I saw an ad for a Bachmann DCC HO diesel locomotive at a very good price.How is the performance of these locomotives?
I have five of the newer ones, two GP7’s, two GP30’s and a GP38-2. The GP7 and GP38-2 run quiet and smooth. The GP30 (at least my two) run well but sound like Athearn’s. The GP7 uses a ‘drop-in’ decoder making changing decoders easy. The GP38-2 and GP30 are hardwired.
I have several Bachmann DCC OnBoard Diesel locos. Only one makes a growling sound when at slow speeds.
The rest have given me flawless performance right out of the box and I am very happy with them.
I like them as the great prices fit in my small budget, and IF one should fail, at the low price they are, It really doesn’t owe me much like a $200-$300 loco would.
Bachmann also is supposed to have great warrantee and service. I don’t know as I haven’t had to use it at all during my last 6 years newly back in the hobby with my Bachmann Locos.
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As for Bachmann’s warranty and service??? I called to order some parts and got an answering machine about 3 weeks ago. The lady has still not called me back! The Bachmann locos that I have are really good. I have a GP40, GP38, Dash 8, Doodlebug, and a couple of others. There is a big difference in quality between the one that came with my DCC set and the DCC on board units. The DCC on board units seem to be a bargain. They have fairly nice details and run well at a very low cost. Normally I purchase Proto 2000’s or 1000’s but the cost has skyrocketed on some of them. Athearn RTR have also gone up in cost. The nice thing is that the decoder is installed and i do not have to mess with it. I know some people do not like the decoders Bachmann uses but the work fine for me.
RMax
RMax, try contacting Bachmann again, or ordering from their website. A single message on an answering machine for a large company can get lost rather easily.
I find Bachmann’s diesels, DCC ot not, to be smooth and dependable runners. They used to have a bad reputation from cheap products, but they’ve really turned themselves around in the past few years!
I’ve got two Bachmann locos, one is a DCC Onboard SD40-2, the other is a Bachmann Dash 8-40CW. Both are good locomotives (admittedly the Dash 8 needs to have driveshafts permanently installed in it, got it without), and I can’t complain about the price. Would like to find more and do some detailing and such to them. Heck, I’ve even kept the EZ mate couplers on them for the time being (they will of course be replaced with Kadees when they fail). I in no way can say something bad about them.
I’ve actually been somewhat immpressed w/ the newer runs of the diesel. Older Plus and Spectrum diesels that I had purchaced years ago always had some sort of issues. The Spectrum steam has been quite decent for some time. I guess it’s about time that Bachman starts to produce their diesel with the same quality control. Of coarse they’re not up the the high quality of Atlas, P2K, Kato, Stewart/ Bowser and Athearn Genesis, but they seem to be decent runners for the much lower price.
Darth,
I am going to give them another shot. I still need the parts. I have always had good luck with Walthers/Lifelike, Athearn and IHC customer service. I called Bachmann in the middle of the day and got an answering machine. I do like the new loco’s I have purchased from Bachmann with DCC and I’ll keep buying those.
RMax
RMax- Was her name PEGGY ? [(-D].
Bachmann GP9’s are excellent runners for the price IMHO - but their Quality Control is kind of ‘spotty.’ If you live close enough to a hobby shop, I would advise you to have them test-run each one before buying any Bachmann loco.
Lol… Now that is funny! But that kind of thing happens far to often.
RMax
I advise the same with Athearn’s Ready To Run locos. I’ve gotten so many with quality control issues that I stopped buying them altogether. Their RTR SD45 is over $150 and that’s only DCC Ready.
Yes Athearn RTR are has lot nicer decor wise than the blue box kit’s. The price has certainly gone way up. I very rarely ever had a problem with a blue box loco running and could make them reasonably look nice. I think I would rather give up detail for better performance and lower cost. I can always add a little detail.
RMax