Bachmann 2-6-6-2 and Heavy Mountain 4-8-2

[inkaneer]

Are the electric motors in the 2-6-6-2 and heavy 4-8-2 supposed to be 5 pole motors or only three poles?  Your advertising says 5 poles but people are reporting that it is only a three pole motor.

[simkon]

Supposedly, the five pole motors are in the older Bachmann releases and the the three pole motors are in the newer releases, but they are equal in quality even though it now has 2 less poles... this is what I heard, and if I remember correctly, it applies to both N and HO scale

[inkaneer]

Would the Bachmann please respond to this thread?  Thank you.

[the Bach-man]

Dear Ink,
That's exactly right.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[skipgear]

Dear Ink,
That's exactly right.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

That is a pretty ambiguous answer..

The 2-6-6-2 has NEVER come with a 5 pole motor.
The 4-8-2 Heavy Mountain has NEVER come with a 5 pole motor.

It's not like it was a running production change, 5 pole motors never happened for quite a few loco's that have been advertised with 5 pole motors for more than 4 years now. No effort was made by Bachmann until now to correct the advertising error. This was after several owners experienced repeat problems with the motors and decided to take them apart to investigate.

I love my Bachmann steamers and really don't care if the motor has 3 or 5 poles but the deception brought to light by this has just reinforced many peoples opinions of distrust and cheapskate attitude toward Bachmann. It's hard to take a company at it's word after finding that they have been hiding something like this for so long. Actions like this continue to keep people cautious of ordering new Bachmann product releases. The 44 tonner was a great leap forward then something like this comes up and set's Bachmann back farther in peoples minds than where they were. I'm about the only person in our N-trak club that will buy a Bachmann product period and it seems current status quo doesn't give them any reason to change that attitude.

[NKP]

To the Shameless Bach Man:

I bought a Spectrum 2-6-6-2 (#82654) after great study of the offering on several sites. I was satisfied that this loco was going to be an excellent choice. Now I find Bachmann sold EVERYONE a bill of goods, a phrase I learned from my Grandfather, about how those with no ethics will take advantage of someone who reads a list of goods and believes it to be TRUE! In this case, 5 pole skew-wound armature, amber LED... So this will be my last purchase of Bachmann products.

When I got back into MRR, I chose Bachmann because I remembered the quality of their Mini-Planes line from the late '60's. Now I see that quality, like so many things, is a thing of the past at Bachmann. This site is rife with quality complaints about any number of products.

I know it's not the brakes on my wife's car, but it IS $220 spent on what is now KNOWN to be a 20 hour PIECE OF JUNK! Eleven dollars an hour. PITIFUL, PIT-TE-FUL! (I'm really holding back here!)

Shame on you Bachmann and Bach Man, if you have any shame!

NKP

[C855B]

Thinking about this...

Yes, it's annoying that Bachmann doesn't know what's in their own sausage, advertising the implication of a higher-quality motor when the factory is actually using... well... sadly, junk worthy of Atlas/Rivarossi back in the '70s. Bachmann is a large international company, arguably the largest in our niche, so the likelihood of production not knowing (or ignoring) what marketing is promising is higher than most model companies would be dealing with.

But, like you said, this isn't the brakes on the family flivver. They (the Bachmann "they") are making models available at very low prices, of prototypes that are not produced by others and probably never would be. I'm ecstatic that they jumped behind the Centennial redux, especially with the new body tooling - when you're seeking that prototype, the $500+ difference between theirs and the Overland brass version can buy lots of motors.

So my POV at the moment is that I go into the purchase knowing full-well that it's going to need a new motor or motors, and, thankfully, at least for the time being there is a near-drop-in replacement that can be used until the factory addresses what amounts to a production bug. No doubt the product managers are in meetings today about "we have a problem, how do we fix it?", with cost/benefit prominently displayed on the flip-chart easel.

IOW, patience. They know they have a problem now. Let's give them a chance to breath and explore the issues and formulate a response, even allowing for the possibility of "we have determined that our price point has priority, so WYSIWYG, and we'll just strike the bad copy from the ads." Of course, we hope not, but do be open to this non-optimal response from our perspective.

[skipgear]

I have seen the production numbers on the the 2-6-6-2 now. I can honestly say that the motor failures are barely a blip on the radar. Is that because many loco's haven't seen 24 hours of runtime yet or is it because these motors were just proof of how small the percentage of failures really is? That I can't answer. I am going to run my 2-6-6-2's for a little while and see how they do so I can answer that question for myself at least.

I have no complaint with the way the motors run and again, 3 or 5 pole issue is mute to me. Where many take exception is the fact that they were advertised one way and sold another in full knowlege of Bachmann with no attempt to correct the error. If you notice, there is a new disclaimer on the opening of the products page on the website that basically sums up as.....

"We don't know what you will get in the loco but it should look like the one pictured."

I buy Bachmann steam prepared to have to fine tune it or send it back for a swap. That is the unfortunate truth. It is what we have learned to put up with when buying Bachmann. Recent releases have been better, out of 10 Hvy Mountains our shop has sold, only one had issues (mine naturally). Out of a dozzen 44T, one had a cold solder joint on the circuit board. We havent had a bad Consolidation in a while.