Large Scale Central

More Bachmann junk

Reviews
#1

After praising Bachmann for making the 2-6-6-2T such a smooth running loco, my mind was instantly changed this afternoon when my customer came to pick it up.

I was in the process of demonstrating the loco when the two screws holding the motor in on the front truck LITERALLY FELL OUT allowing the motor to disengage the idler worm gear.
This necessitated removing the front engine block assembly from the loco, remove the motor, retrieve the screws from inside the gearbox, reinsert the screws to hold the motor to the bracket, replace the bracket and motor assembly in the front engine and then remount the engine into the loco.
Then I discovered why the motor mounting screws were probably loose in the first place, just like the drive rod screws on the rear motor block were. I believe they were deliberately left loose so that the beast would actually run with a bent crank pin boss on the rear engine rear driver.
Now everything is properly tight in the front engine it is much stiffer than the rear engine and starts later.

Perhaps getting them to start equally may only require a lot more running in.
I hope so.
Otherwise it will mean I remove the engines again and work on them.

Now my opinion of the Bachmann 2-6-6-2T is, that it is just another piece of badly put together junk from China.

#2

Tony,

Wow. A damn shame.

Barry - BBT

#3

Hi Barry.

Nice design, crappy assembly.
Fortunately I have the mechanical skills to fix the problems, but I doubt the average LS customer would be so lucky if it happened to them.

To say the least “I am not amused”.

#4

Now, now, those 9 year old Chinese girls need a job too.

I ran my new Bachman 4-4-0 locomotive for about 10 hours before the electronics toasted. I excised all the chips, resistors, diodes, etc. and ran the wiring direct. All is fine now, but I should not have had to mess with this in the first place. I guess this is one reason I hear Bachmans called a semi-kit train.

#5

And it’s a damn shame, as well. Or an outrage.
They have these beautiful lokies on the outside, and nothing but crap on the inside.
And no one else builds affordable 1:20 engines. Affordable for the average guy, I mean.
And they keep right on producing the stuff.
Talk about arrogance!

#6

Hey guy’s Let’s all boycott Botchmann!!! People keep buying the crap(me too previously but not in the last 2-3yrs) and they will keep making more!!The Regal

#7
John Bouck said:
And it's a damn shame, as well. Or an outrage. They have these beautiful lokies on the outside, and nothing but crap on the inside. And no one else builds affordable 1:20 engines. Affordable for the average guy, I mean.
There's probably a reason for that. You can have "cheap", or you can have "flawless", but there are not many situations in the real world where you can have both. Most products fall somewhere in between -- costing somewhat less than "too much", and being "pretty good but not perfect".

Same with the complaints about manufacturing in China. If they built 'em here they’d either cost a heck of a lot more, or be a heck of a lot lower in quality.

#8

No matter how much you pay for something, unless a Company making it are known to be reliable, they will always try it on by skimping on the whole process as they try to maximise their profits.

The real problem is the way the QC is handled inside the Bachmann Company.
The stuff usually seems to be designed OK, and then badly assembled.
This particular 2-6-6-2T had two distinct assembly faults that had been fudged to get through whatever Bachmann call QC testing. Sure it ran just fine, even with the bent crank-pin boss. They left all the screws loose so it would run. Same with the motor mount screws. Tighten the screws up and the drive is stiff. Solution, leave the motor mount screws loose to get it past QC.
That is simply not good enough.

To date, Bachmann seem to be more concerned with trying to “SPIN” their way out of any embarrassing failures rather than admitting they stuffed up.
Until they do admit their shortcomings the problems will remain.

#9

Tony,
let me polish up the crystal ball. Apart from the already announced Thomas range and the stillborn/on again/off again 1/20.3 caboose, I seriously doubt any other product launches (or even announcements) this year. Another casualty will the the ‘doctor of electronic spin’ and the talk fest doctor of communication. It is not only QC that has problems.

    Philladelpia we have a problem!   Like John,  I have given up on buying any locomotives.
#10

Ah yes.
That good ol’ “Quality Check Passed” stamp.
Loose counter weights and all.
Stamp that sucker!

