[Thomas]

Hello!
I need some advice before I start buying?
How good are Bachmann diesel in terms of silent and slow running? What about quality control?
Are the factory chipped locos good or do they fit cheap and poor decoders?
Any comments most welcome!
Thomas

 

[spongebob]

Hi Thomas
The newer bachmann diesel loco's have been causing a few debates recently regards running qualities but I have to say mine seem alright. The DCC equipped ones or one at the moment (class 25) has the decoder integral with the printed circuit board rather than a seperate plug-in type. Again the one i have seems OK but hasn't seen a great deal of use. I presume the new releases this year will follow the same pattern.

 

[paul_d]

I have a class 66...which is the best loco in my fleet...quiet, very smooth, quality build. I have a 24 as well, which although older, still has the mentioned good qualities.

 

[spongebob]

One of my first loco's was the class 24. A very weighty loco for its size and whilst not having a ligtning fast top end speed is good at slow speeds.

 

[dave]

I have several of the new Bachmann diesels,66,57,37,24,55 all have exceptional running qualities and I have had no problems with them.

 

[spongebob]

Someone on one of the other forums was moaning about the qualitycontrol(or lack) of the limited edition class 66's, said he had 3 different ones and all had one fault or another.

 

[Simon]

I have 6 of the new 66's in various liveries. 1 of the 45's, and 2 of the 57's

They are quiet powerful locos but..

One keeps throwing drive shafts
one has pick-up problems
one doesn't seem to like staying on the track
and the 57's are top heavy and tend to topple when de-railed

I use bachmanns re-badged lenz chips in all of them, partly due to price but mostly as i figure they are the chips bachmann would have been using when they developed the locos so they should work well together.

I'm impressed but i think the Hornby efforts are better.

 

[bangerblueed]

QUOTE (spongebob @ 21 Mar 2006, 19:28) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi Thomas
The newer bachmann diesel loco's have been causing a few debates recently regards running qualities but I have to say mine seem alright. The DCC equipped ones or one at the moment (class 25) has the decoder integral with the printed circuit board rather than a seperate plug-in type. Again the one i have seems OK but hasn't seen a great deal of use. I presume the new releases this year will follow the same pattern.

Just out of interest does it have output functions to enable the fitting of lighting kits

 

[spongebob]

QUOTE (bangerblueed @ 18 Apr 2006, 17:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Just out of interest does it have output functions to enable the fitting of lighting kits
I honestly couldn't say if it has. The only time I took the top off was to see which was pin 1 so I could fit a decoder into one of my other class 25s that was when I found that the decoder was integral with the pcb. I know you can get drop in decoders to replace this type so maybe you could upgrade to one of those.

 

[37197]

I have 8 Bachmann Diesel loco's all of them dcc and all of them superb runners, very smooth and quiet, though I would say they are not quite as good as the latest Hornby's and my Heljan's

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