Which Bachmann switcher gets you more bang for your buck?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Which is all around better on switches, curves (22 radi), pulling power, and just being a switcher?

Bachmann Standard DCC GE 70 Tonner- http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/bac/bac60602.htm

Bachmann Spectrum GE 45 Ton- http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=84269

Thanks in Advanced,

Luke

2

You judge which would be better suited for your needs.

GE 70 T.

Horsepower: 660

Tractive Effort (starting) 41,300 lbs @ 30%

GE 45 T

300 hp

TE: 27,000.

Sorry my book doesn’t give much information on the 45 tonner.

3

I have a Bachmann 44 tonner and it is a good little engine. Pulls well, handles turnouts, and works well on 18" radius. I would expect the other two Bachmann switchers to be at least as good, if not better.

4

You might be interested in this Spectrum 44 ton with DCC and sound.

http://www.westportterminal.de/video.html

Scroll down the page. Quite a few videos. HO scale layout.

Rich

5

A GE 70-tonner would be likelly used by either a common carrier or an industrial railroad.

A GE 45-tonner would most likely be owned by a private industrial railroad. It only had two traction motors (one on each truck) so that’s why it had side rods while the 70-tonner had four traction motors. The 45-tonner had good tractive effort for its size, but it was limited in speed (about 20 mph max). So, it would be best suited in industrial situations where the length of run was short.

But as far as “bang”, the 45-tonner has it hands-down with its side-rod action!

Mark

6

Luke,

The GE 70 ton switcher is a small 600 hp engine that only a few railroads bought. The SP had a pretty good size fleet if them, but for the most part they ran on ‘shortlines’ and in industrial plants.

The GE 45 ton switcher is very small and has about 300 hp. Only one axle on each truck is powered with a traction motor(that is why they have ‘side rods’ to transmit the power to the other axle on the truck). They usually are used in industrial settings, but I suspect some shortline may have used them for road service.

I have a pair of the older GE 44 ton engines, an older GE 70 ton engine, and one of the new ‘DCC’ GE 70 ton engines. We use the new ‘DCC’ one as a ‘depot switcher’ at the club. I will handle about 5-6 Walthers passenger cars on a level track at the most. Out ‘on the road’, it will handle about 4 freight cars up the 2% grades on the club layout. I have not run one of the new GE 45 ton engines, but they do have a metal chassis/body from what I hear. Still, I would suspect that they are not much better at pulling than the GE 70 ton engines. As a mainline railroad ‘switcher’, the GE 70 ton engine would be more appropriate. If you want a really good switcher, get a P2K or Atlas Alco ‘S’ series switcher. I have an Atlas S-2 and it will out-pull just about any other engine I have! Any of the above mentioned engines will operate on 22" radius curves.

Jim Bernier

7

To give you a feel as to how prototype railroads used/classified their switcher locomotives, here is a breakdown of how SP and its subsidiary railroads (doesn’t include T&NO and SSW) considered their “switchers” (locomotives under 1500 horsepower).

1 locomotive, number “1” narrow gauge 45-ton GE locomotive (resembling a miniature GE 70-tonner) used for freight service

91 locomotives in the 1000-1090 series of 600 to 900 horsepower used for light switching, consisting of SW-1s, HH-660s, S-1s, VO-660s, S-3s, and S-6s

324 locomotives in the 1300-1623 series of 1000 to 1200 horsepower used for switching, consisting of S-2s, NW-2s, VO-1000s, DS-4-4-1000s, S-12s, S-4s, H12-44s, and SW-1200s

5 locomotives in the 1900-1905 series of 380 horsepower GE 44-tonner used for light switching

46 locomotives in the 4600-4645 series of 800-900 horsepower locomotives used for freight & switching consisting of TR6s, SW8s, and SW900s, plus 4 locomotives in the 4700-4703 series used for boosters (they were cabless) for the TR6s (while similar in size to the 1000-1090 engines, they were equipped with number boards and multiple-unit connections for use in road service)

21 locomotives in the 5100-5120 series consisting of GE-70 tonners of 660 horsepower classified as suitable for light freight

The term “light switching” applied to uses such as work in the passenger yard and industrial switching. The SP preferred locomotives with 1000 horsepower or more to switch its larger freight yards.

Mark

8

Although many people think of the GE 44-ton as an industrial engine, it was actually designed for common-carrier service. The 1937 diesel agreement ruled that any engine weighing over 90,000 lbs required a fireman. The 44-tonner weighed in at 88,000 lbs, just under the limit. Industrial roads had no such restrictions and could run as big as a locomotive as they wished without a fireman.

The 45 ton came first with as much weight as could be effectively put on the chassis , with available power, and still have the loco able to operate in close quarters such as large mills and industrial use. The max speed for a 45 ton was 20mph. First were equipped with side rods and later versions used chain drive.

The 44 ton, there were different goals and methods to increase power and keep the weight under 90,000lbs. The max speed is about 40 mph so they could do freight service also.

Rich

9

Just keeping this at the model level between the two you mentioned , the 70 tonner seems to run better on DCC , the weight seems to be the difference in the performance. The others are a little light on the rails and don’t always start up. my [2c]

10

The 45 Ton seems like it would better fir my needs.

Rich, could you post or pm me some more pics and info on your 45 Ton?

11

My switcher now is a Athearn Baldwin S12. I find to large for the switcher I’m looking for…