I am not aware if Bachmann announces to the public any news when they decided to discontinue any of their HO locomotives or not.

There are a number of super sales going on right now on some of the large web based model train outlets.  See Trains and Such and Trainland.

They both have big markdowns on their current sales prices.

One of the members of this board e-mailed me about the slashed prices for the current 4-4-0 stock.

I decided I should get a couple of these, given their price a couple more back up engines can not hurt.  So I ordered a couple.  Great deal.  Just can not help but worry that the Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0's are being discontinued..

Comment from the Bach-Man would be good.

I asked it this engine had a 3 pole or 5 pole motor and my thread is removed?

I am very glad to see that Bachmann has again brought back into production their 4-6-0's. Of all of the Bachmann HO steamers I admire these engines the most.  If I could only choose one steam engine type for my layout this is the locomotive that I would choose, they are ideal for both freight and passenger service.

Will Bachmann be releasing the 63" driver version of their 4-6-0 locomotive? The difference between the two versions the 52" and the 63" is quite surprising. The larger version with the larger tenders that were previously paired with just made them more modern looking as their slightly smaller counterparts.?

Also am wondering why this engine was released in the Standard HO line and not the Spectrum line as they were previously.

Any chance of releasing the 4-6-0 in the Russian Blue livery?

When I would on occasion bring a set of my Bachmann 4-6-0s to the local club I would be asked where did you get these and also at least one if not more members would want me to sell them one of these engines.

Why are there no Vandy tenders in the HO section

Any word on the release of this engine?

Sure been a long time coming.

Sure do miss those 4-6-0's, new members to the local club want to buy some, good news is I have a few extra Spectrum engines, but I do not want to sell them, premium price or not. I will hold on and use when the original 4-6-0's wear out.

I had so hoped that you would have brought back the Spectrum 4-6-0's. These little workhorses were the mainstay for so many years on the backroad routes.

Great for small passenger or freight, such versatile small engines, Hate to see them phased out, well maybe they willl be back next year.

Was there an announcement made that Bachmann was going to release a new HO steam engine?

And it was a 2-8-2 configuration?

I received an inquiry from another model railroad hobbyist who lives in the same area as I do if I could help him obtain some Bachmann HO 4-6-0 engines, preferably with sound and dcc, but without would also be fine.

He is in the process of building a HO home layout set in the 1930's and has bought two engines to date.

The engines are a Walthers Proto 0-8-0 for switching and a Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0. The layout will eventually fill the 16' x 26' basement room. Benchwork almost complete, track work 70% completed. He can run the perimeter of the layout.  More turnouts to come as well as a logging or mining railway.

Unfortunately he had to send both engines, when new in for repair.

The engines both were damaged in the mail during transit.

The Proto engine had a screw missing on its valve gear which is not attached to one of the main drivers, a number of detail parts had been knocked loose and the box was damaged.  He is in the process of filing a claim with the Post Office, that package had been opened by Customs for inspection. All he wants from Walthers is a replacement bolt. He did obtain a threaded bolt from the local hobby shop which fits the thread but it is too long, a factory replacement is needed. Walthers apparently does not have any replacements.

The Spectrum engine was damaged, the smoke box front was loose and some of the detail parts were also broken off, one of the wheels on the front truck had come off the axle, the bell was broken. Bachmann Service sent him replacement parts and a new pilot.

Based on the Service departments of the manufacturers he will no longer buy any more Walthers steam engine.

He has ordered another Bachmann 4-4-0 as well as a Bachmann 2-8-0, all with sound.

He has searched for but been unable to find any Bachmann 4-6-0 engines. He wants to buy 5 or 6 of these dual purpose engines.

Not only is Bachmann not making these, no one else is either (in plastic)

I am surprised that there are no HO steam engines of this wheel arrangement.

He is just about ready to give up and see what is available in brass.

If he goes the brass route then Bachmann will have lost a customer for sure. 

A new HO Bachmann Spectrum J locomotive with DCC and Sound on board is being offered to me for a reasonable price.

I recently obtained a bunch of HO passenger coaches which are undecorated but painted in the Tuscan collar,  I was thinking of buying the

Bachmann J and decaling the passenger cars with Norfork lettering.

However, a recent conversation about Bachmann locomotives which was more or less lauding Bachmann for their much improved steam locomotives had good comments on just about all of the Bachmann locomotives except for the Norfork J engines.

The early J models I am advised by a number of people were problematic to say the least. Not good runners as are the newer locomotives.

Question is are the last batch of Bachmann Spectrum J engines with the factory DCC and Sound good running engines like the Bachmann Spectrum mountains or are they still problematic runners?

Or should I look for another steam passenger engine for the set of passenger cars i recently bought?

We have a liquidation chain store in town mall and while I did go in to check it out a few times, there was never anything there that interested me.

All this changed last week, I had just finished shopping in the food store, stocking up on some sale items when I was on the way back to my car.  

A man and his son were also returning to their vehicle which was parked next to mine. The boy was fumbling with the shopping bag he carried, he pulled out a black box that looked familiar. It was the shiny black box for the Bachmann Spectrum engines. I was told that the liquidator store had just received some HO train stock.

