Little Secret

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello All
While in an LHS yesterday a few of the regulars were touting a couple of loco’s that were recently stocked. They are red box Bachmann units equipped with sound. http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-u…wCat&catId=460
They had an FA2 on the LHS layout and it looked and ran great. They’re equipped with Tsunami Light decoders and it appears that they run right up there with the more expensive manufacturers.

I don’t run F units but I’ll be picking up one of the S4’s when the came in. The others sold out quickly.
Jim

2

Pretty good pricing too for a DCC equipped, with sound, loco.

Thanks for sharing.

Rich

3

Now it’s not a secret anymore!

4

Let the stampede begin [(-D]

Thanks for the heads–up [bow]

Totally outside of my requirements, but good news for North American modelers.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

5

The Bachmann web page says the decoder is a “Sound Value SoundTraxx® diesel sound package”. I have installed a Soundtraxx “generic” 1st generation sound decoder in an F3. Based on this, the Bachmann will probably sound OK as long as you are not comparing it to a Tsunami equipped unit. As someone said above, you can’t beat the price.

6

If Bachmann had a brick and mortar store, I can envision “Black Friday” at Walmart.

7

Well, I’m not surprised nor was it a secret,

Bachmann has been making massive advances in quality for years now - with new and existing product.

Everyone is raving about the running quality and detail of the new EM-1.

I have nine Bachmann USRA Heavy Mountains, all great runners, as are the rest of my fleet of some 30 Bachmann loco.

Here is the secret that no one wants to here - Bachmann makes Atlas. That’s right, Atlas locos come from a factory owned by the same people who own Bachmann.

I already have a ton of Proto2000 ALCO FA/FB units, but if I needed any, I would surely look at the new Bachmann offering.

Sheldon

8

Sheldon,

Are you saying that Bachmann produces locomotives for Atlas and simply places the Atlas name on a locomotive produced by Bachmann?

Rich

9

Rich,

The Atlas locos many years ago were made by Kato, but for many years now have been made in China, not Japan and are made in a factory owned by Kader Holdings, the owner of Bachmann.

http://www.kaderholdings.com/

The Atlas locos are no doubt made to designs developed, owned and controlled by Atlas, but the workers, machinery, raw materials, management, etc are all the same resources available to Bachmann.

Bachmann, and its parent Kader have come to understand this market very well, likely as well as anyone ever has. Surely as well as Walthers, Atlas or Athearn, and is now using its vast resources to advance its position in the market.

Too many modelers with no backgorund in manufacturing or marketing think this all happens over night - it does not. It took decades to build Athearn, it took years for Horizon to rebuild Athearn in a changing market, It has taken Walthers years to come back around full circle as mainly a manufacturer/importer rather than mainly being a distributor.

You would be suprised to learn how many seemingly “competing” products are made in the same factories.

ALL that suff that Sears sells with their various names on it - all comes from factories that also make their competition - Kenmore appliances are mostly made by Wirlpool, who also makes Kitchen Aid and Maytag. The “Craftsman” hand tools come largely from one part or another of the Danaher Tool Group - same people who own MATCO TOOLS, Easco Tools, K-D Tools, Allen Manufactruring, Jacob Chucks, just to mention a few.

Years ago when GM built cars here in Baltimore, the line made Chevys and Pontiac’s at the same time - they were all “B body” cars - that is built on the

10

Sheldon,

That is all very interesting. Thanks for sharing that information.

Rich

11

Geez, Bachmann builds Atlas, and you build Athearn. LOL

I know, I know. It was a typo. You typed “I” but meant to type “It”. Still…LOL

Rich