Bachmann Spectrum Keystone DCC Sets

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Gentlemen,

An old hackneyed question no doubt…i’m looking over a starter set for my grandson for Xmas…i model Pennsy HO so naturally I had my eye on a PRR “the Keystone” set…(in case my grandson finds trains boring I could always appropriate the set! ;D ) Have seen it going for 150.00 on Trainworld Brooklyn website. Seems like it would fit the bill…just wondering if anyone has had any experience with it? Or Spectrum locos in general. Reliability is my goal as opposed to details…although have seen Spectrum diesels in the LHS and I was surprised actually at how decent the loco looked…on the other hand I would also consider “O” gauge considering the delicate nature of HO…but from what I’m willing to spend (200.00 or there abouts) the offerings in “O” scale seem a bit cheesy to me…but it could be fine for a junior engineer.

Appreciate any reviews, advice.

kind regards

Paul at Penn Station

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B’mann spectrum are (generally) very nice locomotives. You won’t go wrong getting a set based around one of them…

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I have a couple of Bachmann Spectrum engines. They’re both steamers. I’m extremely pleased with them. They perform well, and they are very nicely detailed as well. Given the low price, I think they are an exceptional value.

I’ve also dealt with Trainworld, and I’m always amazed at how fast they ship my trains.

You can’t go wrong with either of them.

4

This is most likely the DCC ready locomotive, it comes with 3 passenger cars, track and power pack.

For the price you mentioned, $150 this is a good deal. The newer set was one with DCC installed, although you still had to buy a DCC controller to use the DCC options. DCC will usually run on DC layouts.

As you mentioned this was for your grandson, age is important. The HO is half the size of O scale and as you mentioned more prone to break… Some children take very good care of their HO trains, others not.

I have picked up a few Spectrum steam sets for around the $150 mark. I bought them just for the extra track, cars and of course more steam engines…

5

It Depends HO can be a bit frigile for young hands. Having said that I have several Bachmnn locos and they all serve me well. However the EZ track leaves something to be desired especially the turnouts which require tweaking but since a starter set is usually just an oval it should be fine You also may find that the tenders on the steamers are a bit light.

For a new junior engineer I would consider something like Bachmann Digital Commander Set but its Diesel and not spectrum and sells for around $150 I think. Diesels are a bit easier to start with IMHO. The EZ Command plus the turnout allow for less boredom. Just be prepared to file the points on the turnout a bit to get them sharp. See the MR Virginian layout video part 8 for the technique once I did this on my layout the turnouts work fine.

Another possibilty buy the oval set and consider using Atlas turnouts (code 100 without roadbed You’ll need cork roadbed and possibly some card stock to match the Atlas turnouts to the EZ track. I believe this is covered in another thread in the layout building section.

If you do go steam I would still consider the EZ Command DCC for the young one The steam set sells for $175 or so. I believe that unlike the diesel the steam is one loco not two and does not have a turnout but still its expandable.

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The EZ Command set with the steam locomotive is not a complete set, you get the engine and the DCC controler, no track, no cars.

If you shop around on e-bay the old EZ DCC command units are selling for around $50.

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Thanks Dan. So far everyone that has replied is in agreement. Bachmann seems to be well received which is great.

Thanks and best rgds

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I could not find the set you mention at Trainworld but I did find the HO Keystone set at another site. Comes with 4-6-2 steam loco, track, DC power pack, three cars.

E-Z Track® system.

The one I found must be pre-DCC.

I checked the Bachmann site and did not find the Keystone set.

Check all the specs carefully before you commit.

Rich

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I forgot that one of the sets I bought was the Keystone 00129 Pennsy K-4 .

It is DCC ready. Just to give you an idea of its age there is a VCR tape included in the box.

I see trainworld also has the Connie 2-8-0 in either the freight or passenger sets in a number of roadnames all at the $150 mark.

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I belong to other train forums, including the Bachmann forums and see a lot of happy users of the 2-8-0. Many have converted it to Tsunami sound. Might not be what you want but other readers here might be interested in that.

