Are modern Bachmann trains still junk quality?

[homersimpsonlikestrains]

Are modern Bachmann trains still junk quality or have they improved when compared to the poor quality trains they made in the 1990's?

 

[RhB Michael]

While I've never owned a Bachmann product, I do read that they've improved lately. From about 2010 and up, people say they are much better than they used to be.

 

[NorthTexasRailroad]

I've only bought a Bachmann starter set back in 2022. While the level of detail wasn't high (not surprising), it runs well and the locomotive now runs my Christmas train under the tree. I think most of their nicer stuff from more recently is decent.

 

[Bruette]

I bought my first new Bachmann locomotive in July of 2013; I have about a dozen now and they all run well.

 

[Marlin39]

Their Spectrum line is better than the regular Bachmann. They are a good bargain if you are on a budget, but Atlas is a step up for a few dollars more.

Personally, I have been blown away by the quality (sound, performance, and detail) coming out of Rapido lately.

 

[J.Albert]

A friend gave me a Bachmann Amtrak ACS-64 electric engine, runs smoothly and quietly, dcc, has decent sound as well, quite well detailed:

He also gave me an older Bachmann GP40, which didn't run right. I tried disassembling it and it's a nightmare -- design seems all wrong.

So... as mentioned above... if it's Bachmannn, I wouldn't go for anything older than 8-10 years old...

 

[Gary B]

I have a few of their Sound Value equipped steamers and they are very nice but they are not cheap. Bachman still makes starter set locomotives and I would hazard a guess they are not of the same quality.

 

[Selector]

Bachmann cleaned up their act when they introduced the Spectrum line now....25 years ago, maybe more? (I joined the hobby in January 2005 and their Spectrum line was well established by then.) I read posts by well-seasoned hobbyists early when I joined, one of them in a hobby shop in his youth (he was about 45 in 2005), and he used Spectrum steamers almost exclusively. He would bash them and re-decal them to suit his railroad, and was very good and convincing. He swears by Spectrum class steamers. Then, maybe 2012 or thereabouts, Bachmann simply produced only Spectrum class steamers, but didn't call them that. It was like it was meant to become the mainstay locomotives from then on. I have a Spectrum 'heavy mountain' produced somewhere near 2010 that I purchased on his say-so, and can't say I am disappointed. The one comment that seems common is that they, of all current steamers, seem to want a break-in, running them forwards and backwards around one's loop for a couple of hours. I found that, while my other steamers seem to need maybe a setting of 3-10 in CV2 (V-Start), a cold Bachmann Spectrum steamer will need at least 40 set to the CV in order to get the mechanism to begin to turn the drivers at Speed Step 1. Once it has run for five minutes, I can reduce that CV2 setting to 35 and get the same performance. So, a cold mechanism needs more voltage, or does in my particular Spectrum heavy mountain 4-8-2. My Spectrum N&W Class J 4-8-2 needed almost as much, but it had a wobble and hitch in its giddyup. I sold it.

 

[Marlin39]

The Bachmann/Spectrum line has a history of their plastic drive gears cracking in both their HO and On30 products. There's lots of threads on line discussing them.

 

[Twinboystrains]

My experience with Bachmann in N scale hasn’t been good. The EZ Track is the only thing that I have from the starter set I purchased years ago. Learned how to tune the switches to get good performance from them. My locomotives are either Atlas or Kato. Rolling stock is everything but Bachmann. I will be following this thread to see if actually Bachmann has come around.

 

[DirtyD696]

On the freight cars side, it looks like they've definitely stepped it up with not just upgraded versions of their old trainset quality cars but also new stuff as well like coil cars, ACF 50 foot outside braced boxcars, Airslide covered hoppers, and trinity 5161 covered hoppers. The older stuff was upgraded with metal wheels and body mounted knuckle couplers instead of the toy train Talgo trucks and horn hook couplers. Ain't nobody got time for that. On the downside though if you think they're gonna be cheap like the old trainset quality stuff you can find at flea markets everywhere un-think that as fast as possible. They've gone upmarket and ain't looking back.

 

[Smudge617]

As someone who has avoided anything Bachmann due to their very variable QC for many years and a few bad experiences, I was recently convinced to buy a Bachmann Class 40 with DCC Sound.

Have to admit, I'm very impressed with this, I had an issue with one axle B2B being out slightly, easy to fix.

The sound quality being Loksound is very good and it's a heavy loco, my only gripe is that being a Bo-Bo both front ends have a dummy axle held with a single screw.

Lighting features are very good, although a lit instrument panel would have been a nice feature, but not a deal breaker by any means.

All in all, I'm very happy with this.