Recently, I have been fascinated buy the railroads of the very early 1900, and late 1800, when the 4-4-0 was still mostly the standard. I have been spending endless hours designing a small time shortline railway, similar to Jeff Gorjans’ San Dimas Southern, which uses modern 4-4-0’s, and would prefer to use these engines, as in my past experiences, I have found that model steam engines with only four driving wheels, have less problems, and although, there is less pulling power, I would only be pulling maximum 10 car trains over slight grades.
What I’m trying to say is:
What 4-4-0 in HO is better, and more worth your money, the Roundhouse 4-4-0, or the Bachmann modern 4-4-0. I have heard that the Bachmann one has almost no pulling power, but I have also heard the Roundhouse has pulling power of 50 cars, which is a huge advantage.
The Bachmann modern 4-4-0 is a good looking and nicely detailed model, which has a pulling power of 34 cars, according to MR´s product review. That´s more than sufficient for a 4-4-0.
I would personally go for the Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0. It’s more expensive, but it has so much more detail that the Roundhouse 4-4-0 looks like a toy in comparison. If you only want to pull 10 cars or so, I think the Bachmann 4-4-0 could handle that fine. And if it can’t, then traction can be increased by using a product called “bullfrog snot”, which is basically a liquid tire that you paint onto the wheel. I highly doubt that the Roundhouse 4-4-0 could pull 50 cars on level track unless it has traction tires.
I have a modernized Bachhman Spectrum 4-4-0. It came with DCC but no sound. It will pull 4 coal hoppers (GLa) up a decent grade or more on a flat track. I plan on using it as a coal tower switcher on my layout so it doesn’t need to pull a large amount of cars. It has some nice details such as chains on the tender trucks. I am not familiar with the Roundhouse model.
My Bachmann 4-4-0 runs very nicely. I operate a DC system, and the locomotive does have a bit of a “load delay”, where I start the throttle, see the headlight come on, and then in a couple seconds the locomotive starts to move. If I move the throttle up too fast, then a jerky start results. It is just a quirk or different operating characteristic of this locomotive, and I adjust to it. (“Patience is a virtue”)
The Bachmann 4-4-0 has slide valves, which suits an early era. It is patterned after Maryland & Pennsylvania #s 4, 5, and 6, which were built in 1901 (62" drivers, 17x24 cylinders, tractive effort of 16,640 lbs.). The model has very nice detail, including crew.
Locomotives of this size would seldom have been asked to handle 50 cars, and your 10-car trains would be more characteristic of what they actually did. You might do a little shopping to find one at a decent price. There were some at the Timonium, MD train show last weekend at $150.
I have both the Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 and the 4-6-0… both are excellent runners, and highly detailed. (Make sure you get the Spectrum aqnd not just the basic Bachmann model…) I operate DCC Sound in both locomotives. They both start a a crawl (about 1 scale mph…) and both operate on my 3% inclines with short string of cars and a caboose, which is prototypical for those engines.
I would opt for the Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 over the Roundhouse 4-4-0. The difference in the detailing of the Spectrum makes it my choice. If you search around you can find these engines at lower prices.
The Roundhouse hauls more cars it has traction tires.
I have a few of these as well, they do look rather toyish next to a Spectrum due to their lack of detail.
I just recently purchased a Spectrum 4-4-0 with sound and it pulls up a 2% incline my 4 car passenger express very well. It has extremely slow running characteristics.
To me it’s a rather simple decision, do you like a highly detailed, smooth running engine for a minimum of $100 or will you acept a rather “plain Jane” but still a good runner for under $100?
It’s a simple choice really and it all comes down to money, but both are good locomotives and I have no doubt both would give years of good service.
MDC/Roundhouse normal “street price” $50-100
Bachmann normal “street price” $100-150 (DCC & Sound add another $100)
What one do you prefer, to 4-4-0, or the 4-6-0, or are they equal. I am interested in running both 4-4-0s and 4-6-0s on my freelance line. I know that you can get the 4-6-0 from Train World, DCC with sound, for $136! (DC version of 4-4-0 $136)
The active roster of engines on my layout are mainly Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0’s and 4-6-0’s. In addition I have a couple of 2-8-0’s and a few shays for my mining and lumber industries.
The new Spectrum It won’t run more than 4 or five feet before stalling out.
I’ve cleaned wheels, swapped decoders, lubed the mechanism. Other engines, including other Spectrum 4-6-0’s, run fine. My Spectrum 4-4-0 is a dog. I will probably try swapping out the tender trucks for Roundhouse tender trucks since they have all wheel pickup.
I picked up a new Bachmann Spectrum undecorated 4-4-0 before Christmas. It ran great up until 2 weeks ago. Now it is very jerky. I’m thinking its a decoder problem, Bachmann decoders in my opinion are junk. I had the same problem with 3 other Bachmann steam loco’s and once I swapped the decoder out they ran perfect. It’s a nice looking loco but over all I’m disappointed with it because of this issue.
Here are the Bachmann and Roundhouse 4-4-0. I call the Roundhouse, “Plane Janes”. Both are good runners with the Tsunami. The Roundhouse pulls a little more. The Roundhouse 4-4-0, 2-6-0 and 2-8-0 are identical size boilers and about 1900 era.
Locos in the 1880’s had the air pump on the engineers side. Many were changed to the firemans side the closer you got to 1900. Bachmann and Roundhouse all have the air pump on the firemans side. Depends on how many rivets you want to count.
The Spectrum 4-6-0.
The Spectrum are about 1915 era.
Below is a link to one person who back dated his 4-6-0. Change valve gear.