Rich

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Thanks to all who replied. Bachmann was endorsed by all with few reservations and that makes this an easy decision. The set I had referred to is just DCC ready…but not a deal breaker…it will give me an excuse to get an EZ Commander/decoder for the youngster and therefore spend more time tinkering with the trains. Or will check out some of the newer sets from Bachmann with the DCC installed as some of you have suggested. I see they have some with Tsunami installed as well. He’ll like that stuff…not sure the rest of the family will though. Oh we’ll.

Mainly with the strong endorsement of Bachmann Spectrum from the community it will be easy to make the investment.

Thanks again for taking the time…

Brgds…Paul

12

Don…

yes, thats the one i had my eye on…being a Pennsy fanatic… But further analysis may be needed. It is a set that has been around a while. What the heck…there goes the train budget. …it’s funny, I never have any regrets blowing the cash on trains. Just hope that its money well spent. I haven’t had any recent experience with Bachmann but its difficult to find any one else that offers a set of any quality for a reasonable price. And it’s just simple to buy a kit. Easy to spend a bundle on the more sophisticated stuff but he’s just 5 years old. A friend is telling me to get him some Lionel for the durability but again…4, 5, 6 hundred and on and on…well…this year it will be Bachmann. And honestly from the few locos I came across in the hobby shop they looked pretty darned good…I was surprised. Had a few locos on display and right next to some Athearn Genisis, MTH…well, the Bachmann’s held their own in my view. And since everyone has had nothing but good things to say about the product…which is rather unusual in this crowd…I’ll buy with confidence.

All the best

Paul

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When I first came back to this hobby I bought Steam engines from all of the major manufactures.

over the space of a month I bought from Bachmann, a heavy Mountain 4-8-2, From BLI a Mikado with DCCand sound, From Athearn another 2-8-2, from Walthers a 2-8-4.

The Bachmann Mountain runs great, I updated it to DCC and it continues to run fine, it is a heavy engine as the boiler assembly is metal, pulls great, because of this I have bought quite a few Bachmann engines, a couple of problems arose but Bachmann took care of me.

The BLI engine is still running great, no regreats, hae bought a few more BLI’s.

Athearn, the 2-8-2 was a sad experience, it could not pull well at all, turns out its centre of gravity was way off and really needed additional weight. This engine also had a major problem with the main gear cracking, I was lucky and got a replacement, a lot of other owners never did get a replacement gear and their engines just sat. I admit mine is a shelf queen, looks okay, put afraid to run it as there are no more replacemnet gears, The first two upscale steamers put out by Athearn a 4-6-2 and the 2-8-2 were considered lemons by most people, Athearn never ordered enough replacement gears and was to say the least very poor with their customer relations. I would never buy another steamer from them.

Walthers, bought their 2-8-4 a super detailed engine that could hardly pull its own weight, later versions included a set of drivers using traction tires. Unfortunatley Walthers did not offer updated drivers using traction tires for their first runs, An expensive paper weight. (but looks great parked in a display cabinet

I will never buy another steamer from Walthers due to the poor performance of this engine and Walthers poor customer relations when I complained about that product.

For steam, i would only recommend BAchmann of Broadway Limited, good warantee and excellent customer service.

.

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Like you and many old guys, like me, I’d been away from the hobby for many years as well. Then, we moved to Miami in 1989 and I came across what was then the Rolls Royce of hobby shops in this part of the world…Orange Blossom Hobbies…long gone now…it was a temple to model RR’ing…as well as carrying RV stuff. I was hooked again and my era was post WWII and started with a few Walthers SW1’s as I envisioned a small switcher yard or something along those lines. Well…we got slammed by Hurricane Andrew and my RR empire would have to wait…well, it waited for 20 years…my experience so far with the various manufacturers has been limited. I gravitate to the highly detailed, as much as I like running the trains, my real enthusiasm is for the proto modeling side of things. A finely crafted Westerfield hopper car standing still on a shelf is a thing of beauty to me. But a 200.00 paperweight…I’ve been there.

I’ve done an enormous amount of reading about the various lines out there and it is easy to get lost. It’s good to hear that Bachmann has a quality product that is also affordable. And as I’ve said seeing their product side by side with others twice or 3 times the price …they held up under my scrutiny. However, I’ve had little exposure to actual use. So as the grandson will hopefully share my enthusiasm, it’s great that Bachmann has a reliable product, priced right and visually satisfying to my critical eye. As we grow the layout…which by the way will be up in Eastern Pennsylvania…literally…where the climate is nice and cool…cold…and we have a huge empty basement to fool around with…I’ll be going with the Bachmann steam. Ill save the BLI till he has gained some experience. he’s only 5! But he’s been to Strasburg with me a few times already and seems fascinated.

