They have ARRIVED!!!
Dual Speaker enclosures in the fuel tank is an unexpected treat, as is the DCC decoder of the 8-pin variety, not part of the lightboard.
Paint is sharp, screens and fans painted brown, nice touch.
wish it had a solid pilot, but it has to be that way to run on our tighter curves.
My only initial dissapiontment is the same oversized yellow LED for the roof beacon, instead of a scale beacon like the firecracker, and the horns have always seemed to be too big to me.
Have’nt got to play with it yet, but looking foreward to it.
Now if those N scale ones would just get here!!!
Sorry, but I guess I missed the notices.
Who is manufacturing this unit?
Is it Bachmann? Spectrum series?
Who is supplying the sound system (Soundtraxx, Digitrax, LokSound, QSI) ?
Can you post a photo?
Re: Horns. Walthers has oversized multichimer horns on some of their latest E units, but it’s likely nothing that a Cal Scale or Details West replacement version couldn’t handle.
here they are
old
new
more on my page, along with last version
http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f123/river_eagle/HO-Scale/
It is a Bachmann product. Here is a link
Hi,
it sure looks like a great locomotive. How many axles are powered?
Frank
all eight, twin motors, dual flywheels on each
How’s its drawbar pull? If a twin motor locomotive is weighted properly it should be able to pull a ton. Does it have sufficent weight? The original bachmann run didn’t.
Jamie
Looks like those old DD40s are getting better in every run.[:D] I noticed the grab irons are painted, which they never did before. That chassis looks a lot cleaner than what I stuffed into my old 2-axle drive Bachmann DD40, and it probably runs better too. I wonder if this will lower the Spectrum DD40AX prices below the $100 mark?
The shell and side frames don’t look much different than past Bachman offerings. It appears they have just gussied up the old shell with some grab irons and a better paint job and upgraded the mechanism.
I"m confused by the to front pictures - one shows the pilot with a wdie slot in it, and the other shows a plow. I assume the wide slot is to allow for coupler swing - but it looks pretty ugly. But if there is a plow on another version, how can the coupler swing?
It’s a handsome locomotive, inspite what appears to be the older styled tooling. With some weathering and the addition of some more details (please throw that horn away and get a nice looking S5T or S3L!) a modeler can easily have a unit that looks something like this: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=262353&nseq=10
The class lghts next to the number boards can be drilled out and replaced with clear lenses. If I were modeling UP, I think I’d stll get one, especially since it fits in my modeling era.
Not to bad, but man, I agree 100% that they really need the front and rear coupler situation fixed up.
the one is the old version that I modified with the plow to cover up the hole, and mounted the coupler to the plow for appearances.
I run this one as the lead unit, but the rear pilot still has the hole, unfortunatly that’s the only way to allow this monster to operate on tight layout curves.
If I had a layout with say 40’ min curves, I would body mount the couplers, and I know one of the
Manf. makes a photo etched plate for a pilot that would cover the hole.
I have no use for one, but it looks nice. Gotta believe DA and the other plow suppliers will see a spike in sales - problably a linear relationship to the sales of the DD40AX.
I would be ordering one in a heartbeat if it wasn’t for those huge slots in the front and back were the couplers are. There is other ways to do it without cutting a huge slot in there. Like the one pic shows, a plow does hide it a little. But those 2 big caves just ruined my order. Everything else looks ok though.
Mike
You’re a modeler, right?
So fix 'em.
Everyone thinks because we are a “modeler” we have tons of time to start yet another project. What you might neglect to recall is that many modelers have a major backlog of projects to do, so do we really want to add yet another? I know I don’t.
Doing something to that huge gap in the pilot would go a long way to improving the looks of the Bachman model its true.
No, but I do think that if you’re a modeler, if you spend a post telling us how much you like a model except for one flaw, you’d be able to buy the thing and repair that one flaw.
I just picked one up. Still not sure why they didn’t release it under the Spectrum line. I am having trouble swallowing the fact that I paid $75 for a Bachmann DCC on Board engine.
That being said, I have an extra QSI Revolution board laying around. I may just throw it in this baby. I’m not much of a “modeler” bit I may try my hand on fixing some of the imperfections mentioned on this thread.
fyi, I installed the QSI Revolution and programmed the sound to a GP38. I picked up a set of UP Microscale decals and started to add some decals to it based on current pictures, etc. I have both motors hooked up to the one QSI and it seems to run ok. The sound isn’t bad but I think I will add a baffle to my speaker as well as possibly add a second speaker. I picked up a Details West Brass Leslie 3 chime horn and ripped off the original plastic horn. I have also removed the stock firecracker antennae. I picked up an A/C unit which I’ve painted with Polly Scale SP Lark Dark Gray (a close match for the gray color on this model). I will destroy the stock beacon light (which looks awful - bachmann china looks like they simply took an exacto and cut out a box for the LED to fit through). The A/C unit will cover this hole and I will make a new hole for the new firecracker. I do need to pickup a new beacon which I guess I will hollow out and hook up a micro bulb to. Anyone have any ideas on how to body mount couplers on this model?
*** I’ve added some video of the engine at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2ffCiLF628 for those who are interested in the engine’s appearance ***