Thinking of picking up one of these beasties and cannot find a review from someone who has owned and operated one. Is there anyone who has one of these and can report long-term operation? Did a search here but could find nothing more than casual mention or “Botchmann” comments from non-owners. Really like the looks but want to be sure it is a “runner”. It’s either this or the new Forney.
Already thinking of bashing one into a tender equipped loco…
Sorry misread title
There’s one in our club and it runs great.
It’s batt/rc, but I can’t remember if it’s Revo or Airwire.
I wouldn’t mind one either.
I can’t give you what you want but will provide some cautions. I bought one to use for a scratch / bash project and as such basically was only interested in the frame and drive so everything above that basically went away. I did try to test run it on rollers before disassembling it and when I did one of the motors popped right out of its mount. When I removed the superstructure I found that all the screws holding the one motor were loose to the point of falling out and one ended up down in the area with the gears and was a real bugger to get back out. The other motor screws were loose but not clear out and I found many other screws during disassembly that were not properly tightened. For someone who doesn’t like to tear new things apart, this would have resulted in a return to dealer or Bachmann for sure. So if you do get one take the time to check hardware before attempting to run it.
When it came out, there were problems similar to what Gary has reported.
When everything is assembled correctly and tightened, it can be a very smooth runner. I ran a brand new one, right out of the box and it ran very smoothly and tracked well on some very tight curves.
Buy it, and then check EVERYTHING out.
Greg
I just bought one recently and have only ran it once so far, but it ran like a champ. I did check everything I could without having to disassemble it and found nothing loose or wrong.
I did indeed pick one up for a nice price, undecorated with stripes/red windows…I love it, my favorite engine ever!!!
Of course just before that I picked up a Bachmann 2-truck shay and it was my favorite engine ever!!
And before that I picked up a Bachmann K-27, and it was my favorite engine ever!
Apparently I like the Spectrum line…I better, having sold a fair amount of my LGB American stuff to fund it! 
Keeping in mind that it is not a true Mallet, mine ran fine until the installation started! Due to work and a few other interruptions it is not yet done. I do look forward to alot of running in the future.
Paul
Good for you. The pic in my Signature line is the actual locomotive that bachman used plus the scale drawings from Baldwin to make the model. The pic is of #110 a standard guage locomotive on the Black Hills Central. It is the only functioning one left in the world.