Bachmann release new On30 Baldwin 4-4-0

Those of us with contacts have been running this loco since just before Christmas, it's simply gorgeous made better by the fitting of sound.

Thanks Doug

optional fittings have been a feature of US loco [kits] for many years now......for example,MDC shays, [also known by the Roundhouse name]...

the ''advantage'' that US modellers have is the nature of the prototype.

railroads in the US would buy the product from a manufacturer...eg Baldwin,ALco, etc.....after browsing a catalogue..........a bit like what we do with Hornby, etc.

UNlike most UK railways that might have designed and built their locos 'in house.'

this means that many small US locos have a basic generic 'look' aboout them, with but detail differences between prototypes.....
therefore the options of, for example, cab materials, or smoke stack types, are easy to apply...simply following the maker's option lists.

Also, the fittings [cabs, stacks etc] that a loco was delivered with, will likely have been upgraded as time passed...eg wood cabs replaced with steel....and like most model makers, Bachmann supply 'generic' options.
also, smoke stacks might get changed due to a change in the fuel type the loco burns......there there is the conversion to electric headlights, with its attendant, steam-powered generator.....plus, chnages in pilot design, from perhaps the typical, pointed cowcatcher, to a simple step pilot?

I once 'updated' a Roundhouse ''old-timer' consolidation...by the simple expediency of panneling-in the 'wood' cab. to represent steel....chnage of stack, and pilot...and an update of the type of cylinders used....[from the old, rectangular-topped cylinder/valvechest, to a more modern sloping type....I think I used some Crownline cylinders of an appropriate size........it got an electric headlight, and genny...and a vanderbilt tender.

no particular ''prototype'', but a typical, generic,modernised loco.

of course, because manufacturers made and sold to railroads, their products [like lights, etc] the US modeller has an easy time with the plethora of aftermarket brass or plastic ''detail'' parts......not so easy for the UK modeller, what with the mass of INDIVIDUAL details that would need to be covered?

so, for too many UK prototypes/models, and 'options' list simply isn't possible...