Really appreciate the specifics you’ve provided. I’ll heed your warnings about Walthers and Athearn. Things just ain’t same since globalizati

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“I see they have some with Tsunami installed as well. He’ll like that stuff…not sure the rest of the family will though.”

I have not seen any Bachmann train sets with Tsunami installed but I do have one of the new sound value 2-6-0 with a sligthtly less robust Sound Traxx sound decorder installed. I read the MR review and bought this loco at the Greenberg train show for $95. It really is a sound value (I wrote a review on the Bachmann site). I would go for a set with this loco.

Incidentally F8 on the EZ Commands mutes the sound if that helps with the family.

.

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You are correct sir! In my haste the sets I was looking at are not equipped with sound…but on the Bachmann website there are some sets that have the Dynamis system…however…these are higher end sets…not what I’d feel comfortable to leave in such young hands as my grandson…I’ll check out your review on the Bachmann site.

In the end I may just have to create a set to suit the application. I was trying to keep this simple but as I’m learning the prepackaged sets may leave something to be desired. I’m sure my grandson won’t care either way but I’d rather spend a bit more and get something that will offer some quality and a good basis to build out on. Originally I was thinking about just going with a simple DC set up but the more thought I give to this it seems to me DCC is the way to go. So the loco you reviewed may be right on the money.

Without opening up a can of worms…what do you think if the EZ Commander?

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Joe…I did a search on the Bachmann site…could only find your Hanukkah train comments! LOL…point me in the right direction.

by the way…in our family we go both ways…Xmas and Hanukkah gets coverage…my grandson is in the tribe however …

L’Chiam

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Penn:

Shalom

We celebrate both as well The wife is Catholic.

This is what I said on the 2-6-0:

As I promised a few weeks ago last night I finished my evaluation of this Steamer.
Bottom line I am impressed for about $100 this truly is a sound value.

Pluses:
The SoundTraxx decoder is far superior in terms of out of the box running characteristics then the non-sound Bachmann Standard Line decoder. It has good low speed operation and unlike the DCC on Board locos it actually has momentum on stopping that requires careful planning of stops (I know I ran into the back of a stopped train on my mainline de-railing a caboose).
The sound is great however I was informed by my cousin that the chuff rate was off. I guess he is a bit of a rivet counter. I doubt the casual watcher would notice. Also I like that F8 Mutes the sound, great for late night op sessions.

Minuses:

As with most Bachmann Steamers the tender is a bit light and it is hard to add weight in small tender. This could cause derailments when backing up.
Speaking of which this loco is a little more fussy in terms of picking the points at turnouts. However a little filing on the turnout in question cured that problem.

I ran a pulling test on the loco it pulled 7 NMRA weighted cars before it started straining on the eighth. This was on zero grade probably would pull less on a slope but as my tracks are flat so this was not tested.

All and all a great loco hope to see more of the Sound Value line on my layout in the future.

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Now about the EZ command It would probably work well for your grand son, as it is simple to use. However it a limited system it cannot program locos beyond addresses. With my small layout I concentrate on scenery mostly so its not an issue but if you want to fine tune your locos (such as correcting the chuff rate I mentioned above or limiting top speed, for example (you might want to do this to keep the boy from drag racing the train into the floor)) you will need a more advanced system that can program CV’s (configuration varibles). Next year when I am considering redoing my layout I may upgrade to an NCE or digitrax system. For a small layout running one or two trains with one or two more sitting idle the 1 amp output of the EZ command is more than sufficient. If you expect to run a lot more buy a more robust system to start out as it will be cheaper in the long run as opposed to running boosters on the EZ command. Finally if you buy the EZ connand seperrately I would not pay more than maybe $60 for it. It can be bought cheaply on Ebay or at a train show.

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At the risk of raining on the Bachmann parade, I have a DCC equipped Spectrum 44T switcher which herks and jerks and needs a massive amount of juice to get started. It is now being looked at and will be repared if there is something wrong with the drive train and will get an ungraded decoder. This expereince has soured me on Bachmann locos.