One of the reasons for the duds may be the fact that the first run of this engine was bad, they fixed this and put it in a different smaller box. Both were called spectrum.
I bought my Spectrum 2-8-0 about 10 years ago and it still runs very smoothly but it doesn’t get a lot of use as I normally run my 1980’s era diesels. I use the 2-8-0 when I run an occasional excursion train.
I have four of them, all are Spectrum. I am very well pleased with them, and I am considering adding at least one more.
Reporting back as promised…
Purchased a non-Spectrum 2-8-0 with DCC / no sound today at the LHS (Peach Creek) - $82. The knowledgeable staff there confirmed what most told me here, that this is in fact an ex-Spectrum model, repackaged (and repriced lower) as Bachmann standard. They claim Bachmann is doing this from time to time to make room in the Spectrum line for new releases (mostly sound equipped). Other examples, again as mentioned here, are the GE 44 and 70 ton switchers. Market research drives these decisions, I would guess; in the case of the 2-8-0 Consolidation, I think Bachmann felt they had played it out as a Spectrum, and rather than shelve the tooling, they decided to continue to produce the model at the lower price point, as they have likely recouped the tooling cost, and then some.
What was confusing for me (hence my initial question) and to some others is that this is now packaged just like thier “train set” quality models - ie, the USRA 0-6-0 (“With Smoke!”). Now, before I start another round of shouting back and forth about the quality of that model, I should say I don’t have that engine, I’m basing that comment on feedback from the Peach Creek staff. If you study the model, you can see the difference in quality pretty easily, and the price difference is another tipoff. But the best way to know what’s better quality, and what’s not so good, is word of mouth - here, and at the LHS.
Anyway, as promised, my report: The folks at Peach Creek cautioned me to lubricate the loco before running, and I did that. I could see that it was very lightly lubed fron the factory. First test run (on DCC) showed some expected initial stiffness; ran about 5 minutes or so of fairly short low speed runs, reversing, repeating, followed by longer runs at medium speed in both directions. By the end of a total of about 10 minutes of running, it appeared to run at an equal speed in both directions. It
Good to hear you’re happy with your purchase![:D] The buzzing sound at slow speeds is the power from the decoder. Bachmann’s decoders use a pretty low frequency pulsing signal to power the motor, so the buzzing will go away if you upgrade to a higher quality DCC board.
My Spectrum 2-10-0 was really stiff out of the box too. Stiff as in, poor low speed control and a top speed of about 15 scale MPH.[:O] In fact, I think I had to give it a little push the first time I ran it! About half an hour of run time loosened it up, and it runs absolutely great now.