Well, I was in the store 30 seconds later and amazed at what on the shelves, were HO Spectrum steam engines, they are pre-dcc and there are also old bachmann Plus building kits.

I did pick up a couple of Bachmann Spectrum 4-6-0's as well as a few of the kits. the steam engines were $50 and the kits all market at $20.There were a couple of Heavy Mountains as well, but I have enough of those, but then again I may go back.

Having spent the last few days checking out the Bachmann European sites as well as the Bachmann Chinese site I can not help but wonder why there are significantly fewer locomotives being produced for the North American market than the Europeon and Asian markets.

This is very similar to what happened to Rivarossi/Hornby and also Mehano, Both of those manufacturers pared back  and concentrated on markets other than the North American market.

I was disappointed not to see any of the previous Spectrum steamers such as the 10 wheelers or the light or heavy mountain models not being re-released. These engines from the old stock are very hard to find. Which makes sense seeing they appear to be in demand when ever one is posted on "that" auction place.

You certainly have had enough members of this forum posting notices urging that some of these models be re-run.

I was reading various postings at the Yahoo-Brass Collectors site and ran across someone who was comparing brass engines to plastic engines.

The poster mentioned that after 22 hours of running various steam engines non-stop for 4 hour intervals up a 2 1/2% grade that the brass engines had little to no wear.

However, the plastic engines had heavy wear on their drivers. The engine he was referring to was the Bachmann Spectrum Consolidation 2-8-0.

I find this hard to believe, I have a few Spectrum engines with more accumulated hours on the layout (I would estimate at least 35 hours) and there is little wear on the drivers of these engines. I am referring to two Spectrum 4-6-0's, two Spectrum 2-8-0's and both a heavy and a light Spectrum Mountain engines.

All of these engines have some wear on their drivers but not anywhere near substantial/heavy wear.

I wonder why his Bachmann engines are experiencing such heavy wear after that much use.

Here is the link, but you have to be a member

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brasscollectors/message/10074

Has anyone run their Spectrum Steamers to the degree there is heavy wear on the drivers? At what point would they need replacement?

I was given one of the Spectrum J 4-8-4 engines for Christmas. The engine is the DCC with Sound version.

Other than a short run in to check it out I have not had the engine on the layout.

I will eventually obtain some N&W passenger cars and then rotate it on my layout.

When I was recently  cruising some of the model railroading web sites I came across some remarks about this engine.

The remarks to say the least were not very good. Is the Spectrum J steam engine a problem engine and one to stay away from.

Hopefully that is not the case, it sure is a striking looking engine.

Do any of the members of this site have one, and if so what do you think of it.

Do these engine run well or not

Question for Mr. Bachmann

Will the Bachmann Spectrum Heavy Mountain locomotive be re-released.

I have one of these and a Spectrum Light Mountain as well, the Spectrum Heavy Mountain is just a bute, It is a great puller and its running characteristics are excellent with both low and high speeds.

There certainly is a shortage of Heavy Mountains locomotives at present. BLI has quite a few, but they are Pennsy models, MTH has some, but I am put off, like so many others with their operating system.

Please consider re-releasing the Spectrum Heavy Mountains, fantastic locomotives.

EZ Track #6 switches.

For about a year and a half I have been using a few (four) of these switches manually, that is sliding the mechanism manually.

I decided to connect these switches and use the controllers packed with these switches. I was very disappointed to find that two of the four switches do not work, and that the Bachmann controllers are not that good as well. Two of the four controllers switches do not work. Thankfully I have a number of old Atlas push button controllers that work just fine.

Sure does not speak well for quality control for the EZ track switches.

Is there a replacement for the control unit that is wired into the #6 turnouts? I can always use them manually but I should have a choice.

I was  walking by the Thrift store today and I saw that a number of Spectrum HW cars were for sale. From a distance I could see that they are the Union Pacific yellow cars and have the Kadee type of couplers on them. As a couple of the cars were laying on their sides I could see that there was electrical connectors on the trucks indicating that the car were also lighted.

As I am now running a Digitrax DCC layout what would I have to do with the old lighting in the Spectrum cars. If they are the old DC type they will not last long with the DCC system. Do I replace the lighting with diodes or should I just take out the lighting all together.

Recently I came across a Bachmann Plus Coal Tower.

I was very surprised with the amount of detail contained in this plastic kit.

In addition to the coal tower, there is a sand building complete with dispensing container and the big surprise there is a coal bin which goes under one of the sets of tracks. This comes complete with a bucket feeding the tower. Certainly adds a nice detail touch.

Too bad this tower is no longer in production, I would love to obtain another for the opposite rail yard on my layout. Having an exact duplicate would give it that standard railroad look that came with the standard design of a railroad's buildings.

Well, in just over two weeks we will know Bachmann's plans for next years production.

We were advised some time ago by the Bach Man that is when Bachmann is noted to outline the next years production items.

I hope to see more of the Bachmann steamers become part of the new low cost sound Soundtrax line. I wonder if the Bachmann's Berksire woud be a candidate.

Also,when will the H/w passenger cars be making a comeback?

Some time back there was a posting where the Bachmann indicated that July was when Bachmann made their announcements of what new items that would be producing. When in July?