#11

Gee thanks Tony, and now I have orderes one! Oh well at least I can do most of the repairs/rebuilds. I can also pick the TOC brain? and do the job. Then there will be the gutting and install of one of those R/C (RCS) thing so it will run good! For the rest of you all, all of my Bachmann’s have Barrys Chassis Except the Gears. As some one noted nice outside but the insides need a lot of help i.e. replacement.

Paul

#12

Hi Paul.

Fortunately the way the thing is designed it is quite easy to disassemble the motor blocks to check all the screws are tight.

Come to think of it, perhaps it was designed to be simple to get at precisely so that it could be fixed easily by someone halfway competent.

As to gutting it to fit RCS etc.
I did the the installation the way it was designed (well sort of designed) to be done by Bachmann. Notwithstanding Bachmann changing their own clearance specs to make life difficult for everyone.
It works.
Does it work well? I don’t know yet. I don’t think it will. There is simply not enough air space up in the steam dome for keeping the ESC heatsink cool.
If and when I get another one to do I know how to get it right now.
Start off by rebuilding the drive mechanisms.
Then I will definitely gut the stock electronics and use SubC NiCd’s with a 5 amp or 6 amp ESC.

#13

Lets look at the good side.
Bmann stuff cheep in cost, BBT drives are the best. Put it togather and you have a great looking and running loco.

#14

Geoff.
Actually the stock Bachmann Annie drives are really quite good. Not that robust and have limited pulling power but with normal use they never gradually become kits.

It is the higher priced Spectrum line that are reverse kits.

#15

I pulled out my Connie today…and noticed the tender truck is broken. Sheesh.

#16
TonyWalsham said:
Geoff. Actually the stock Bachmann Annie drives are really quite good. Not that robust and have limited pulling power but with normal use they never gradually become kits.

It is the higher priced Spectrum line that are reverse kits.


tony
I have a Bmann Loco, 4-6-0 with a BBT drive and one of your R/C set ups in it done by Dave Goodson and it has become my favorit Loco. there is a set up, great R/C, great drive and great looks.

#17

Hi Geoff.
Dave, Don Sweet and I have been working together on battery R/C since 1995. I think we do a good job. Especially considering the R/C I use was first designed and approved in 1974. It still works just fine so I see no reason to keep changing things like some companies do, merely to force their customers to continually buy (incompatible) new equipment.

Thank you for the compliments.

#18

I will admit to completely shredding a gear in my Bachmann 2-8-0…but I still bought a first run K-27(albeit a year and a half after release). Why? Because TOC figured out the problems. I did have to replace the counterweights, which was expected, but so far the engine has worked out fine for me.

However: I am NOT buying another engine from Bachmann unless TOC is allowed to work the bugs out; I’ll buy anything if he says it works after the 2-8-0 debacle(call Bachmann, get told to send the engine, send the engine, get told that I dropped a screw in the gearbox causing the gear to strip?!?! And then get charged $50 after spending $50 on shipping, after spending $400 on the first release because I just had to have counterweights). Ah well.

Tony, I’ll buy anything you make if I ever need a battery RC system–it’s just that with indoor use I don’t need it. It’s weird, eh, I’ve never actually read a thing bad about RCS, but have read about plenty of issues with Bachmann? :slight_smile:

#19

Thanks Robbie.

RCS has had a few failures.
Usually design stuff ups on my part on ESC’s that use a FET and Relay instead of the NSD LMD18200T H-Bridge I mostly use. The LMD18200T H-Bridge is the single most reliable IC component I have ever come across.
I have to use a FET and Relay combo for some ESC’s for low voltage situations because the LMD18200T H-Bridge requires a minimum of 12 volts to work reliably. Plus it is expensive and a FET relay combination is much less costly.
Some TX handpieces give up the ghost as do some of the metal cased RX’s.

The bottom line is when a problem does occur Dave, Don and myself try and take care of it immediately.

#20

Tony could it be that B-mann is thinking like I think.

I now know that I can buy any POS and with the likes of you dave and all the other guys out there I can wind up with a great running Loco.

Maybe Bmann know this so why put out good stuff and take work away from others?

Lets face it with new Bmann locos on sale for 99 dollars its hard to beat.
Now give it the works of a BBT drive your batt R/C set up and Dave doing thee work you have a great Loco and it will run great.
So now Bmann has just given three othere people work. You know with thinking like that they could bring us out of this ression we are in.
:wink: