How long will it take Model Railoader to do a review on this steam engine?
It seems like for what ever reason it is taking forever for this review, there are a lot of model railroaders waiting to hear the official review from Model Railroader.
I don’t know when this model became available for sale, Don, but I wouldn’t expect to see it reviewed much before 5-8 months had passed, if at all. It’s not as if there aren’t other models coming available at the same time.
Fact is, I have no idea.
I recently bought the LL berk with sound and DCC, and its thumbs up on it.
The Bachmann was unexpected from me and welcome anyways and it is cheaper but no sound, it might use their decoder with fewer steps of speeds, but I am not sure on that. Detail wise it looks really good, and based on my 2-10-2 purchase, I think the engine should run quite well, better than my ole AHM/RR berk out of the box, even with directional headlights DCC controlled.
Were I more interested in the LL berk I would buy up the Bachmann in a second.
I believe the engines were released in mid Dec, they were announced in July 2007 and there were some articles about the pre-production engines.
Okay, I have 2 so I’ll do a review.
Good Stuff:
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Has room for Sound speaker
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Very reliable
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Runs like a swiss watch
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Looks good with freight or passenger cars
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Has good detail
Bad Stuff
&
[quote user=“New Haven I-5”]
Okay, I have 2 so I’ll do a review.
Good Stuff:
-
Has room for Sound speaker
-
Very reliable
-
Runs like a swiss watch
-
Looks good with freight or passenger cars
-
Has good detail
Bad Stuff
&nb
Unfortunately you may never see it.
Bear in mind that MR only reviews four or five items in every issue and this runs the gamut of structures, rolling stock, DCC items, electronics, traction etc as well as O Scale, S Scale, HO Scale and N Scale. Over the course of the last twenty years there have been a hellacious number of products offered in the marketplace that never even saw the light of day as far as an MR review; it is not impossible that they will look at the new offering from Bachmann and deem it not worthy of review. One should not conclude from this fact that a lack of review implies a substandard product.
I picked up one of the Pere Marquette models. My take on it is:
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Respectable detail. Not Proto Heritage level, but not Proto Heritage price, either. Certainly good enough for what I want to run.
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Not very smooth response on DCC with the stock decoder and circuitry. I haven’t snipped off the capacitors and coil Bachmann installs to suppress RFI yet, so I might see improvement there. I’m not usually very impressed with the low-end decoders in Bachmann’s non-sound locomotives, so there’s room for improvement there, too.
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My Proto Heritage Berkshires out-pull my Bachmann Berkshire, 38 cars to 33 on straight, level track using Kadee boxcars, which aren’t really known for being free-rolling. I’m interested to hear how it handles grades, since I haven’t been able to test that yet.
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Bachmann did a nice job on the lettering, but they got a little “cute” with the grey smokebox and firebox on the Pere Marquette models. Luckily anyone who cares can correct that easily with a little paint (the PM’s Berks never ran that way).
Overall, a decent model for the price, but disappointing in the pulling power department.
I take MR’s reviews with a grain of salt. Although its nice to see close up pictures of the item being reviewed & the various motor pulling charts, they seem to candycoat everything. It can be the worst engine out there and they’ll have it coming out smelling like a rose.
Maybe a little off-topic, but I’ve been impressed with the in-depth reviews that Model Railroad News does. It’s nice to see several pages of background and model review, with pics and test results etc. MR and RMC as “all purpose” mags tend to only do shorter ‘overview’ reviews.
MR reviews used to be ‘if there is a problem, do not say anything’ for many years. For maybe the last 3-5 years they have mentioned ‘issues’ and possible fixes or circumventions. I see this as progress. Remember, they are supported by advertising dollars from the manufacturers! Back in the 50’s, MR did an article about using ‘stove polish’ to paint steam engines. They got a blistering response from a paint manufacturer and he did not advertise for about 6 months in MR. MR also had a ‘tiff’ with Athearn and there were no Athearn ads in MR for many years. I do not know what the reason was, but all of Athearns advertising dollars were in RMC for a number of years.
Jim
They’ve reviewed two Atlas O scale diesels in the last year or so… both were basically the same mechanism, there really wasn’t much difference other than the shells.
I don’t want to come right out and say it, but the reviews tend to be related to products from major advertisers, and they are generally glowing… sometimes in direct conflict to what you read about the products on the forums posted by actual users.
Lee
You could email MR and get a better answer than we can give you. They might have the review scheduled or completed but not printed in the magazine. They did an excellent review on the last release of the P2K Berkshire a few months after the new release with sound.
On the other hand, they might never review it since it is a standard Bachmann model with little detail, but the lower price makes it attractive to buyers. You could see one at a LHS and get your own impression.
In all fairness, it does seem to be a value priced model.
I had them run one for me at my LHS, and was impressed by the running qualities - very smooth and quiet on DC, and even though it’s a bit too big to represent my favourite prototype, I ordered two, in a slightly different version, for kitbashing. I’ve read elsewhere that the mechanical parts are identical to Spectrum, but it’s in their Standard line because there is less applied detail. Since I plan on stripping it all off, not a concern to me. If they have any issues with pulling power, they won’t after I’ve redone them. [swg]
Wayne
Yey! Doc is going to fix the Bachmann Berk’s pulling power![:D]
MOST ALL pulications survive on adverstising dollars, today.
THOSE publications offering ‘reviews’ generally will allow manufacturers to ‘squash’ revues they think detrimental, but not edit them. That way both keep their integrety.
If you don’t see a particular product or brand ‘reviewed’, that might be the reason. Likewise, certain manufacturers may not submit inferior products. No names, of course.
Even those aiming for the ‘novice’ RRoader who buys on price alone, and get’s plaudits for just staying on the track. It’s only when comparasing to something else, that opinions become more valuable.
In short, of the NYC&StL Berk’s out there, whose is worth the money? If it is the only one, what difference does it make?
If I may…Every “review” I read on a forum I take a large dose of salt.
Why? To many self appointed “experts” that solely base everything on their modeling style or wants to compare everything to Kato and in that light I trust MR reviews because it jives with what the local modelers are saying.
I also have a habit of judging new products myself without the need for a review or other modelers opinions.
Larry is right: just because a reviewer (or even another modeller) thinks that product “X” is good or bad shouldn’t deter you from making your own analysis based on the things that are important to you. This is where those of us with a good LHS have a distinct advantage over modellers forced to purchase items over the internet - we can see the actual model, look over the instruction sheets, parts, etc., and, in the case of locos, see them actually run before we buy them. And if I buy a loco that seems to meet my criteria, only to get it home and find that it won’t run on my curves or fit on my turntable, I can take it back, for a full refund.
Wayne
Re: Forum based reviews…
Yes, they should be taken with a grain of salt, however, generally you get a broad enough range of people discussing a product that you can separate the wheat from the chaffe. Actually, it’s a good thing when you have someone like Victor on the A-board totally dissect a locomotive model. Maybe he’s picky about a lot of things that I wouldn’t be picky about, but having that deep a critique lets me know what I can live with and what I can’t.
I’ve made a number of buying decisions based on what kind of feedback a product gets from people on line whose opinions I’ve grown to trust. One instance was the gaffe that Intermountain made on their infamous F-7 B units (the roof casting is backwards). I was able to cancel the two that I had ordered before I was out of pocket for something with a problem I couldn’t easily correct, nor could I accept as is.
The immediacy and depth of the feedback on the forums is far more effective than a printed review that comes out sometimes months after the fact.
Lee
My LHS can not be counted among the “good” hobby shops. Model Railroad items are only a portion of their inventory. The amount of model railroad equipment is steadily diminishing.
They have a policy that if an item is defective you are expected to return it yourself to the manufacturer. In rare occasions there have been incidents of being given credit for returned items.
They do not even have a test track to enable buyers to see the item in motion for themselves.
Their markup is typically about 35% over the prices of the items suggested retail price. The reason being the cost of bringing in the items in small numbers into Canada.
However, they do have a yearly 50% off sale which I attend and do buy some items