I have no argument with the ‘quality’ of the Bachmann Anniversary range, as stated earlier I have made over 20 Annie loco purchases. If there was a quality issue then I would have stopped purchasing previously. I have the manual dexterity to fix something that is not right. The majority of so-called ‘modellers’ these days, have very little ‘manual’ skills, preferring a ready to run loco, complete with handrails fitted. For these people, manufacturer ‘service’ centres are a must, as if something breaks then who else do they turn to. If something breaks for me, then if unable to repair myself, then it is into the spares box.
The problem at Bachmann is the point of assembly. It seems that we are forever hearing of pieces rattling in the box on arrival. Too much faith is invested in the power of superglue and little time invested in mechanically fastening pieces. Superglue will deteriorate over time. Many locomotives, like the one that I purchased, have been sitting idle in wharehouses for years ‘deteriorating’. However, rattling pices after several years sitting idle is not the problem. There are systematic quality problems at the point of assembly and we are really to blame, because to make the item attractive to the consumer, the manufacturer is forced to drive assembly/manufacturing costs down to maximise profit at the expected wholsale cost to the distributor.
Several years ago I was termed a racist by a person on another forum because I made the statement that the assembly worker in China is employed to do a job on the assembly line. It could be a $0.50c toy or a $5000.00 live steam locomotive. He is employed to assemble the item in front of him, whether he is interested in the item or not. On the contrary, an assembly worker building a live steam loco in England is a live steam fanatic. He is doing the job because he wants to do that particular job, not merely because of economic necessity. This is where the work ethic comes into play. If the worker is interested in the item that he is building then he will do his best. If he is disinterested then he will do what he can in the assembly timeframe that he has on the process line.
As consumers, we have told manufacturers that we want our models to be cheap and good to excellent quality. While they are inexpensive then we accept a degree of poor quality control. This is the tradeoff - cheap versus quality. However, when a manufacturer starts producing an expensive item, then we expect that the assembly techniques will match the engineering that has gone into the model. We will not tolerate lapses in quality control.
In Australia, if one were to purchase a Bachmann Spectrum Centennial mogul, then at retail level the shop price is around $1000.00. There is no ‘street’ price. A ‘comparable’ LGB mogul sells for the same price. If price were the determining factor, then one would assume that both were of equal quality. The reality is that one is and one is not!
Maybe those wires are an “every-other-tuesday” thing at the factory. Who knows?
