Anyone know if one of these is on the drawing boards by any manufacturer? I want one that is very generic allowing it to be more easliy kitbashed. The Ma & Pa based 4-6-0 that had been on the market was too Ma & Pa specific.
Bachmann 4-6-0. If you are going to kitbash it, don’t worry about what it looks like now.
That model no longer produced. Unavailable even on E-Bay. The boiler needs to be close, otherwise I’d need to scratchbuild a boiler.
If you just need the mechanism, look at the Bachmann On30 4-6-0. I don’t know if it’ll work for you, but it is available.
Good luck
Paul
If you put a saved search on ebay, they will tell you when one comes available. Saves checking the listings daily. One more likely to come up there than another one coming on the market, unless someone knows of one currently in developement.
Good luck,
Richard
Wow, I am surprised. A year ago they couldn’t give them away.
There’s a couple of Bachmann 4-6-0’s on ebay right now with DCC and sound. I don’t think he wants to pay $372
I certainly do not remember any fire sales on the Bachmann Spectrum 4-6-0’s.
I thought that they were well received and that they were in rather short supply. I used to bid on these on e-Bay and they never sold cheap.
The Spectrum 4-6-0’s have been discussed on the Bachmann site often, a number of inquiries having been made as to when Bachmann might release another production run.
One of the brass manufacturers is advertising a release of a CPR 4-6-0, but that item will be closer to the $1,500- mark. when it is released.
Hm. I bought the spectrum SoundValue from LHS. $229+tax just I think 8 or so months ago.
The 4-6-0 is not a “sound value” locomotive though…
I’ve got a number of the Bachmann 4-6-0’s that I have kitbashed into Tonopah and Tidewater and Bullfrog Goldfield RR engines. Great little engines. I also wish there was more small HO generic steam available. There seems to be nothing being produced other than very large engines these days.
Once again it seems that except for their 0-6-0 tank engines, Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0’s in the two models, the Rodgers and then the Balcwin models were the only manufacturers of small steam for quite some time now.
I have a couple of each of the Spectrum 4-4-0’s and they are excellent engines for small steam layots. The only other small main line steam currenlty avialable would seem to be the Bachmann ex Spectrum 2-8-0’s (I do not recomend or evey normally mention any of the Bachmann standard 0-6-0’s and their generic offspring, the 2-6-0’s or 2-6-2’s for use on anyone’s layout)
Your remark about the need for “the boiler to be close” leaves me wondering to what it needs to be close. Care to elaborate?
Wayne
Try the Bachmann website. You can buy a complete chassis and boiler assembly and pretty much everything else, in the parts section.
-Stan
Yeah…but $190.00 just for the chassis?
I model Soo Line and have done loco kitbashing for 40 years. I need to have the chassis and boiler close to Soo design or it makes no sense to kitbash.
I have two of the Spectrum 4-6-0s for operation on my branchline, one with sound, one without. The sound is fairly weak although I haven’t tried to adjust it yet. That’s way down the to-do list. Naturally, it doesn’t have a lot of weight and this is a bit of a problem as both the tender and pilot wheels have a tendency to jump the rails, particularly when backing through turnouts. Operationally, I’d rate both as acceptable, but not great.
Add their Niagra to that list. Worst piece of junk I ever put on any layout. It derails so often, you wonder if there are flanges on the wheels. It now occupies a permanent and static spot off my turntable. It doesn’t even rate a spot in the roundhouse.
I couldn’t find much in the way of photos of Soo Line 10-Wheelers, but the one I did see shows the driver spacing to be different than that of the Bachmann loco, with a wider space between the second and third drivers.
You may be able to buy sufficient parts from Bowser to build a chassis from their version of the Varney 10-Wheeler, which has a similar driver spacing. The Varney boiler looks like a reasonable stand-in for a Soo Line loco, too.
If the driver spacing isn’t a concern, the Varney boiler can be modified to fit the Bachmann chassis. I changed the Bachmann cylinder casting to represent one equipped with piston valves (a relatively simple modification), but the Soo Line loco in the photo I found appears to have slide valves, as does the Bachmann loco.
My two locos are freelanced, so I removed the Varney cabs and replaced them with ones from the Bachmann 2-8-0, to give my motive power a “family” appearance.
Here’s one of the 10-Wheelers under construction:
…and a Bachmann Consolidation that shows the look which I’m after:
…and an IHC Mogul which has been modified to look like it “belongs”:
Wayne
Wayne: Very nice work!