New HO Western Pacific 2-8-0 question

[Searsport]

Hi, the Bachmann online shop lists "Western Pacific #35 Baldwin 2-8-0 Consolidation", Bachmann #51316.  It is shown as "sold out", but online retailers show it variously as "due 3rd quarter 2013" or "due 3/31/2014", so I guess the B-Man does not have an "Awaited" logo and has to use "Sold Out".

Does anyone know anything about this model?  The WP's Baldwin 2-8-0s were #1-20, built 1906, and #21-65 were ALCos, built 1909, so #35 was an ALCo, not a Baldwin. 

The WP Baldwins had short, boxy tenders (body length 23-ft 5-inches, overall length over couplings 28-ft 5 13/16 inches), and whatever they were delivered as, in later life some were coal and others oil. (The book "Western Pacific Locomotives and Cars" by Patrick C Dorin shows #1 in 1938 with a coal tender and #19 in 1947 with an oil tender).

The body length of the WP Baldwin 2-8-0 tenders scales out at 3.23 inches, which is a bit shorter than the Bachmann Decapod tender body (3.25 inches), and a lot shorter than the USRA Medium Coal (body 4 inches), which Bachmann usually hang on the 2-8-0.

There are several photos of the WP ALCo 2-8-0s on the Don Ross website, and they seem to have tenders similar to the Baldwins.

I am hoping that Bachmann have attached the Decapod tender to their WP 2-8-0, but.....

I am also puzzled why Bachmann USA are not more specific with their models.  If the castings were metal like the 4-4-0 and 4-6-0 loco bodies that might be too expensive, but the connie body and tender are plastic. 

I was looking at the Bachmann UK website,  http://www.bachmann.co.uk/prod1.php?prod_selected=branchline&prod=3  you will see that all their steamers are precise, company specific models, and there are lots of them.  They have three completely different 2-8-0s, 31-004 Robinson Class O4, 31-013 Fowler Class 7F, and 32-261 Riddles WD Austerity 8F.

The population of the US is 5X that of Britain, so how is it that Bachmann can make so many more different steamers for the British market, and each precise to prototype?

Just Wondering.....
Bill.

[Irbricksceo]

I don't know when the next run of the 2-8-0's will be but I do agree, i wonder why both the British and the CHinese Lines are so much more detailed.

[HDiedrichs]

It could also be these locos have a bad binding problem with the drive wheels causing them to got out of sync and causing the loco to wobble so Bachmann may have pulled them. You can find them on ebay usually.

[Irbricksceo]

The 2-8-0 is their signature Steamer In my eyes, I doubt they pulled em.

[Doneldon]

Sears-

Buying modern plastic locomotives isn't like buying brass locos in the old days when they  might have been based on a specific loco on a specific date. The WP 2-8-0 is likely to be a generic model with, maybe, a couple of road specific details. The main thing which will differentiate it from the rest of the 2-8-0s will be the lettering. I know this is frustrating for many model rails, but that's the way things are.

You are probably underappreciating just how expensive it is to make custom tooling, even for plastic models. The fact is, that's an exceedingly expensive proposition which would deter a company from making any 2-8-0s. Things are different with British models. They are more uniform to begin with and the economics work differently there. It's not really meaningful to compare the availability or economics of British models with models in the States.
                                                                                                                                                                                 -- D

[rogertra]

Sears-

Things are different with British models. They are more uniform to begin with and the economics work differently there. It's not really meaningful to compare the availability or economics of British models with models in the States.
                                                                                                                                                                                -- D

As a UK modeller going back almost 60 years, I have to take exception to the "uniform" comment above.

UK locos are as different as peas in a pod.  Except maybe Great Western Railway locomotives which all look distinctly like Great Western locomotives.  Nobody, repeat nobody in the UK, including Bachmann makes generic steam, nor generic diesels nor generic passenger cars nor even generic freight cars.  UK modellers would not put up with it like we do in North America.  

I do agree that you cannot compare the UK market to the North American market but here's why.

Bachmann, for example, will paint a diesel in let's say the colours of NYC, AT&SF, CNR, CPR, BNSF, Southern even though the details are not correct for each of those road names.  They will also do the same thing for a steam locomotive, even though the steam engine looks nothing like the real loco did with whatever number they apply.   All North American manufacturers do the same with freight cars and passenger cars.  This would rarely, if ever, happen in the UK market.  The model would be panned in the reviews (rare in North America as the major magazines don't like to give poor reviews to major advertisers) and it simply would not sell.

That's the difference between the UK market and the North American market.

Cheers

Roger.

[Searsport]

Thanks for your comments.  The ex-Spectrum connie is a very well engineered and reliable model, and I have several for when my RR is being the Western Maryland / Ma & Pa, or the MEC / NH.  That is why I would like the WP version to look a bit different! 

I understand the ex-Spectrum connie is not "generic", but an accurate model of an Illinois Central 941 class of 1909 vintage that is used generically by Bachmann.  In fact a lot of Baldwin 2-8-0s of any particular vintage looked very similar, but with different RRs specifying different fittings.  But the tender attached seems to have depended more on the requirements of the RR.  Tender length was usually constrained by the smallest turntable a loco was likely to need to use.  Also I believe that the USRA Medium Coal tender used by Bachmann as a standard post-date their connie by several years, and so is unlikely to be representative of what a connie would have been coupled to in 1906-9, which is when the WP connies were built. 

Regarding comparisons between the US and UK model rail markets, Bachmann's list price for the Baldwin 2-8-0 is $185 in the US and that for the British 2-8-0s is around £130 = $215 in the UK, so the additional cost of individuality is not great.

Another feature I have noticed about the British models is that the loco - tender electrical connection is made in the factory, so you get a wire of the correct length neatly clipped to the tender draw-bar.  None of this business of having to plug a cable vertically into the loco chassis from below which then creates a downward loop which fouls anything between the rails and / or lifts the front tender wheels off the track.

I imagine that all these models are made in the same factory, so I wonder why practice is so different.