I am thinking of getting one of these, does anyone have one? How are Bachman with Tsunami sound? I have never owned a Bachmann engine. I have BLI/PCM, Athern, Proto 2000 brand engines. I am using a zephyer for my DCC system. Can anyone give me any tips on these or what to know before buying? Model Railroader did a review but would rather have your guys thoughts?
Hi,
I currently own three of the Bachmann Spectrum locos and find them to be a good deal. For the money, they are a very good deal and good “runners”. Of course, Bachmann tends to offer several road names for the same model which translates that your road name on a particular loco might not be a very accurate representation of the prototype. In this case, you may want to add details or just not buy it (assuming all this matters to you).
I can’t answer your question on the sound system, but suspect several others will.
Mobilman44
I currently have 2 Spectrum steamers, a 2-10-2 and a 4-6-2. Both are sound equipped from the factory. I am very happy with them. They are great runners and the Tsunami sound is excellent. I also have 3 BLI steamers that are QSI sound equipped. They too are great runners and the sound is excellent. I also have Prot 2-10-2 that I installed a Tsunami heavy steam decoder in. It is probably the best runner of all of them. All things considered, I like the sounds of the Tsunami equipped engines a little better than the QSI equipped ones, but both are good. The Tsunami decoders have a bunch of CV adjustments that can be used the with various the sounds and that’s fun to play with. The Spectrum steamers are generally priced lower than their BLI or Proto counterparts. That makes them an excellent value, in my opinion.
I have one of them. I like it, it looks and sound good. My only issue is that it isn’t very strong pulling up hill. But then again, I compare it to PCM Big boys and Y6b’s so you should probably not listen to that! [:D]
So, for what it costs I like to give it a big thumbs up!
Magnus
Excellent thanks for the info. I will get one around febuary.
getting one thru ebay, I expect it will be OK for my needs but will repaint it for the road I will do for it plus detailing, but its the closest I can get for the model I will be doing.
I have one decked out in the DM&IR scheme. On level I have it pull 45 cars loaded at or above NMRA standards. Admittably it is not as much as the proto, but with 45 cars there was no loss of traction either.
On the club layout it and my BLI 2-8-2 are the “average” power, as the number of articulated engines are beginning to pile up, but have to say that between the two engines they are the most reliable of the steamers on the club layout.