As the basic track laying on my N scale 4’ x 7’ layout nears completion I have started buying some motive power and rolling stock. I have purchased, so far, a Kato AC4400CW Canadian Pacific Two Flags, an Atlas Dash 8-40B Norfolk Southern and a Bachmann U-36-B CSX. The Kato and Atlas engines are outstanding. The Bachmann leaves so much to be desired I’ll probably never buy another.
Some of the Spectrum locos appear to be much better than the average Bachmann and they are much more expensive. Question is are Spectrum engines superior to the poor quality Bachmann engines and are they worth their price.
I’d appreciate some opinions from those more experienced than I am.
Not sure about the diesels but I just put a decoder in my Spectrum 4-8-2 Mountain and I have to say the detail in this model is outstanding! So far, I am not overwhelmed with the running of it, it tends to jerk at low speeds but that may improve after it is broken in.
On the other hand, my Kato and Atlas diesels ran sweet out of the box.
At this point, I probably wouldn’t buy another Spectrum unless I needed the specific model and or it was on sale.
Peter
My first and only experience with the Bachmann Spectrum line has been very, very unpleasant. We purchased “The Explore” train set for my son. Within 10 days the engine and two coaches were broke. The engine flat out died. The coaches add the coupler assemblies break.
We sent the engine and coaches back and two and half months later, finally got the stuff back. Less than three days back on the track, the coupler assembly broke on one of the coaches. Best yet, doing your own repairs on the Spectrum stuff is next to impossible so the coach will need to go back again.[:(!]
In the meantime, the Tyco engine and rolling stock from my childhood (30+ years old) has run flawlessly. [:0]
Everyone keeps telling me that Bachmann track is useless but the Spectrum line is high quality. My experience has been completely opposite of this statement.
Now understand, I don’t have any of those “D” word things on my layout. I’m strictly steam, so my comments are relevant to that area of Bachmann’s product line only. I would venture to guess that the “D” word loco’s are much the same though.
With Bachmann it’s a try before you buy deal. They have issues with their quality control. I have several Bmann N scale steamers and they are all excellent, but others have not been so blessed. Thats why I stress, try before you buy.
As far as the standard line stuff from them goes, If you ask me, that stuff has not more to keep people out of model railroading then anything else. It’s pure garbage.
Thanks guys. I’ve done too many “You pays your money and you takes your chance.” deals in my life time. It looks like the best view of Bachmann / Spectrum is in your rear view mirror.
From now on any B / S (no pun intended) purchases will be on a strictly “must have” basis.
I am an N-Scaler so I cannot address this issue as an HO-Scaler but I suppose that Bachmann is very much like Volkswagen: You’re either swearing by them or at them. I’m an “at them” when it comes to VW because of my experience; I am a “by them” when it comes tp Bachmann equally because of my experience. I’ve not had any significant problems with the few which I own and which are, by the way, all Spectrums.
Take the 4-8-4 as a case in point. The body shell is absolutely gorgeous but I never saw one run that didn’t remind me of a three legged camel - up-down-sideways all at the same time. (We used to refer to girls as having a ‘hitch in their getalong’) Sometime in the mid-90s, however, I visited the old N-Scale club on Davis-Monthan Air Force Patch at Tucson and saw a couple of these run - FLAWLESSLY. To be perfectly honest I thought they must have been brass. The woman (yep!) who owned them was a WAF there at DM - an instrument technician so was used to working with small, delicate parts - and she had rebuilt them into fantastic runners. No hitch in these lady’s getalong.
The point of all this is to say that almost anything can be perfected with a little bit of effort - and VISA. You have to want to expend the effort and the money. I don’t expect my Bachmanns to run as good (out of the box anyway) as my Atlas or Kato or even Life-likes. Allen McClellan talks about “good enough.” I guess everyone has to ask themselves what is “good enough.”