves.  

Sounds like there is a lot of interest in this car. No company is going to release a model that would be so limited in its radius as not to run.
Pacific Northern

ABC

Quote from: Pacific Northern on May 16, 2010, 06:41:25 PMIf you had read the posting on the Atlas web site you would have been aware that this car will traverse 24" curves with no problems. Also the overhang is approx 2" on those curves.
I wasn't talking about the Bachmann China model, I was talking about a model of a modern Schnabel car, the last time I checked the Bachmann model doesn't have 36 axles and it isn't 340 feet long. One of the more modern Schnabel cars is however 230 feet long without a load and does in fact have 36 axles. A 340 foot car isn't going to make 24" radius curves and will have a huge overhang and will clip other passing trains and scenery on sharper curves. The Bachmann model is under 175 feet with the load, and is a foreign prototype and not American as has already been pointed out.

r0bert

Quote from: ABC on May 16, 2010, 06:55:44 PM
I wasn't talking about the Bachmann China model, I was talking about a model of a modern Schnabel car, the last time I checked the Bachmann model doesn't have 36 axles and it isn't 340 feet long. One of the more modern Schnabel cars is however 230 feet long without a load and does in fact have 36 axles. A 340 foot car isn't going to make 24" radius curves and will have a huge overhang and will clip other passing trains and scenery on sharper curves. The Bachmann model is under 175 feet with the load, and is a foreign prototype and not American as has already been pointed out.
there is only one car of that size (36 axle) in north america, the other 20 odd schnabel cars here are the size of the china version or smaller.
The only real spotting difference (other than chinese lettering) is the truck design, the north american cars have a more US freight car look to the trucks, while the chinese truck are of a leaf spring design.
http://southern.railfan.net/schnabel/schnabel_cars.html