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Bachmann HO scale EMD DDA40X diesel locomotive
Sounds like Bachmann has some unresolved issued with motor control. No excuse for roughness at slow speeds.
the DD40X loco. is a fine one and iown one the was custom made from athearn. it does take a wide curve to move the beast around the layout. i’m looking forward to purchasing a least one or more of these beasts for my layout. thanks Henry Jones
Happy Holidays everyone on track! I bought two (6915&6927) of these and I re-numbered one of this from 6915 to 6911, because is the centennial we have in Mexico City displayed at the Federal Elcetricity Commision Tecnological Museum (CFE-MUTEC). I ran both and they accepted to run on 22" and even less: 18" radious. belive it or not! It´s a nice locomotive, regarding that it´s the largest diesel locomotive ever built!
Keep going and enjoy your hobbie!
I like my eng and yes it needs big curves. I wish someone made a sound decoder that would sound like to engines in the unit.
I find the decoder annoying. It doesn’t have high-frequency silent drive, which makes the machine sound like a tractor.
Also, why do they still use those flimsy electrical pick-ups while other manufacturers use a much more robust kind of contacts?
I threw in a Tsunami and a High Bass speaker. It runs much, much better and sounds super! A little work on the pilots and it will be top notch.
I rember watching these locos pulling long trains of iron pellets in short ore cars past my home in Sandy Utah from the Geneva iron producing plant in Orem, Utah. A few years later, they were parked at the side tracks in Salt Lake City, They were out of service at this time, I did not count the number of them, but there were a lot of them. I wish I would have a camera with me at the time, but didnt have one.
I also saw a lot of UP Big Boy locos parked at
geneva steel plant being cut up for the Iron, What a sight, seeing those Big Boys pulling 100 cars up Weber Canyon at 50 miles per hower, I shall never forger those days.
ROBERT LANGFORD.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL…
I had the chance to operate my son’s DD40AX he recently purchased on my layout using DCC and NCE’S Power Pro PH-10 , [Money well spent] , I was really surprised at the performance and pulling power of this engine , we pulled 52 cars around the layout with a long 2 1/2 % grade, most of the cars were 40 footers, I really cannot give it any negatives , it looks good also and like UP and SP , I like big horsepower, it has come a long way since Bachmanns first DD40AX years ago which was retired on my top shelf wayback when . I did not have a chance to operate in the DC mode but I’m sure it would be just as good. Not bad for the money!! Jim
I have 2 of the new Bachmann Centennials and as I only run them on DC, I put an extra 5 ounces of weight in the fuel tank. With this easy mod. each will pull 20 50’ boxcars (weighted to NMRA recommended practice) up a 2% grade- that’s a 5.5 lb. train!
The big hole in the pilot detracts from the appearance somewhat, but overall a great loco at a reasonable price.
Great looking model. I have always admired this loco and have started building one in 1 1/2 inch to the foot scale model for my live steam club here in Australia.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.
I had a DDA40X many years ago…I will purchase the newer DCC one as well.
This is a re-tooled and much improved re-issue of the DDA40X that Bachmann first released many years ago. The chasis and drive system is completely new and the plastic body features blackened “weathered” air intakes and radiators and a re-contored fuel tank, but which still lacks the twin fuel fillers. The grab irons on top of the wide short hood are also still absent . Nevertheless, this is the only reasonable non-brass model of a “Centennial” locomotive because the old Athearn “DD40” model is based on a prototype that was never actually built and is closer to a DDA35.
It is a pity that Bachmann do not include any advice about how to fit a sound decoder and speakers in this model, which they market as “designed for aftermarket sound installation”. It is not possible to instal a small Soundtraxx MiniTsunami because the twin motors risk exceeding the 0.75 amp rating. It is, just, possible to fit a Tsunami TSU1000 /645 diesel sound decoder, but only by removing part of the frame and one of the black flywheels. (This does not seem to affect performance adversely). Replacing the PCB with a Soundtraxx or QSI board would be a simpler option.
The space in the fuel tank is too shallow to accept the small oval speakers that it was clearly intended for. One needs to fit either very small oval speakers, or sand down the speaker mountings to the thickness of the fuel tank wall. This will allow one fit two Soundtraxx small oval speakers, but watch out for a bulging base rubbing on any high spots on your track !
So, nearly full marks to Bachmann for product improvement; but no marks for product support or technical advice.
To all the DCC companys out there that make sound decoders, how about a plug and play decoder with speakers for this engine, like walthers has done with there GP15-1 any takers?. Also anyone that has done this what decoder?(Has to be high amp for two motors and two speakers)And what speakers? Thanks Scott.
I’m looking forward to getting is new DD40 X with the all new motors and frame. I have two of the old ones with the toy train motors, I made them into dummys . now I can run the DD40 -SD40-2- DD40 setup like UP run on the hot piggy back trains in the 70S. how ever i will number it to 6936.
Being a huge fan of the DDA40X (and everything else painted armour yellow and harbor mist gray), I bought the earliest Bachman version–the toy motor with only the rear wheels powered. Complete junk.
I bought three of the second version. The paint on the second version was not prototypical, so I stripped all three down, repainted them, added DCC chips (a rather difficult wiring job), and filled in the big gap around the front coupler to make a prototypical look. They are now very nice engines.
When this new version came out, I had to buy one. As soon as it arrived, I filled in the big gap around the front coupler (cut plastic pieces to size–use a micrometer for an accurate cut–then glue in, putty, sand putty, sand, until you get a smooth look, and repaint the entire area under the anticlimber). In my view, a very acceptable model that runs wells. As a previous writer stated, pick up a couple of these, put a “fast 40” in the middle, and you have a classic power consist as UP ran these throughout the 1970s.
I buyed one and tried it only on a test track. Our Italian layout have catenary wire so its impossible to run the beast under it.
At present it’s sufficient for me. I’m very satisfied.
I have one of the original DD40AX versions of this model sitting in my display cabinet. When I saw one of these new ones here in a local hobby shop, I had a good look at it but I must say that I was disappointed that Bachmann did not make much of an effort to improve the overall appearance of the model. Sorry to say, but to me it still looked like a “toy train”.
I reviewed this Loco previously ,12/24/09 . I have an update for those who like to customize or improve performance. My 25 year old Son is catching on to power and peak performance , my fault of course ! We just have installed two Tsunami DSD’s , one for each motor , I spent the better part of a Saturday morning speed matching the DSD’s to each motor and then selecting operation sounds and volumes from each one , all I could say, when it was finished , Oh What a Feeling of power and sound , you can actually hear the two different engines grinding out the horsepower and with the Tsunami Equilizers adjusted slightly different from one another you get the distinct feeling of two diesel engines doing what they do best, something I like from my articulated steam engines , I added about 10 ounces of weight also through out the chassis , if the gear boxes hold up it will impress for years to come. It was already a very good engine from the Bachmann people to start with , now it is a real Monster !! Jim