Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
I'll do my best to tell the story. Some facts may be slightly off and if so, I apologize. This is from my memory, which isn't that good at times.
Bachmann has had a reputation of the quality going up and down. It used to be a German company but was bought by Kader, IIRC, in the earlier '70s. They even made some locomotives for AHM, which were FT's and supplied the mechanisms for two brass diesels imported by Gem, a F-unit and a GP-40. These were good solid mechanisms, with a good heavy chassis, 8-wheel drive, (no flywheels). Rather than to continue with this style of mechanisms, they started supplying three pole "pancake" motors, where the loco frame became part of the motor. While these motors were robust for their size, it meant that the diesels became 4 wheel drive, with 4 wheel pickup. All of the detail was cast on and depending on the model, could be shallow. Their steamers had solid metal wheels on each side, for pickup to the split frame, but the drivers were connected by nylon inserts. These developed a nasty habit of cracking, even if the model was never taken out of the box. This meant that the drivers got out of quarter at the best, and fell off of the loco at the worse.
This, along with the similar Tyco stuff, gave Bachmann the reputation of being a 40 hr toy, and not a "real" model.
IIRC starting in the mid '80s, they started trying to improve their mechanisms by making the chassis heavier, and installing a real 3, (maybe 5), pole motor and a "semi" flywheel, that was also the gear connecting the motor to the mechanism, but on the steamers at least, kept those solid metal wheelsets connected by those lousy nylon axles that still had a cracking problem. These were the Bachmann Plus models. Some of the detail became separate castings, but not much. Their diesels benefited most from the upgrade as they went back to 8 wheel drives, flywheels, in some engines, and some free standing detail. Even with these improvements, many still complained about the models still being basically junk, esp. the steamers.
Then in the early '90s, Bachmann released their first model in the "Spectrum" series. This was a 2-8-0 based on an Illinois Central prototype, and had everything that is expected in a top quality model. All wheel pickup, flywheels, metal axles, can type motors, and separately applied detail. Bachmann had a real hit, and started bringing more engines out in their "Spectrum" line. Most of which were of the same high quality, although there were some "teething pains" with a couple of diesels. The engines were improved and have gotten much better. They made improvements in their entire line, to the point that their first Spectrums, are now part of their "Standard" line.
Anyway they have made such a complete turnaround in their quality, that IMHO, for the money, they are very, very, good models and I have no problems recommending them to anyone.
